Can A Sword REALLY Cut You In Half? 

Since I have a lot of time on my hands currently, I was going through old hard drives and organizing them. Lo and behold, I found this video! I don't remember exactly why I never finished the video and uploaded it but here it is. Hope you enjoy a very young Jake. A Jake who could still interact with other human beings. It was a simpler time 5 years ago.

RU-vidrs: This video was recorded in advance. Stay home stay safe Jake: this video was recorded in 2015

I sense a disturbance in the force. . .

"You should've gone for the head"

This should be part of a new series called 'Vsauce3: The Lost Episodes'.

"This episode was filmed in 2015" and boy does it show. The Katana myth in full swing.

The fact that this video was recorded 5 years ago and it's still top notch in quality

Maybe talk to skallgarim about cutting, because he recently made a video that demonstrates wonderful cutting.

Those tatami mats didn't cut as cleanly as they should have. I suspect the blade in question wasn't as sharp as it could have been.

Shadiversity is going to have some objections to your choice of sword here.

A couple of things: Katanas arent anything special, they had a really hard time making them back in the day becouse that "volcanic steel" was of very low quality and had many impurities, althogh you could make an argument about the curvature and stiffness of the sword making cutting "easyer". Which brings me to the second point, the cuts performed here were a bit awkward, very little slicing and too much pushing the blade through the "stuff". Check some good HEMA cutting competitions or just some good cutting tests, youll see people cutting tatamis without the thing moving an inch And living bone is much easyer to cut than dry dead bone. Living bone is moist and bendy so you can slice through it with greater ease.

The steel used in this video, (the ancient one that I’m not even going to try spelling), isn’t particularly good steel. It’s effectively just bloomers steel in a larger furnace. It has a lot of impurities, and a very imprecise carbon content. Europeans in the same time period had much better steel. Please go watch Shadiversity’s video on katana misconceptions (or his video on Japanese vs. European sword misconceptions.)

well this is legit a 2015 vid, the "cover-the-lens-with-palm" transition gave it away still a well-put video as always

This is secretly cut footage from when Jake tried self-producing Deadliest Warrior season 4

4:56 I wished he said “It Sir... will kill!”

4:30 Jake, aren't you gonna post the footage from that GoPro? That would be pretty interesting!

I wouldn't mind quarantine if i get content like this every week.

You took everything into consideration BESIDES the weight of the sword lol. Also katanas were not designed to cut in half, all swords were designed with specific purposes in mind and fail pretty badly at everything else.

I wasn't impressed by the tatami mat cuts, they weren't very clean at all

I missed videos like these where you’d cover crazy topics like this! Thanks you it reminds me of when I was younger and you’d talk about this stuff

If you have more of these "lost videos" please upload them! This was fantastic

Jake knew about COVID 19 so he recorded this video years before 2020

Man I miss this style of videos from you Jake. Thank you for this.

Another thing that is important is the blade width. A thin blade doesnt have to move as much material out of the way, but that in turn costs stability and weight, a heavy blade won't stop that easily, not to mention that armor makes the whole thing much harder.

1:53 wow thanks that was 100% what I wanted to see in detail

3:34 Somebody once told me!

I'm glad you release the whatever videos you have. I've missed you:)

Glad we finally got to see this, thanks Jake

Geralt *uses a longsword* Vsauce: let's use a katana Why even bother to bring up Geralt if you're not going to use the same type of sword?

2015 Jake was my favourite Jake, that starting caption made my week

This was great! Thanks for releasing it!

Jake you’re one of my favorite youtubers please keep doing what you’re doing

This is the content we've been missing! Hope you've been well Jake

3:32 S O M E B O D Y

depends on the sword and the wielder, but YES, it most certainly can.

I'm so glad we got to eventually see this. You guys did some great work.

Ah yes the famous Shrek shed. An amazing choice for one of your talking scenes.

Before watching this video: No After watching this video: still no, and also Vsauce doesn't understand swords

Wow what a throwback! Can’t believe you never finished it, really interesting premise, I liked it!

You could cut anything in half if you're the sharpest tool in the shed.

This episode was filmed in 2015... time machine confirmed!

I feel like there are better swords and metals than that. I'm sure I've heard several people talk about this online. I wonder if you could cut someone in half if you used a larger/heavier sword.

Vsauce3: Can A Sword REALLY Cut You In Half? Beheading: Am I a joke to you?

Imagine cutting someone in half so quick and clean the person doesn’t even break down or move

5:07 hahahhaha!

It seems as if you underestimate Trunk's abilities. This man cut someone is half VERTICALLY

Filmed in 2015? Scar said to be prepared and you were well prepared ahead of time for the quarantine

"Master swordsman" that can't even cut tatami mats right

I'm here for my boi geralt

4:34 ... Brutal !!

Yes! More video game videos please! Also, your video about parasites rocked!

Awesome release man. Glad it came out of the vault!

Huh, I literally just started playing Witcher 3 earlier today and was wondering just that, thanks Jake.

2:56 nice sword, you got there, Jake

I can't believe you considered this as "not to good enough"

I love these types of videos. Ive ALWAYS WONDERED HOW LOUD CLIFFORD'S, big red dog, BARK WOULD BE?

Finally Another VIDEO!!!!

Random fact: A single strand of spaghetti is called "spaghetto."

2015 Jake looking soooo good!

That game really brought back my memories

This guy is a master? You talk about the slicing motion, then he freaking chops into the ballistic dummies torso with LITERALLY NO SLICING MOTION. For real, he wasn't drawing back even a small bit, which helps in severing bone as much as flesh.

Cutting People in Half: Yeah that's fine. That paper cut graphic: *gags*

He bakkkkk I absolutely LOVE your channel Jake my absolute favorite channel

Master swordsman: "Always remember Jake, never upload that video out my failure."

Friend: sooo.. uhh... what did you learn at home? Me: I've learned the factors of how to cut someone in half F: 👁👄👁 Me: F: Me: I've also learn how to cook several types of pasta sauce

Cool

5 years is way too long but yay it’s here

short answer is yes. in my place one of our ancestors during British rule cut the head of the officer. it was said that the officer kept running even after the head was cut.

Japanese steel had to be folded to remove impurities. European spring steel is much stronger. A claymore, zweihander, or a falchion would have preformed better because there blades are thinner than the katana. All you need to have is good edge alignment and most 2 handed swords would cut better than the katana.

RU-vid demonetization: this is free real estate

this took me back to 2015 thank you 🙏🏽💯

Wow this is right on time! I need to know this before next week.

aww it's younger Jake! wonder what he was thinking then. What would 2015 and 2020 Jake say to each other if they could meet and talk to each other?

JAAAAAKKEEE!!! We have missed you!

Seeing a ballistic dummy getting sliced is a fetish I never knew I had

What you wanna do is cut into them and then drag the sword out as if you are cutting bread

a katana isn't enough you need a curved long heavy falchion, a nodatchi or a maybe you can get away with a nagamaki. the katana isn't a battle field weapon for a reason.

Random fact: Turritopsis nutricula Immortal jellyfish is the only species known to live forever.

The animation of paper cutting between the fingers gave me chills to the spine, geez

I remember hearing that they used to have very long handles, like spear length and after they did the test they cut it off

what is the song at the end?: it sound like the shamisen form Yoshida Brothers

When they tried to have the head choped off I just thought: "So that's how Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington could have ended up in the so loveable shape that we know..."

the shots of the dummy getting sliced up were metal af

I like how vsauce3 is pretty much RU-vid’s mythbusters.

I'm a simple man,i see a vsauce video I click instantly.

I'd like to see the results with a European sword, like a zweihander. More mass, usually better steel. Might do the trick?

Thanks for uploading this amazing video

I think they should’ve cut jake in half and then he would come back and be like: I didn’t actually die.

This videos is so messed up I love it!

First of all there is more to sword cutting ability that how fine the edge is, you also need to worry about blade geometry. If you have a very fine edge but a steep angle the blade will be a poor cutter. The thinner the better up to a point where the edge becomes weak. Also modern steels are much better materiel for blades than any steel used in historical blades, Japanese swords included. Tamahagane is actually a fairly poor type of steel for making a blade, a big part of the reason for the folding process is to purify the steel. A katana probably not the best style of cutting a body in half, a wider heavier sword would be ideal. On the TV Show Time Warp they have James Williams who runs Dojo of the Four Winds cut through a large pork shoulder and the sword went through the meat and bone with no problem, yes a human torso is larger but with a better cutting sword I have a feeling that it is doable.

He name dropped tvtropes. I can die in peace now.

A body falling into pieces is just cinematic language for, "He ded."

Demon Slayer fans in the cmt: "Learn how to B R E A T H"

I thought that the steel they used in japan actually was really bad, hence why they had to do the folding trick to make it good.

Daaaaaaamn this is a blast from the past

please more of these videos

Best video you've put out in years...

"But there is one more that'll help us determine if we can successfully cut someone in half..." Me: "SPEED" Jake: "Stroke!" Me: "Oh."

Amazing Jake, your work was art even then.

3:32 I was really expecting Shrek to just pop out of that toilet