How DEADLY were swords in real life? 

Hehehehe. Good one mate.

i.pinimg.com/originals/ee/37/e0/ee37e0d3a42e39061e95038e87d2a52a.jpg

Lol

Chanting commie dogs... now I’ve seen it all 😂

Valerie Lastname 1kth like, just thought I’d announce that

Well yeah, small (or sometimes large) wounds won't really get infected if you don't smear dirt directly into it and we know for a fact that they cleaned wounds and applied clean bandage around the wounds from medical texts of the time. So while microscopical organisms killed more it wasn't usually a wound getting infected, they knew how to deal with that shit. But dysentry and other things that they had no idea what caused it.

Infection is less of a risk from a blade cut because you can clean the cut pretty easily and it''s not going to carry dirt, bits of clothing, or whatever deep into the wound like bullets do. But anything that pierced your chest or abdominal cavity, and especially if it punctured a lung or digestive organ, was a sure death sentence.

Top ten historical treatments of fighting wounds.

iafozzac Couldn't have been that bad if you just put a band aid on it. Band aids are tiny. Lol.

A family friend was a hairdresser who cut his palm slightly with his scissors. He died three days later. The body is a very complicated thing.

I

Friends accidentally smacks my hand during sparring: "ohmygod are you okay?" Hand swelling up: "Yeah!!"

I had a similar experience to Shad’s but I got a pencil go between right above my eye. All i saw was red out of one eye and barely anything out of the other. (Also cause most of my sight was covered in blood). I also didn’t feel any pain.

At the same time, someone can fall and smack their head on a wooden table and die. We are robust and we are fragile.

@@inthefade yea head is one of those very specific spots that can be very lethal if hit

I also worked as an EMT and was always amazed at how many times someone really hosed up would pull through and and that someone showing almost no trauma but with an increasingly distended abdomen would expire. My department had a patient welfare form we could fill out to find out how they fared later

Anonymity that’s cool that you could do the form

Blake Cook it certainly helped to not keep you up thinking about it

Can confirm! _source: I wear glasses._

If he were to ever say "heh" whilst doing so, you'd know it's already too late to run.

No offense intended, but it usually also means a complete disinterest in the opposite/same sex... Wonder if that's true?

but also they are usually the bad guy

ARA ARA !

Did you know: swords can kill~ So do humans. So humans using swords are double as scary~

100 %?That's slightly overrated. Deduct any divine intervention, and we might settle with 99,9%.

People die when they are killed??!!

No I was killed by a sword once, I mean I had to go to the hospital obv but I’m fine now

I think Rasputin got killed once, but he didn't die, so they had to kill him two more times

Why not have both in one and get a halberd.

WWI infantry had rifle bayonets (effectively arming them with a spear) for close warfare. But most discarded these in favour of sharpened digging spades (which would be more axe-like). Apparently bayonets stuck firmly in a man's ribs after you stabbed him hard enough to matter and the time it took for you to work it out would get you killed in the trenches while your opponents could keep swinging those crescent-bladed spades without pause.

@@pwnmeisterage Actually Clubs of all sort got real popular but it mainly a case of what type of attack your were doing. I have seen way more examples of hand made clubs than the only one example of sharpened digging spade I have seen. Raids sneaking into trenches or when trenches of each side hit each other clubs and your sharpened spade would come in use because there was not the room to use a poll-arm which is what a Bayonet on a Rifle is. But when charging into a trench the Bayonet could be great as it gave you range over the shorter weapons especially stabing down into the trench from above. Example from movie "they shall never grow old" soldier relates how he took out several with his Bayonet after surviving the charge involved. He said he stabbed one and then kept going along stabbing people with it.

Spear and large shield is the best combo ever. The Spartans knew this to be true.

More like warhammer smashy smashy

the head can survive for half a minute after being chopped off

@@4nd3rzzon unless your head hits the dirty floor... 5 second rule.

Hate when that happens.

4nderzzon that makes the guillotine that much more scary. Imagine having your head in a basket looking back upon it’s body and the people responsible for their death. Frightening

Then how are you typing this if you don't have any fingers?

Sam Lucas "I've had worse" 😂

CrazyDrunkenBoxer 勇敢. Ikr once i got killed in a fight and still kept fighting taking dkwn my opponent before being revived

"I'll get you for that!" "What are you gonna do; bleed on me?"

"tis but a flesh wound"!

Run awayyyyy

David Christensen So tuck guts back in and work on upper chest wounds?

Yes and Yes. Serious bleeding even proceeds breathing. An arterial bleed will kill you in about a minute. You can go without breathing for 5 to 7 before there are issues from it.

Ouch. Yeah, that's the kind of thing that's important to know but also quite messed up. Still I don't envy you being a medic... Supposedly the medics are the highest risk group for developing PTSD later on. I'm honestly not surprised given what you must be dealing with in a regular basis...

KuraIthys It takes a special kind, that is for sure. We learn to cope in different ways, like regular doctors and nurses. I picked up a rather dark sense of humour, which is one of the more common ones

David Christensen im joining up to the royal marines and it always did concern me thinking about which poor medic and the lads are gunna have to pick up my pieces should the worst happen. I wouldnt want to do that.

And even then, the disposition of the person can play a role. There really is such a thing as 'will to live' though in this context it's often more of a 'will to live long enough to kill the guy that killed you'.

I watched all those shock videos when I was younger. You probably know the ones. Back then it was nothing... Nowadays I turned into a pussy and no way in hell am I about to look that up and watch a dude get chopped up. I can do SAW movies, but real bestgore type shit nah lmao.

@Alexander The Great A nasty introduction to the Human Experience

@@boostio_music I can relate to that. We see violence and gore on movies and games and it looks cool there, but in reality... that stuff is sick.

@@boostio_music That's not being a pussy mate thats Empathy. Good on ya

Same, most of them the people are just acting tough and playing chicken without hitting each other. Some are smart and use a plastic chair or garbage can as a shield. I don’t understand how some people can be dumb enough to have a one handed only weapon and every time they get swung at they throw up their arm instinctively, yet not use something people used for thousands of year to protect themselves.

Most professional blade sharpeners actually know these terms.

Real insanely sharp > 9000

not so sharp?

Should be "really" rather than "real". :P

You forgot "Mega incredibly sharp"

Sure, if the protagonist dies afterwards. haha

Plot armour and plot weapons (one-hit kills everything that isn't wearing plot armour)

Lol they slash, which does nothing when the opponent is wearing chain mail.

Brian Sly If the medical tech is advanced enough they could live for a fair number of years afterwards. They would likely die as a result of toxic medication like mercury and not because of infection

@@erojerisiz1571 I get that you are insinuating that I've overlooked Doctors roles in saving lives, but depending on the era this protagonist is living in, That "brrrr" could be the doctor thrumming his index finger over his mouth while he treats open wounds by packing them with feces, or eye injuries by dribbling a cadavers ground up skull into it. Doctors have come a VERY long way, but even in modern hospitals, when it comes multiple deep lacerations and puncture wounds, survival is less than certain. My favourite saying about knife combat is: "The winner of a knife fight is the one that makes it to the hospital first." Still, if the protagonist lives in modern times, and gets to a hospital, and treated fast enough their chance of survival is pretty good, I will give you that. Hopefully wherever they are getting sliced to ribbons has several people who frequently pass nearby, are able to render competent first aid, and will call for an ambulance. So... Not in a back alley or the depth of a villians lair.

Oakspar Oakspar - If you have a moment check out this documentary of the medieval battlefield graves of the battle of Visby on the island of Gotland. Go to 38:10 in the documentary to see the damage swords did as evidenced by the recovered skeletons: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-TxkgBDaVsP0.html The battle of Visby was fought in 1361, between invading Danish and German mercenaries and farmers from Gotland trying to defend their homeland. Because the peasants were not well equipped and did not have armor below the waist, the invaders seem to have adopted the strategy of hacking at the lower extremities. There are incredible examples in the video showing feet and legs that have been sheared cleanly through the bone in one powerful sword cut. The documentary is worthwhile if you are interested in medieval arms and armor. The graves on Gotland are the largest and most complete collections from a medieval battle ever found.

Very interesting, I was always wondering about that. Typical Hollywood One-Shot Misconceptions

The heart is NOT “deep”. It basically fills the chest from anterior to posterior and from just behind the left nipple to just right of the sternum.

Gerrit van Heerden Your correct and a sword thrust to the heart would cause immediate loss of perfusion. You would go down immediately.

I sense you that your interactions with violence up to this point are nil

tristin arnold Don't forget to mention they will fly 30 meters in the air

FMJ bullets aren’t intended to reduce lethality, they’re meant to increase reliability and decrease lead fouling. They also have the effect of increasing penetration which is good or bad depending on cartridge type, range, and application. In rifles they can be less deadly, with certain notable exceptions. In pistol calibers it’s very complicated and depends greatly on the specific cartridge.

tristin arnold Heroes also get hit on their legs and shoulders/arms. Never on their perfectly good bullet resistant vests

In my experience hunting sometimes animals shot appear to drop dead immediately, while other times animals shot through the heart and/or lungs with a relatively powerful rifle will haul ass for a few seconds.

Bad Cattitude you’re also right and wrong. Mostly right. Like I said earlier, expanding bullets make rifles a lot deadlier. That’s really the reason for the rule in the Hague convention. They’re deadlier because they transfer a great deal of energy in the form of hydraulic shock. Pistol rounds generally don’t have enough energy to take advantage of hydraulic shock on a human target. There’s a lot of talk about .45 acp being more effective in FMJ form than 9mm but there just isn’t any evidence for that. 9mm is in fact a very effective cartridge. The military has found it to be about as effective as .45 acp as have law enforcement. To provide evidence for my claim that hollow points aren’t more effective in pistol calibers you can look at NYPD shooting statistics. They switched from 9mm FMJ to 9mm hollow point in 1997 (I think, maybe 1996 or 1998) but the rate of deadliness didn’t significantly change. The only major advantage of hollow points in calibers like 9mm and .45acp (which produce similar energies in standard pressure variants) is that they pose less danger to bystanders because they’re less likely to exit the body or ricochet.

"Tis but a scratch" came before "your arm's off". The Black Knight's last response was actually, "I've had worse", prompting Arthur to yell, "You liar!"

@@matthewmuir8884 come on, ya pansy. Chicken, chickeeeen.

"A scratch you say"

Lol

That movie where that scene was great i loved it

Even worse, by a good cut across the stomach that leaves the intestines spilling out. Brb just made myself sick gonna throw up

@@mosisusasu9205 that one is not going to take days to kill you. In fact, it will be hours at most. If your intestines get open, the amount of bacteria which will spill everywhere is enough that your body does not know how to deal with it. Unless you get medical help, your body will go into something resembling coma in a couple hours or so.

Actually the term deadman walking comes from being shot in the abdoman somone can seem fine for days but in that time they wouldnt survive it is the worst way to die

That would be the only sinario i cancthink of where god would forgive you for a suicide

You’d most likely pass out before you die

Well your father spoke French and your mother ate cow

Dont taunt me a second time!!

From Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

RUN AWAY...RUN AWAY...

He is brave sir robin

Bro

Gold my friend, gold

Indeed, you make a very good point.

Uhhhh

Fun fact: Same does aplly to grenades fired on tanks. If the alignment is to bad the shot doesnt go through at does only damage on the surface (A scratch). Because the distance to pass through increases with each degree alignment (Ideal degree 90 to the point you hit, were the effectiv thickness is 100%; the less the more it increases). At 45° (a diagonal hit) you are at around +40% effectiv thickness. At for example 20° you are at almost 3 times the thickness. Effectiv thicknes= Nominal thicknes * (1/ (sin x)). 'x' beeing the degree you hit from (90° when hit straight through). Same with skin and cuts. Its simple: Good aiming is essential to cut through anything (even paper).

The sword is just the pommel's pommel.

@@wouldhave4998 1000 IQ

@@wouldhave4998 then it should be more deadly

Isn't that Lethal Weapon 6? and does Bruce Willis need the bucks?

The tongue

What are you going to do? Bleed on me?

Alright, we'll call it a draw!

Trade me cherries, peasant!!!

Where's my schwubbery ??????????????????? !

@@freezatron Wrong scene. That's the Knights Who Say Ni

Unless fighting large opponents - then they do more damage. :)

Too bad you don't get to roll for shock. XD

That's hilarious!

In the 70s, sure, but starting in the 1980s swords of quality might do 1d10 + 1. (Obligatory old dude nerd dick wave: I bought the original Dungeon Master's Guide the day it came out.)

BS, a zweihander have 2d6

*trebuchet

@@landlockedcroat1554 *minigun

@@prestontheinconsistentyout1573 Peace treaty?

@@ZlothZloth A10

@@prestontheinconsistentyout1573 A good, solid peace treaty will leave your A10 low on fuel with all its ammo stored in another hanger and nobody willing to fly it except for maintenance purposes. ;)

Thanks heaps mate, so glad you liked it ^_^

Wouldn't you be dead?

It was said that Theoderic once cleaved the Lombard king, Odovacar in half lengthwise with a two hander. To be honest I might prefer that political system to this one...

Honestly though, are you being honest?

Cut my big toe off in a lawnmower a few weeks ago, didnt feel a thing until later that night when the adrenaline finally wore off. It didn't really bleed that much when I elevated the wound, so I guess if I was in a sword fight and I got a few fingers cut off I would easily still be able to fight the rest of the battle. Bottom line is you gotta be pretty accurate with your blows if you want to kill someone within a few hours.

@ShieldWife: That's kinda creepy for me. Soccer hooligans in Kraków are said to use machetes freguently.

ShieldWife It's a free country, but don't come back asking for psychological treatment... You've warned! ;)

Maciej Smoleń An aquaintance of mine was injured by a spear slash across his back by British hooligans...

Do it, it will be an experience in many ways...

Maciej Smoleń ~~ ~~ ~ ~~lol~ ~ ~~ ~

The excerpt you quote sounds absolutely horrific; but, as you say, at least it was a quick death (hopefully).

Yeah the only thing that stops swords, bullets and arrows is plot armour.

Mathijs Boven US military needs to invest more heavily on plot armor

I mean why does anyone even invest in padded plate armor?

without any difficulty ?!?!?!?!? those effects shots take a lot of time and effort to do and are in fact difficult to do .... well, at least to do well :D Trouble with plot armour is that you end up with a load of plot holes ....

Doc Jabberwock I let autocorrect do it’s job

syaondri very passive-aggressive

She was looking kinda dumb with her finger and her thumb in the shape of an L on her foreharmory

Slashmouth

Slashmouth sounds metal as fuck.

whats a gsw

True, but there is no amount of PCP or adrenaline that will keep you fighting with a punctured heart or a cut or smashed spinal cord.

@@brucetucker4847 They can give them a few seconds, and in modern gunfights where even headshots may result a lined up shot being fired by already dead shooter's gun killing others it's a big difference. Shooting someone who doesn't flinch and can calmy aim right before dying is a scary proposition

zaqzilla1 General Nathaniel Greene of the American Revolutionary Southern force (who basically won the war by luring Cornwallis into a false sense of security) was shot 6 times in a single battle, and went on to live a relatively long life. Human bodies aren’t nearly as fragile as Hollywood likes to pretend

Anewlevel ....I Mike

Isn't a honing steel a essential item in every kitchen?

@@cahdoge the most unused thing as well

King of the who? I didn't vote for 'im.

How do you know so much about swallows? Well you have to know these kinds of thing when you’re a king, you know.

"'Pull the other one!!!"'

massaweed420 thats rude for mine dragon slaves

Dank meme alert.

I thought it was the...swordsarm..

I knew what was consign before I got halfway through your comment XD

massaweed420 that meme is soooooooo overused

They also like to bitch about it when you hit their hands, and break some of their fingers. It's a valid combat technique damnit!

Wow, you are so badass

And what would be primary...

@@kidkoopa6389 Spear, Mace, Axe, Polearm, Lance as example.

@@kael2295 ahh gotcha

Rifle.

@@noobsaibot8780 haha

You've cracked the system, though a thought provoking comment will to the job too ^_^

Dragons are fine too )))

ALink2DFuture The battle cry of “machicolations” haunts me to this day as well

Internal organs and the brain will take much more damage from blunt weapons such as warhammers and maces when encased in armor(plate armor in this case), due to the internal concussive tremors that triggers and ''explodes'' inwards on impact with the armor, while not as lethal when no mail or plate(especially plate) armor is present. Then there's also the fact that your bones will often break even in armor when getting hammered by these blunt weapons. A gambeson would do the trick at having an easier time surviving the encounter, although it would definitely hurt getting hit by one anywhere on the body, unless the gambeson is so thick you can barely feel the mace or warhammer. Even when wearing a helmet, a hit to the helmet encased head(with either a mace or warhammer, or a flail for that matter) will cause a loud painful and tremendous bang that will also send tremors into the brain which might very well cause hemorrhaging. You might very well be able to kill someone with a mace when the target is not in armor, but it isn't as quick or as easy to do as with a sword or even a spear, axe or a knife. Takes longer time, depending on where you're aiming and keep hitting, but no matter where you're hitting, chopping someone's head off is much more effective and time saving than trying to kill someone by bashing someone to death, and taking time with it might be inconvenient. Not to mention more tiresome, since you have to keep hitting the target until it's dead, which might take some time, and most of the time you won't kill someone outright with a blunt weapon, no matter if it's a mace or warhammer(maybe a poleaxe or polehammer will do the trick in that regard). With a sword you save so much energy and time and can end your opponent so much easier and with less effort. That was more of a wall of text than I intended, but my thoughts carried me away. xP I hope it was helpful, informative, interesting and not too much to read for you. :)

With that being said, I'd also like to see that video of Shad's. Him covering these topics and hearing his personal thoughts and opinions is very interesting and rewarding stuff. ^^ I learn much from him and other HEMA enthusiasts/practitioners, such as Matt, Skall, Metatron and Lloyd(well, reenactments in the case of Lloyd, but he knows quite a bit of the topic atleast so he definitely counts ;P).

And yes Shad did cover in this video that killing someone outright isn't always so easy, even with a sword, if you're not doing it right. But it is atleast much easier with a sword than a club weapon, again, such as a mace. I hope I'm not sounding like a lunatic now. x) I don't mean to come across as one. I mean, killing with swords, knives, spears, axes and clubs was what people did back in the days after all(and bows and arrows and crossbows and bolts of course, let's not forget those ;P), so naturally there were right ways and wrong ways to end your opponents if you wanted to end them the quickest most efficient way, just like there always have been and just like there are to this day, and there always will be, just mostly with guns these days around.

-_- му памеѕ гуап

- ААааааа

Smallswords were specifically intended for dueling. The point wasn't that they were particularly effective, it's that everyone would be armed with a similar weapon, and they weren't terribly cumbersome to wear around town and to dinner like rapiers were.

The extreme cutting power of a falchion wasn't needed to get through the military uniforms at the time, so we saw the adoption of the saber, which was designed with the same principles as the falchion, but traded a little of it's cutting power for other advantages. It wasn't the smallsword (which was really a dueling weapon) that succeeded the falchion, but the saber.

yes!

Damn, the foil stubbed their toe, we'll need to find another.

@Fifteen 4 do not underestimate the stubbed toe

Except when they're picked up by mooks.

It could have a knight in full plate getting skewered by a sword

Jorge Hanel With LIGHTSABAAHH written at the bottom or top of the shirt.

very true anime is another culprit of this practice.

Excalibuuuuur!

A castle upon a the back of a dragon could actually be very useful (of course considering it is a propah cahssle with propah machicolations, and ignoring the fact that even the dragon alone violates several laws of physics, but yeah, magic. Magic and machicolations)

Or, specifically: what about the lite-seyba machicolations dragons?

João Pedro That with cannons containing pommels would be...too much for this world.

+Steel Xcaliber You do realise that if you drill a hole in a cannonball, it could technically be used as a pommel.

Will Bloodworth there is machicolations t-shirts to sale ?

And bodies still have momentum! If you cut off someone’s head as they’re lunging towards you with a spear, you better be out of the way of that spear lol

"Guess the kids aren't going to get me yet another necktie for Father's Day..."

Andre of Astora Aww...you beat me to it. Lol

what do you need a sword for Andre?? I seem to remember you prefer pugilism

😂

wasn't it only a scratch, you knight of the coconut :D

Yeah, I would like that too. Flails are awesome.

Unless you are just flailing around.

Flails we're actually very rarely used in historical medieval combat - if at all. There's some in paintings, but they're rarely mentioned in treatises. I think Matt Easton (Scholagladiatoria) has a video on it.

and other flail like things like weighted chains.

Derp Gerpenstein might want to have a look at lindybeiges old videos.

Why?

Job Dylan because even though you can get a knife that sharp, it goes away rather quickly.

poilboiler I’m sure the threat of infection made edged weapons very frightening and increased the chances of someone running away if it looked like you were going to cut them, but you’re right of course.

poilboiler Archers usually stuck their arrows in the ground or shit maybe even dead bodies, to make it so even if the shot wasn't deadly,it would most likely develop infection.

But it is definitely useful in a war. Imagine getting the opportunity to force the enemy (assuming they care about their soldiers.) to try to nurse wounded, and infected soldiers in a campaign.

Indeed. Infection won't win you the battle, but it may just win you the war. Similarly, wounds which are only fatal later on don't win battles, but every combatant that dies or is permanently unable to fight, even if only after a battle is over is one less person to deal with in the next battle...

Not to mention the last feeling as you die is satisfaction, knowing your enemy will die to the damage-over-time effect.

The FBI deemed the 10mm in the 80's too powerful. Lol Which it's not. They just weren't manly to use it. And they said as much. The female FBI couldn't use it as effective as the 9mm. And they were not using those Full Power 10mm loads from Underwood either. Now that's Power..

Thomas Jenkins komodo dragons?

I don know if this is a meme question, but I think not at all. When real people tried to hunt real big animals (elephants, whales) they sure as hell didn't use swords!

+MisterJohnyBlank we don't speak of cousin Leroy.

They were so deadly that dragons never existed, knowing that they would be decimated by swords.

Well you haven't seen any dragons around lately, have you? So obviously they were all ended rightly. Komodo dragons are AWESOME. There's one at the Shark Reef in Vegas. He just sits there being awesome and flicking his tongue and you know he's thinking "Dude, if it weren't for that plate glass..."

Stuart Chignell There is some evidence that the edges may sometimes be kept at different levels of sharpness. I’m personally not aware of any record of this happening, mostly just hearsay- but it makes sense, from a certain point of view.

As far as I'm aware the only evidence of this being done systematically is on knives, things like clip point bowies, but even then it's questionable whether the difference in bevel is the cause of the clip point, or just an artifact of it. Probably closer to the two-different-edges idea would be some sabres, where the forte was (not always, but sometimes) somewhat dull. This made plenty of sense given that sabres parry directly edge on edge in the vast majority of cases, and the forte is the last place you want a blade to begin to chip.

Sure but I thought we were talking about period swords

and how they were maintained and used.

I was actually talking to one of the smiths at "Arms and armor" about a custom piece, (Before I haz a no monies) and this fact came up. Problem is, its hard to shape the steel after the temper, and heat treat, and the heat treat will cause a asymmetrical blade to "saber" to one side. It can be reshaped, but that takes time and money. P.S. Realizing financial issues after exchanging several detailed emails with a smith is the single most embarrassing thing in the universe.

You should sharpen your kitchen knifes then. You'll appreciate it. Often times you don't realise how much nicer a sharp knife is until you try the difference. The way to check the sharpness of a blade is to run your thumb perpedicular to the edge by the way. I also made the same mistake as you, but you only do it once lol.

Well... not everything is from Hollywood, perhaps there'd be mroe.

I don't remember that! I assume that is in the Golden Age Arc?

@@inthefade yeah, it's the battle where the Band of the Hawk first noticed Gutz and picked him up after. The duel with Bazuzo ( idk how to spell that properly )

Aqua Essence In the "realistic" fantasy I'm writing, I am really trying to bring an accurate presentation of the correct armor, weaponry, and most importantly, the methods and true effectiveness of such. And let me tell you, it is EXTREMELY hard. I never thought it would, but it can almost seem boring to say "the sword bounced harmlessly off his mail" instead of the Hollywood "The strike ignored the mail and cleaved his body in two!" Luckily, I've got the epic gentleman of the RU-vid sword community like Shad to help steer me along. :)

@@thehackingburger3002 What I use in my low fantasy story is that in order to justify the increased durability and lethality of swords (they can even be drawn from metal scabbards without dulling), they are made of a really strong metal I came up with. They may not cut through metal armor but they are certainly deadlier than swords in real life.

There are swords found in archeological digs from thousands of years ago that have rusted but are still extremely sharp

Contact damage or corrosion are really the only ways to lose sharpness. When Peter Johnsson examined the Maurice of Turin sword so Albion could replicated it (the original is over 700 years old) he described the blade as being so sharp "you could sharpen a pencil with it, it is that sharp."

/enable godmode

Those do t actually sharpen usually they hone the edge

There were, and still are, knife and bayonet sheaths that had/have just such a sharpening device built into the throat

No. Those tend to ruin the edge. It is the lack of knowing what sharp actually is that makes people think those work. Sharp in comparison isn't necessarily sharp.

@@SS2LP no, most of them do "sharpen" unless it has fine ceramic stones or the like, which are for honing an already sharp blade. They actually tear the edge up more than sharpen it, however. This depends on the sharpener, of course, but most kitchen sharpeners are actually ruining the blade more than maintaining it.

@Logan Waltz no, the rod is honing. I'm screaming inside because of how little people know about maintaining a tool these days.