Katanas 

now, that's brave! /s

This legitimately made me laugh

The Browning Automatic - the right way to make a machine gun.

Marry Christmas it happened before he was born?

your grandpa was an idiot

8 years down the line, he's still going strong!

It's over 9000

Not to mention that you can cut through the wind because we live anime hehehe

Elf Monster your profile pic is awesome. your name too (

***** I really REALLY hope you're not arguing that the thing was folded over 8000 times? **hopeful look**

***** As far as I know? Not really, no. And, that wasn't really an answer, either...

was looking for this

Make sure you have a detachable pommel if you want to end your opponent rightly.

major props for this joke.

P99AT wrong channel

That was well spoken.

Nice political compass

@@Lolpy. cheers mate

Katana II: Electric Plonkeroo*

Nice political compass

Nice political compass

hahahahahhahahahahahah

Not at all true, though. They were intended as ceremonial/symbolic weapons but ended up seeing plenty of action in hand to hand combat.

IT'S A FUCKING JOKE

You must get laid at all the parties.

Wrong. The only person a Japanese officer killed with his Wakazashi was himself.

Huh?!

@@anger_birb Years go by, and the comments made by others disappear, but the replies I wrote to them remain. What did the person say, to which this was a cogent and witty reply? It may be lost in the mists of time.

Wow, surprised Lindybeige is Still commenting on 7 Year old videos! Just goes to show he is a mere mortal after all

@@connorturner9837 Or on a higher deminsional level than us, always watching... always listening ;-)

@@jimtaylor294 I'm going for mere mortal :) "I'm too busy collecting underpants." I hope this is the last comment on youtube,ever. When the internet morphs into a v'Ger like entity, I want it to search the universe looking for the Creator and his collection of underpants. I wonder if you read this, Lloyd. :) All the best.

Not really

Essentially.

Oh, good heavens, no. Some of them were bronze.

Some were made from steel too.

Yeah, he seems to go a bit hard on the katana.

Well, no. Most were actually steel.

+Enkii Muto agreed

he has made a lot of videos about halberds.

which is what they were using. Spears and halberds. Just like everybody else

but..but... CURVED JAPANESE MASTER RACE BLADES!?!?! /s

Yea or just the sengoku period altogether

The spear was the weapon of choice of almost every armies in the history. Cheap to make, easy to use... I think Katanas, or other 2 handed sword were more of a "shock infantry" weapon than a first line weapon. Used to attack the flank or to destroy a broken formation because without a shield, facing a spear wall... you'll be in trouble.

It's the same with European warfare. The sword was a nobleman weapon; just like European knights, Japanese Samurai primarily used a spear or lance from horseback. Also, just like in Europe, all basic Japanese infantry had no access to swords, so they all carried spears as well.

Samurai had no lances, and the weapon for noblemen was the bow. The katana were cheap made and affordable for common soldiers as well. Of course that changed drastically with Edo.

Samurai had no lance? Yari? Naginata?

Ugh, yeah, I mixed up my vocabulary. (I don't even know what exactly I typed there but whatever, the point remains)

+eugene Perry Why would you want to be a Samurai? They had one of the worst military training, and their strategy was "One hit one kill" if that failed, then guess what? _Dead_

+Riffy it's a fantasy to begin with, the IDEA of being a samurai - no reason to care about the negative aspects. Now, if you find an actual way to send me back to feudal Japan to become one, then I'll think it out more critically.

eugene Perry haha, fair enough. Just wanted to be sure you knew that being a Samurai isn't all that great. Very low life expectancy and terrible battle training.

+Riffy yeah, I wouldn't REALLY want to live anywhere in that time period. The BO alone would probably kill me, and I'm already older than the average life span...

+Riffy I'm willing to bet it has something to do with the rise in anime culture in the west. Anime becomes popular and next thing you know everybody thinks katanas are the end all sword.

Hotori honzo?

if you are intrestet in that antony cummings is some one you want to check out ;)

From various bits and pieces I get the feeling they were basically feudal Japan's version of MI5, surreptitious spies who occasionally assassinated people or broke into places. They've become all-round combat experts in lore, which doesn't seem to fit with their historical purposes, so I'd be interested to see a video about it.

You are right, ninjas were mostly spies, and some were assassins, but most of them were not combat experts, otherwise they would be hired as samurai instead of ninja, which had much lower social and financial status.

but then, ninjas never had anything to do with katanas

Docter Danger j

FORDED OVER MIRRION TIME

***** CUTS TRU ERRYTING!

GRORIOUS* NIPPON STEER*

Stresser Alex They must really be proud of their cattle over there... ;) Deck the harrs with barrs of har-ry, Fa ra ra ra ra, ra ra ra ra (Okay I better stop before I get called a racist...)

+Paul Groene Yeah, no.

+Minh Tran he's right, the reason many of them were very slightly different was because of the difference in the blade temperature, the exact makeup of what it was quenched in and the procedure of the swordsmith himself.So all in all Paul here is correct.

No they very much were used in battle just it as much as bows and polearms just like everywhere else isn’t eh world swords actually all generally suck compared to how’s and polearms

Butthurt :)

Mad Vlad That depends where you stick it.

I think that's pretty much the point he was trying to make.

MrDanteBurns I hadn't actually finished watching it when I posted that, but he made the same comment on the last video about Katanas.

MrDanteBurns Yeah, he just doesn't like Katanas. A simple iron bar however, would have to be folded over and over during the forging of the blade. According to Stan Sakai, author of the very well-researched but deceptively simple-looking "Usagi Yojimbo," that is just what most Ninjas used for a sword. Reason: a Ninja would use any sort of weapon at his disposal and usually had a whole array of different tools for his trade (=death). A Ninja wasn't bothered that his sword was actually his soul, if it broke off or got stuck, he could leave it and fetch another one once he got back to the Ninja arsenal. Another word about the end of the Sengoku Jidai: many jobless Samurai (actually Samuri but whatever) who would not stoop so low to become bandits and who couldn't get a job as a merchant's bodyguard, were forced to sell their souls (=Katana) so they could buy food and provide for their family. But even though they poorer than poor, they still would carry the symbols of their status: the two swords. At least, it looked that way as long as the luckless Samurai would not have to actually draw his sword because then it would turn out the 'sword' was a bamboo replacement with only the grip looking genuine.

+MrPartySack I think it's because of Anime.

+MrPartySack because they are indestructible, cut through anything and give you superpowers.

+MrPartySack Well, the blade is absolutely perfect for cutting through unarmored targets, but that's really all it's got going for it.

+MrPartySack because they are elegant and beautiful, what I don't understand why people are so obsessed with functionality its not like you will ever going to use it anyways then why choose ugly piece of metal instead of nicer looking one if its ultimate purpose will be to hang on your wall ?

+MrPartySack Well, you must look at that from a location perspective, in those days everybody in Japan had katana, and nothing else, pretty much (leaving other variations like wakizashi or ninjato off the discusion). They are short because Japanese were short and have shorter hands, that's also why it's curved and because your drawing is shorter, if you had any special requirements, you as a samurai would go to the blacksmith and ask him for special one. They are heavy and that's other point of view, samurais were practicing day and night with wooden swords, which were made of some heavy wood too (you had to have strong wrists to handle katana just to hold it very firmly), another take is that when you try to swing the sword from above your head, with curvature, speed and gravity, your energy is meeting in one cutting point which leads into more damage (instead of classical long sword which is straight and the energy is distributed equally). About the guard, you have to acknowledge that you are in Japan, those people have some culture to it and the culture of sword fighting is called kenjutsu. In kenjutsu your starting point of the fight is basically when your katanas' tips are about to meet (roughly). That's the distance where you start fighting, if your thing is to try to cut off the fingers then you would have to have longer and heavier sword or would be insanely clever how to get to that point to cut his fingers off, but in most cases when you have two guys with about the same sword size, his chances to cut your fingers off are equal to yours... and in that case where you do have a chance to cut his fingers off, wouldn't it be better to kill him after all? Samurai is not a guy who would cry when you chop his fingers off, no... he would take katana to the other hand or draw is smaller sword - wakizashi.

+Justin Prather A good comparison to the katana is the revolver. Almost all revolvers of the same calibre look the same, and have very little (other than build quality and aesthetics) that differentiate it from other revolvers of the same calibre. And the revolver is inferior compared to other handguns, yet it's popular because of cultural and superficial reasons ("looks cool"), the same with katana in comparison to other swords.

+Justin Prather Additionally, both are overly glorified by Hollywood and western/Japanese fanboys.

+Breasil131 A lot of them still used bows in battle along with their pole arm and their side arms (daishou).

simpler reason; the katana was used to bully peasants, and they (we and everybody everywhere) glorify bullying peasants, and therefor glorify the weapons used to do it. All pre-gun warfare was done with spears, always. Swords have always been the pistols of the pre-gun ages, and just like pistols now they only ever got used to kill civilians

Deshara actually I think you will find the popular way to kill peasants these days is to make them dig a large hole, line them up in front of said hole and use a firing squad with automatic weapons to mow them all down. I'm not saying that samurai didn't kill the peasantry basically as a hobby, or that most ppl didn't see the katana as a symbol of terror. but the actual samurai would use their Kitana on someone as unworthy as a peasant. While Spears were a very popular weapon in war, I think you will find sword and shield just as popular to outfit soldiers with as well.

The bow is absolutely glorified in any serious look at Japanese warfare. All samurai were archers (specifically mounted archers) as well as spearmen, etc. They still glorify traditional bow techniques just like they do traditional sword techniques. The sword is more romantic and pop cultury because they are simply cooler. Therefore, they get much more media, myth, hype, etc just like they did in other cultures.

Yeah. If this collector of his is actually real I'm pretty sure he must not know very much. Which leads me to believe the video author doesn't know very much either.

Erduk Did you really not read the statement in his video???

Today it may be illegal, but during/after WWII many old swords went to the US as war trophies :(

Could just be recreations. I doubt that there are many intact swords from the middle ages.

Call me Senpai A large amount of ornamental swords were made, and you'd be surprised; Many Katanas did survive due to the fact that they were used rarely.

Only problem being that leather armour was rarely ever used

Kyle Rybski Aesthetic tradition, without a doubt. We see the same in Europe: to those who aren't familiar with European sword types, all longswords and knightly swords are going to look the same. Sure, put two of them next to eachother and anyone can spot the difference, but the layman isn't going to appreciate the significance of those differences. The same thing is true of Japanese swords: someone not familiar with them are going to spot the differences (length of blade, length of handle, depth of curvature, thickness, width etc. etc.), but is not going to be able to appreciate the significance of those differences. "Meh, it still looks like any other to me."

Gilmaris you do know that a cleaver was as large as one and a helf longsword? The European verity was much larger. Though Europe is a much larger scene and had more cultural interactions (Turks, Arabs, francs, Italians, Slavs, Spanish, german, British)

יובל בר A cleaver is a butcher's knife. It is nowhere near as large as a longsword, let alone one and a half longsword. But what are you talking about cleavers for, anyway?

sorry claymor

יובל בר I'm not sure you mean claymore, though, because you talked about European versions being bigger. The claymore is exclusively European (Scottish, to be precise), and means greatsword. They come in a variety of sizes, but yes, some are really big. German Zweihänder even more so. The Japanese, on their end of the world, had the Odachi, which easily matched claymores for size. Granted, they were only popular for about a century, but they were pretty big (the name means "great big sword"). The biggest one is 3,7 meters long. It is ceremonial, but traditionally made.

Gandalf126 I prefer the term "katanaphile."

I think Skallagrim made it.

StormchaserKnight Katana-plonker, as mentioned by Lloyd.

Gandalf126 what is the word for anyone who thinks a sword is the only thing that matters in a fight like you guys ? blade cultist or something ? its so stupid to bash any kind of sword ...have you guys been in a real fight ? it is too quick to be concerned about how light or strong the steel is made ...you idiots ...

Ckyntosh And, yet ANOTHER example of you being a fucking moron. Further film.

Are you saying that Europeans have no souls?

Becuz Potato No no, am just saying that you are a cat.

or it could be that their culture is progression itself rather than a single point.

neo bear So the rest of the world was just sleeping while they discovered perfection? I highly doubt that.

what does that have to do with what i said?

No

Preposterous! Next thing you'll say is that Lars Andersen is reaching a new level of superior archery... ... oh wait.

Well the tachi and katana are basically identical. Only real difference is that the tachi has a more extreme curve to it and it's actually usable with just one hand. If you want long swords, the Odachi and the Nodachi are about as long as it gets. One is basically Sephiroths masamune, the other is what would happen if a naginata and a katana had a baby.

The Japanese stuck to the same designs pretty much the same way as the Europeans did. If you're not familiar with Japanese swords you might think they all look the same, but the same is true of European swords. Most people aren't going to tell the difference between the various Oakeshott types, and you could easily divide katana into as many types. I also note that you talk about Japanese *swords*, but European *weapons*. I hope you meant European swords, as there is no reason to exclude Japanese weapons otherwise. Japanese had weapons for every occasion, just like Europeans did. Swords, axes, clubs, spears, pikes, bill-hooks, bows, crossbows, firearms etc. I don't see how the Japanese stuck to basic designs to any greater or lesser degree than anyone else. What exactly do you mean by "basic design" anyway? The basic design of a spear is a pointed stick, and no matter how far evolved, it is still going to be a pointed stick.

Gilmaris Yes, I meant European swords, not weapons. By basic I meant that the general design stayed very similar, compared to how European swords changed during the time corresponding to the Edo period.

raizumichin The Edo period was a time of peace, after the long age of warring states previously. This lead to some significant changes in blade and armour designs. Grips generally got longer, blades thinner and hamon more flamboyant, as they were made with aesthetics in mind before practicality. Later on in Edo the trend changed, with a revival of blade styles centuries past, and notably the Kogarasu style (which is double-edged toward the tip). Armour saw a similar development, with strange combinations of early and late designs in early Edo, and a counter-trend later on for the practical once more. But I digress. My point is, at no time did sword designs stay the same. They all basically stayed "curved, single-edged and differentially hardened", but in the same way you can say that European swords basically stayed "straight, double-edged and tempered". If you use very basic adjectives like that, then European swords didn't change any more than Japanese swords.

But European swords *didn't* stay straight and double edged during that period. We saw a transition from longswords through rapiers and basket hilted broadswords to sabres.

raizumichin Ah, but those were different *types* of swords. The Japanese had different types of sword as well. They had straight, double edged swords (tsurugi, or ken), and single-handed sabres as well after French involvment in the 19th century. In Europe, the longsword did *not* transition to the rapier. The rapier did not evolve from the longsword, but parallell to it, before the longsword died out. The longsword was a sword of war, whereas the rapier was a civilian sword. Basket hilts evolved from arming swords, not longswords. Curved sabres were introduced as a result of Eastern influence, even though Messers and falchions had already existed in Europe - but they're not really the forerunner of the sabre. Anyway, the longsword stayed straight and double edged from its inception until its demise.

When talking about katana: Consider this as standard armor given out to a lot of low level soldiers: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatami_%28Japanese_armour%29 And consider that katanas were a basic sidearm weapons. Even the low level soilders were using them. You can thrust pretty well with a katana not only "OK". You don't achive that much more stabbing performance when making a straighter blade, wereas you are loosing a lot of cutting power doing so. The katana basicly ignores padded armor which can stop cuts from straight blades with ease Btw: a lot of katanas were forged in china. Japan knew about the magic of getting stuff you didn't have: TRADE. even under "full isolation" they had harbours open for this purpose.

Yea, the Japanese had very low quality iron and steel compared to most European countries. The English names Japanese steel/iron 'Pig Iron'. I just want to add that the Katana was good, but rarely used in actual warfare.

Harri Kelloniemi leather armor isn't a thing though.

カロ Cause it's awesome? Probably because of that...

lolsquad lol

Have to watch it again, thanks for reminding me.

@Michael Terrell II Is that so Michael? Just because they get the idea fob the Chinese, another skilled sword crafter, does not mean their swords will be as good as the Chinese. That’s like saying “I watched a guy shoot a gun so I can be just as good at gun safety as he is.”

@Michael Terrell II You can’t stand those who know that it was anything but a viable weapon? Sure, it worked just fine as intended. But you cannot tell me a a katana is inherently better than say a Claymore or Bastard Sword. Even if they were crafting swords for as long as you say (Which seems entirely plausible to be fair) you literally admitted to those swords not even being close to katanas.

@Michael Terrell II Well my good friend Michael, I never said European swords were “God’s gift to Anglo-Saxon kind.” I just think they have better functionality.

Unintentional Martyr Actually tou aren't. I think it's not nice at all.

Mister Babadook I agree with you

Mister Babadook Well, I wouldn't say hideous, but it leaves me mostly 'meh'. Interestingly enough, I think a kriegsmesser is gorgeous...which is a two-handed, single-edged, curved sword. Weirdness is weird.

***** I prefer sabers and scimitars to katanas for curved blades.

***** The kriegsmesser is pretty good-looking.

Everyone with brains like throwing dirt on the Katana. A decent side arm but nothing exceptional unlike all the Katana cultists would like for you to believe.

Thick blades have to work harder to penetrate armor than thin blades

Sorry, m8. But your 'slashing' weapon sucks ass against actual armor. Because, y'know... Actual armor whoops ass when it comes to slashing. Hell, just wear chainmail. If that shit can block a claymore, I think it can block your dinky, symbolic, iron piece of crap. Sure, it'll hurt... But if the other guy is dead and all you have are broken ribs and bruised flesh? I think we know who won. And also, katanas couldn't penetrate worth shit. Flesh? Sure. I can penetrate flesh with a fuckin' spoon. But armor is a whole other ballgame, amigo. So, do your research, weeb, before you start spouting off about sharpened iron bars.

MrJinglejanglejingle arent all swords nothing but sharpened iron bars? and there is a video on youtube, where it shows catana going through armour better than your bendy shitty longswords. What was that again? oh yeah, do your research before going all butthurt, ok, pal?

EUrider I'm sure the video was quite scientific and not just some idiot cutting through shite armor. Get back to me when you have seen all the easily-found evidence of katanas being shattered by longswords. Good luck finding anyone who has experience with real swords who'll agree with you, weeb.

EUrider Then those are not proper katanas, are they? Proper katanas were made in Japan, using Japanese steel. Besides, there are many videos and shows displaying a katana being shattered by little more than a simple downward swing of a broadsword, which is smaller, and lighter, than a longsword. And besides, have you ever even swung a real blade? Not that cheap Japanese crap, but a real one? Broadsword? Basket-Hilt? Scottish Claymore? Any of those? I have. I've even taken in some real training from an experienced 'Real Steel' participants. And why would I waste time uploading a video for an idiot? I've got more important things to do. Typing internet crap is simple, actually taking time to give a shit about your fallacies and incompetence is too much effort for me. TL;DR, m8? Use a real sword, then call me, baby~

If you were proficient with ancient nordish swords, you'd be better.

***** Well, maaaaaaybe. Viking swords were really fucking good.

Newnawn I suggest you guys try Polish hussar sabre.

TrollDragomir I still Suggest Viking swords. The Ulfberht is considered the best sword in the case of durability, sharpness and usability. It couldn't cut through metal, but it was a big problem that the Vikings swords kept getting lunged and stuck in wooden shields.

***** I assume that's what you take could you tell me what it's like?

gr8 b8 m8

Nice troll, but seriously, *Facepalm*

good job mang, this old comment made me laugh so hard I woke up my dog

With metal grain size starting at 1µm (up to 100µm) one million layers needs to be at least 1m (up to 100m) thick that's plenty strong but a little heavy.

Well... They NEVER fold it a million times. I've never heard of more than 16, which gives roughly 1000 layers. Also, they were not the only ones who did that - in fact, Europeans had been doing it for quite some time when the Katana started being produced. Even comparing a european sword and a katana of equal amounts of layers, a katana is made of shitty Japanese steel while the Europeans had access to much better steel. As for medieval Europeans not conquering Japan... No one bothered to conquer China either. Japan was just ridiculously far away. Contact wasn't really established until centuries later. No one in medieval Europe had even heard of Japan OR katanas. In fact, production of the katana didn't even start until roughy the time European medieval time ended. The reason american soldiers targeted katana bearing soldiers is not that they had katanas per se, but because the katana served as a badge of rank. Killing high rankers is always a good idea in battle. As for their cutting power, the reason a katana often cuts really cool things is that a katana is generally sharpened to the extreme. You can do that with other swords too. I'm not trying to say the katana is shit or anything, but it is not a godsend.

What new stats would you give it?

Andrew Almeida Yes. Yes it is. I mean, the point about US troops targeting Japanese soldiers is half right. But the Japanese targeted US soldiers with more chevrons on their helmets; and not because the chevrons were scary.

4chan reference? How?