Sword Blades and the Problem of (Too Much) Flexibility
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- Опубліковано 21 лип 2024
- The swords shown in this video:
Practical rapier by Hanwei
Blunt version: ww4.aitsafe.com/go.htm?go=kult...
The Town Guard sidesword (cut & thrust sword) by Arms & Armor
ww4.aitsafe.com/go.htm?go=kult...
Type XVIIIb longsword by Lockwood
ww4.aitsafe.com/go.htm?go=kult...
Smallsword by Cold Steel
ww4.aitsafe.com/go.htm?go=kult...
Rapier by Vladimir Cervenka
www.sword.cz/eindex.htm
Pappenheimer rapier by Darkwood Armory
www.darkwoodarmory.com/index.p...
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If you can permanently deform a rapier just by flexing it... that's a problem....
yeah
@@DeruwynArchmage Well you can just bent it back
@@toxicelamain2494 lol
Yes and no.
You can basically bend every blade past the point of permanent deformation with your bare hands if it has a certain length.
But if the blade is so willingly accepting to be flexed like that this is obviously an entirely different thing.
It needs a thick firm spine and should not be too floppy; if it is too floppy rub it some more.
the internet I knew something was wrong with this comment
I like how you call yourself "the internet"
Very fitting indeed
Tightening the pommel also works sometimes, though many don't like the feeling.
i agree or slap the pommel. or try sticking a finger or two in its scabbard that works with mine sometimes.
Have you seen those soldiers from Hammerfell? They've got curved swords. Curved, swords
Nicee
You never should of come here
@Toasty boi Then pay with your blood!
@Toasty boi ugh, haagh! Oofh...
Jax _Ragdolls_
Very good video thank you for sharing pal :) you have got some really nice swords
You could say he is Flexing his swords!
It seems that the Town Guard sidesword is one of the best swords you've acquired recently.
*checks the link in the description and looks at the price*
Oh, that explains it...
Indeed. :)
Bending the rapiers so much that they will not return to their center is making me cringe
Those were not rapiers.
All toes are fingers but not all fingers are toes.
Rapiers are thick, narrow and solid not thin and wide. Neighter wobbly.
Why cringe, are you stupid ?
Actually that is a way of testing the integrity of the blades
@@doomguy5410 why is he stupid?hiw do you define cringe?
@@danielhristov6175 They’re by no means thick.
Skalla, I wont you to know that "end him rightly" references are popping up everywhere. I live in seattle and I SAW A SHIRT WITH "END HIM RIGHTLY" WRITTEN ON IT!
I saw one of the M&B devs referencing it, TB said it while talking about For Honor... IT'S EVERYWHERE !
DeutscherDummer Can you end someone rightly in that game?
Kyle Simon Even before the crossover they were on Lindy's channel
No, you can't, which is why it sucks :c Got my hopes up for Bannerlords though. There needs to be a unit called pommel-thrower, for ending every single bastard rightly !
I've seen "end him rightly" used in the comments of InRangeTV videos.
“Hmmm yess this sword is made out of sword”
What a sharp observation.
The Archer class really is made of Archers!
WhadalalonkaBadonkadonk
Here's a metric you could use. Hold the sword horizontally and hang a kilogram weight on the tip. The distance it drops in centimeters is the flexibility.
Edit: So a lot of people are saying that I forgot to take the sword's length into account, because a longer sword will drop more. But does that matter? The Blacksmith might want to know the flex of a given steel per length per width. However what we are taking about is the flex of the sword, not the sword's steel. So the this information is for the swordsman, and the swordsman is unlikely to change the length sword that often. Think of cars and acceleration. The salesman will tell you in how much time the car will go from 0-60 mph. But you might say that that method is flawed since if you change the car's mass you will change the car's acceleration. The manufacturer does need to know how the engine will cause the car to accelerate per unit of mass, but the customer does not require such information. All they need is how quickly this car will go from 0-60 mph. How mass of the car affects the engine's ability to accelerate is irrelevant to them.
TL;DR- Yes length is a variable, but its a variable that doesn't change. So you don't need to take it into account.
By Imperial decree, Ich hereby dub thize unit of measurement, ze "centiflex" x)
beat me to it
Kawaiiser Wilhelm II Von Hohenzollern Fuck you you racist piece of shit.
Mangore TheOgre wouldnt that be the Federkonstante
Where did you get that idea from? o_O
Is anyone going to mention that when he was showing the rapier at around 6:20 that he... ACTUALLY bent the blade too far and warped it? Or was that from a previous accident? Either way, it's a bit of a shame to see a rather interesting piece have such a major flaw.
Echoes Reverb yeah, he actually keeps trying to fix it after it
I was hoping that it wasn't just me that noticed it. Wasn't the only one he bent I counted another after that one, but there may be more near the beginning I wasn't looking for it then lol
Yes, the blade was bent past its elasticity point. I think it needs to be professionally straightened out and retempered to fix this
Lmao and he did the same kind of bend to the one that was "lent" to him. Good friend huh lol
@@RuneTrips His friend gave it to him to demonstrate the flex, so that's expected anyways.
When I worked in heat treatment company, we got swords from two different makers. Both of them used spring steel (not sure if the same). One used the rectangular profile and just grinded the shape out of it. Second one used the rod with circular cross-size and hammered the flat sword body out of it. Sword from the first maker were like springs after heat treatment. Swords from second one were flexible, but not as much. Older guys from the company confirmed, that when you forge the sword from the bigger chunk, it is more rigid than swords just grinded out from the flat piece.
Yeah, by repeatedly striking it with the hammer, you're actually squashing the molecules closer together. You increase its density which adds more rigidity. First crappy sword I made was two bits of corten welded together then heated with an oxy torch and roughly hammered to shape, then shaped more with a grinder, and it turned out rigid. I can't flex it even a little but its only a 18 inch Gladius style thing. I'm currently in the process of polishing and finishing it and then I want to try to make a nicer one. But I don't work at the same place and don't have access to those tools. So I might try setting up a small traditional style forge.
But yes you are 100% correct. Beating the crap out of it with a hammer will make it stronger.
@@TrashDeviant That is a myth. I mean seriously, a hammer changes the molecular structure. Old wives tale. There is such a thing as work hardening, but that is a cold technique, and does not "pack" the steel either.
Generally anything you do does not make it stiffer. What does happen is the point of plastic deformation occurs at a higher load if the heat treatment was correctly applied. "Metallurgy Principles Why Doesn't Heat Treating Affect Steel "Flex?" March 13, 2018 Larrin One concept that can be difficult to understand intuitively is that the hardness or strength of steel does not change its stiffness." You can google that and get the full skinny.
So much so that I saw one traditional Toledo sword maker, and he only heat treated the last 1/3rd of the sword. Or for that mater Samurais swords are only treated on a fraction of the edge. In the case of the Toledo rapier, The butt is stiff enough and strong enough to never bend past the point of plastic deformation, and it is not used to cut much (it would still cut and it might block better when soft). But the rate of bend in the point could cause a serious set on a strike so that flexible end bit needs to be hardened. Of course one could harden the whole blade and that would be great. But it is a lot easier to harden the equivalent of a fish filleting knife.
"Dear Skallagrim!
My name is Barney and I'm a former member of the Familia Gladiatoria Pannonica, Europe's first gladiator reenactment group founded in Hungary in 1986.
I am intimately familiar with The Scissor and I can also tell you what exactly it is and what it was used for.
First, you need to understand is that gladiators had certain 'weapon classes'. You had the Secutor, the Myrmillo, the Retiarius et cetera. However, not all gladiators classes fought all gladiator classes. The matchups were custom, and different classes were matched against each other based on a number of things, partly historical-religious-spiritual, party simply what was entertaining to watch.
The object in question was used by a class we called 'Scissor', so we adressed the combatant by this term, rather than his tool, but you could argue that we named the class after his tool, but regardless...
The Scissor exclusively fought the Retiarius. And the Retiarius was the gladiator armed with the Trident-Dagger-Net trio.
The Scissor was a fighter wearing heavy armor (lot's of chainmail) and had very few and very small target areas the trident wielding Retiarius could strike. He had a gladius as you said it yourself and the scissor itself.
Against him, you had the Retiarius with next to no armor apart from a so called 'manica' which protected one arm and offered some minimal protection to the head and as I've mentioned, a trident, a dagger and a net. That was it.
The role of the scissor was not a primary weapon meant to damage the retiarius (although it could be used as such in a pinch), rather, it was a tool to deprive the Retiarius of his net. We had a number of choreographies around this and it works really well, the net becomes almost entirely useless as soon as it touches the scissor itself.
I cannot say how historically accurate this thesis is because I was just a fighter, my primary concern was doing choreographies or free-fight where I simply wanted to win (I was a Retiarius myself), but I do know that the event organisers and our leaders did research on the subject so we definitely hold 'some' historical credibility.
I hope this cleared up your confusion about this unusual item, I will be the first to say that without a net in the picture it's pretty useless compared to a sword for example." - A guy (not me, mind you) commenting on your scissor weapon video.
Cole Lutscher I’ve wondered how dangerous gladiatorial fights actually were. There had to have been some danger, what with everyone having weapons and that, but if it was to dangerous, it would be super expensive. If half your gladiators die every match, how can you get experienced gladiators, or even keep up with the demand? So how dangerous were they really?
*tries to pierce opponent*
*sword overflexes, can't penetrate*
*opponent laughs*
*unscrews pommel and throws at opponent*
*opponent is ended rightly*
TheArdanaut
>fml pommel starts to overflex
*tries to stab opponent*
"Weird flex, but okay"
Great vid Skall - I was wincing seeing those blades getting bent though :-D
Can't blame you, it's terrible. That rapier is painfully frustrating... such a nice overall shape, great handling, and then the blade is a floppy noodle. Why Vladimir, why?
@@Skallagrim because context. noodles are very safe . worst you can get is cardiac arrest.
Dont get so bent out of shape no blades were harmed in the making of this video 😂😂
@@Skallagrim i have a ultimate off the wall question if you were to go camping in Grizzley Bear territory and could only have one sword? which would you pick? im thinking you would want penetration much more then cutting? please help with this true self defense ? thank you!
@@bretnmannn A sword against GRIZZLY BEARS?
Sorry, I'm not suicidally foolish. :D
Every time that you bend your sword past the elastic limit, when it takes on the bend, you will work harden the material, making it more and more brittle, eventually you'll bend it to show someone and the blade will snap in your hands.
Jake Rosen Hi fellow Engineer. Civil?
Hello, nope Marine engineer!
I noticed that the sword stayed bent as well, it makes me cringe. Simple principle, I use it to break low tensile fence wire on a regular basis when I don't have pliers. Or in a multitude of other applications. :)
@Ironclaw XII Point is you shouldn't be able to bend the blade that far. If it bends that much demonstrating the flex it will bend in use. Blade needs to be tempered again.
I remember when you had only 20,000 subs. You make me feel old.
Reben Snow Same here, my friend... ^^
J. K. props to the old boys ;)
Heh, it's been a while. Thanks for sticking around.
Skallagrim And I'm sure, all of us would do it again. Thanks for the time & afford you spend and always have spent to provide us good, informatial and entertaining content!
Greetings from Germany
(I hope, I haven't done to much grammar-mistakes, that were always my weak point... '^o^)
Jesus I scared myself there when I checked the sub counter
You can actually bypass a parry with a long, flexible rapier! When someone blocks, the tip plip-flops around the block and stings them right in the friggin eyeball!
ms4eji0bek
You would have to strike with the flat, and you would deal even less damage.
Alibey Bal but the stun effect is much better than damage. The opponent is closing their eyes or flinching therefore letting you bind their sword and get a fatal strike
If you are looking to bypass a parry, you may as well just throw your pommel
+A Anon
But that's a finishing move
ms4eji0bek Then they wil have a scar in their eye and the scar causes 14% pain all the time and makes people have -15 friedship with him because he is disfigured. Also you used the bionic eye on your sniper yesterday.
great video. i like that u actually educate us on the weapons instead on just review them and test them. the history behind them, and the different qualities of similar weapon. very cool thank u.
Yet another year and this channel is still a part of my life. Love your stuff Skall, cheers to you mate.
I think the coolest thing about your videos, besides the content, is that you care about your hobby/craft enough to know your information quite well. I respect it!
I spar with a hanwei 43" rapier on occasion when my Darkwood or Castille's are being used by other folks. While the flexibility doesn't effect a good thrust that much, once it comes in contact with another blade is is very easily manipulated by the opponent, and can throw off point control in the middle of a bout.
From the looks of it the rapier you've shown at 5:48 the blade stays slightly bent after you flexed it.
Fantastic and honest video analysis. One of my newest favorite channels on yt
Awesome Video man! I really like how you try and cover as much as possible and give clear and excellent examples! Keep up the good work!
what's that you were holding on thumbnail? Some kind of a BDSM stuff?
TheSaberra a fencing rapier i believe
TheSaberra Looks quite like it, doesn't it?
yuyang lim What's a "fencing rapier"?
Bryan Wheelock GOOGLE helps.
fencing rape?
This reminds me of the time Gordon Ramsay was demonstrating a knife's flexibility and it snapped, flying towards the cameraman.
I'm so glad you make mention of exactly which swords you tested that're overly flexible. I'm looking for some swords (arming sword and rapier) to hang up and maybe wear out once or twice to a renaissance festival, and now I know that wallhangers come in all shades of green.
Dude I have been lurking on your videos for years, from one straight man to another you are looking amazing lately, no homo
Try twisting the rapier when thrusting. I know nothing about swords, but from an outside perspective, it might stop some of the flex and make it able to actually use to force being applied to it.
3:18 just looks so horribly wrong. Internet what have I become?
I was looking for this comment
BattleFred I didnt notice it until now...
@@manuxalunx6522 Yea me too xD
Ohhh....that’s nasty
especially the face he makes like he has been caught sharping his blade
It's finally happened. Years of watching your videos (and I cannot recall ever commenting), and finally, FINALLY.
I have that same small sword! I have a sword also owned by Skallagrim. EXCELLENT.
Definably entertaining and enjoyable! One thing would be to show us a higher quaility rapier slap test as well as a droop test when holding the sword in 2nd and 4th position. Thanks again!
The engineer in me wishes to point out that you can apply a known force along the axis of the blade and measure how much deflection is produced to quantify the flexibility of a blade. Things like the modulus of elasticity (if known) and moment of inertia of a cross-section will also tell you a lot about the flexibility of a blade. It absolutely blew my mind when you flexed that rapier and it took a set. That is TOO soft.
Hello, i think you could easily measure the flex by securing the sword horizontally at the grip and hang some specific weight on it at the tip. Then just measure the distance the tip moves downwards and you will have a comparison.
Ondřej H but a longer blade would flex more because it has a bigger lever
Yes, but that's what happens when you thrust. Longer blade will alway be more difficult to make as stiff as the shorter one, but that's the price for the lenght...
Maybe to better test the flexing when performing a cut, one should hang the weight at the center of percussion. But from what I've seen recently, that's not necessarily the best place to cut with + it also shortens your reach.
I'd rather say measure the degrees between the direction the tip is pointing and the axis the grip is secured in under certain levels of force. Using that the thrusting longsword from the beginning would have a flex rating somewhere around 5, maybe 10, while the floppy rapier is 180+
I think that measuring the distance is easier and more precise, due to problems with different distribution of flex of different blades, and by that a different curvature.
If you measure just the distance, you have a valid information of average amount of flex through entire blade. But when you measure the degree of the tip direction, than more floppy sword can get away with smaller angle at the tip.
Btw,, when you secure the sword horizontally, it cannot flex by weight hanging more than 90° ... ;-)
for the issue of measuring blade flexibility, a method similar to that used on hockey sticks might work. They are measured in the number of pounds required to deform the stick one inch, and this seems like it would work very well for swords as well
To be perfectly honest, I rarely find his stuff entertainong but it is so informative that I love it anyway.
Sound problem right during the sexual innuendo .The Universe is against me .
Elektro/PyrokineticChosenOne I got it too. I'm sure it's the video.
Am I seeing it right on the Cervenka? It looks like you were actually able to bend the blade after flexing it. That seems pretty crazy.
Just listened to this, good video, two points.
1) it's not the friction that prevents penetration, it's a function of pressure, Pressure = force/area. Therefore if you reduce the area that is in contact, pressure increases in proportion.
2) There is a measure of flexibility, it's the "Stiffness" or Young's modulus which can be determined by the ratio of Stress (Pascals) to Strain (Dimensionless). If you keep the blade dimensions the same, you can measure the Young's Modulus for different tempered steels. Alternatively you can use like is suggested elsewhere, a rough stiffness metric by using a simple weight at the end of the sword, which controls for different blade dimensions and dynamics. But the unit you are looking for exists.
In fact, if the force behind the thrust is constant (i.e. machine-produced), and the testing material/object is standardized, then it becomes possible to make a chart for different types of blades, and classify them according to their penetration and how much they bend. You can calculate theoretical thrust depth for ideally stiff blade of a given geometry based on friction and compare it to experimental results. It is even possible to create completely stiff blade specimens as reference samples.
in metal and materials, engineers refer to the flexibility as "elastic deformation" or the amount a material can deform and get back to its original state. So, if you look for the specific technical details of some industrial grade metal you can find out and quantify the "elastic deformation" coefficient of the material, but obviously it will change if you work it and temper the metal.
that's not the only thing you'd want to know. one of the swords he showed goes beyond elastic phase to plastic deformation
Hey Skall, love the videos, please continue with them.
Just a thought, since most HEMA practice is done in a 1v1 situation with much space for the individual, how applicable would you say HEMA is for recreating historical battles?
In mass battles, one simply didn´t have the space to fight like HEMA practicioners.
F.e. the Gladius wouldn´t be used like in the bottle cutting videos, it would always be used in combination with a Scutum, which further reduces your ability to follow through with your attacks or evade attacks.
IMO battles would be way more brutal, way more simplistic and way more tiring than any HEMA duel suggests.
But I would like to hear your opinion on this.
I know this is an old video, but as a civil engineer I must say that you can definitely quantify flexibility. It is very similar to spring stiffness, but rather than being compression/tension flexibility (modulus of elasticity) it is bending flexibility. There are equations that use the modulus of elasticity, moment of inertia, and length to calculate a stiffness factor often referred to as k (force per unit of displacement). The inverse of stiffness is flexibility (displacement per unit of force).
Your video shows two bending cases: bending due to a moment (when you bend the sword with your hands) and bending due to compression instability aka buckling (when you thrust and the sword bends). The response of the material to both forms of bending are derived from the same material and geometric properties, but the actual behavior under bending or buckling are distinct from each other.
+Skallagrim, Of course you can quantify flex. (Distance of flex) / [(Force applied in flex direction) * (Distance from anchor point)]. Put the sword in a vice or clamp at the cross, with the blade parallel to the ground. Choose a point on the blade, and measure the distance to the floor (Df1) and to the cross (Dc). Now attach a known small weight (W) to that same point on the blade, and measure the distance to the floor again (Df2). Your "flexiness" f = (Df1 - Df2) / (W * Dc). Stiffness would be the reciprocal of that, s = 1/f = (W * Dc) / (Df1 - Df2).
If you want one single number to give the best idea of overall flex, you should use the tip as your weight point, but you could also build a curve for a given sword by testing multiple points on the blade, if you wanted more detail--this would tell you if there are areas of the blade where the stiffness changes abruptly (which you generally don't want as that would tend to cause stress concentration and be a likely breaking point).
This measurement is normalized by blade length, so it won't tell you what the sword will *feel* like in the thrust--it's a measure of stiffness *per unit length* of blade rather than for the whole sword. To get a good indicator of that you would want to still measure at the tip but eliminate the Dc term in the calculation, F = (Df1 - Df2) / W. That should get you a first-order approximation of an apples-to-apples index for perceived stiffness of swords of different lengths.
as a former fencing student, every time you flexed the rapier i was cringing because i thought it would break
if it is a dueling rapier then more flexibility could be good. duels were fought to first blood, so a blade rigid enough to impale is unnecessary, and it allows you to get flick cuts with the blade tip
Skall, i hope you read this :)
I have been reading a bit and it seems like tempering steel has a rather minor impact on the "stiffness" of the sword. The young's modulus is used to measure the stiffness of a material elastically (before it bends and stays bent). The defining property is the atomic arrangement itself. That being said hardening steel turns it from austenite into martensite witch is a change in the atomic substructure but a minor one.
So the main factor concerning the stiffness of a blade is the blade geometry. Tempering the blade does however change how far you can bend it before it deforms/ breaks. But if you put 1kg on the tip of a hardened and an unhardened blade it will bend almost the same amount.
Would you also be interested in doing a video regarding the importance of distal tapering in swords? Trying to get back into making foam weapons, but I'd like to make them more comfortable to fight with for prolonged periods of time, as compared to my old ones which basically felt like you were fighting with a large wooden branch. And I feel like the new weapons I intend on making could really benefit from a better understanding of why weapons were as heavy or light as they were.
I changed my medicine, it's working better and i'm not high anymore.
Thanks Skall.
so the question is... have you had a chance to test the flex on antique/historical pieces to compare against their modern counterparts? ( I know museum curators frown upon doing this kind of thing to their collection)
Such an awesome channel.
Hey Skall what's needed to measure the flex is a deflection gauge. You'd want to clamp both ends and measure how much force is needed to move a certain distance. We use them in guitar building.
Could you make a video about evolution of armor ?
Thumbnail makes me worried. If that was me flexing the sword like that I'd probably stab myself in the eye.
Skall, looking great with that weight loss! Keep at it, man, you look badass with that ponytail.
Minor correction at 5:06: friction doesn't depend on area of contact surface. A narrower blade displaces less material though, so less force is exerted onto it, which is what accounts for the greater friction. Anyway, keep the videos coming Skal
6:28 lol you permanently bent it!
The audio messed up a bit at the beginning
I absolutely love the new background :)
Quick technical point: the reason a narrower blade penetrates better is less to do with friction and more to with pressure. Pressure is equal to force divided by cross-sectional area, so the less cross-sectional area the sword has, the more of the force it carries places pressure on the target, thus penetrating further.
That kind of over flexible rapière could make sense in a duel, just to draw blood without severe injuries.
Rapier duels were generally fought to the death. And also, they were used more for self defense, battlefield use. And if you want to not kill but draw blood, use a weak cut and not a thrust, as thrusts are much harder to treat as a wound.
Levi Fontaine Not French duels
"You dont want it to be flopping all over the place"
*urumi has entered the chat*
The opening statement, you know us so well Skall.
The SCA uses a standard measure of flex which is to clamp the sword horizontally at the hilt (may require removing the guard for it to work) and use a 1 ounce weight hung an inch behind the tip. The amount the tip moves under the weight is the amount of flex.
This allows for different sword types to be compared.
The amount of flex required for different combat activities can then be measured and swords can be assessed for whether they are "legal"
I've been practicing kendo for a couple years now and I was wondering because sometimes in a fight you might have to block but why can't you kick so my question is was kicking ever used in fights and how practical would it be???
Feedux Potentially quite practical, depending on the weapons involved. Try searching "Harnischfechten", German armoured swordsmanship. Lots of unarmed attacks and general pragmatic fighting in there.
Have you tried turning the pommel on and off again?
I remember getting the Windlass sword magazine back in the day- their ability to bend a sword into a full arc was a bragging point for them. With an arming sword.
@Skallgrim your on camera personality has improved a ton since this video. Not to say that there was anything wrong with this video, but you are much more dynamic/charismatic in your newer videos. Hope this doesn't come off the wrong way. Good video still.
Just for reference, a lot of the modern rapier blades are used for fencing and live combat, so they have a lot of bend to keep from hurting your opponent. This is because you are supposed to hit your opponent and not kill them.
Glad someone said it. Blade flexibility is not a sign of low quality but of good function and safety.
True. But, all of the swords that skall mentioned in this video are specifically NOT training swords. They are meant to be reproductions of and act like real weapons.
Weird flex but ok
i would recommend to hold the blade horizontally just by the tip and compare how much they bend just under the weight of their own handle and guard. that way the flex is relative to the overall length and weight of the blade (and handle) and you can easily see the section where it flexes the most.
you can do it how they measure arrow stiffness which is how much it bends when you hang a certain amount of weight in the middle
flex isn't subjective... it's just Young's modulus.
there actually is a unit for flexibility, it's called young's modulus. look it up
I have a custom diamond sectioned small sword from A&A and though it may not look it, it is about as stiff as that Caithness. It goes through ballistic gel like a hot knife through margarine.
I've seen some archers measure the flex of an arrow (by measuring force required to flex a certain part of it a certain distance), although I haven't seen any similar techniques applied to swords, so it might not a be a good indication for swords, because their flexing isn't uniform across the blade length.
While you where on dates with girls, I was studying the blade
What about those Chinese bendy swords in kung fu movies that can (for some reason) stab people and pierce armor? Like, so bendy that you question what they're made of.
Very thorough info…thanks. Great vid💯🌟…subbed.
Looking fit Skallagrim, good work.
Good and interesting, but watching you bend and flex those swords just puts my nerves o edge, man. So nervous
Did you see that dab at 9:55?
I'm liking this shit
great vid! very informative, and also thinking of taking hema classes when my life calms down more!
The rapier that you sold your rifle for , stayed bent when you demonstrated it's flexibility. That's a shame. Looked like a great sword from where I'm sitting. Love your reviews and knowledge. Keep them coming.
When swords get to flexible they become more like metal whips
Who cares about the blade? We all know the real weapon is the pommel...
*hopefully skall doesn't hold a grudge* °~°
END THEM RIGHTLY!!!
Thank you for this interesting and highly educational video!!
stress/strain is generally used to measure the flexibility (or rather the deform-ability with and without return to equilibrium/starting position) of many materials
There's a type of Chinese sword,it is so flexible,you can wear it as a belt,so it's a kind of a hidden weapon,usually used by assassins,especially female assassins.
Yeah,you can find this type of blade in many Chinese movies.
Rui M Thought it was from India originally.
Jackie chan’s belt sword
Darksky1001able You're probably thinking of the urumi, which IS an Indian weapon. Urumi were supposedly practical, other than the fact that the weapon takes a ridiculous amount of skill to use.
*intro plays* "… Flexibility is quite important for sword blades, particularly for your peen…"
Well, I didn't last long! xD
I love that Town Guard Sword it just looks so awesome
This video gave me a lot of information, thanks :)
slap dat pommel
Aren't Chinese martial arts swords supposed to be flexible ?
I have no idea.
we may never know
Ruka Erika im not sure
i thought they were small :)
Ruka Erika modern wushu ones are completely historically inaccurate. Historical chinese would have a degree of flex but not like these modern steel ones.
9:10 You mean like Young's modulus? It's a pretty standard measure of stiffness and is used widely in material processing - especially for metals such as steel.
an idea for standarising flex could be degrees per newtonmetre
i.e. the angle swept out by applying a force at a distance down the blade
although it probably isnt linear especially given tapering and different blade cross sections and several other factors
Damn, did that Rapier stay a bit bend?
Gönndalf der Blaue happens with softer steel
Were thrusting swords designed to be thrusted into bone though?
You said yourself stabbing soft tissue is not an issue even with an overly flexible blade. So you can still pierce skin easily, right? So if the blade is flexing a lot when you hit bone (maybe say ribs) it could potentially flex just enough to basically "jump" around the bone and pierce in between. Wouldn't that be desirable? I mean, after all you want to kill, not break bones. Breaking bones helps, but stabbing internal organs or even hearts was probably a death sentence in medieval ages.
It's an entirely different story if we start taking armor into consideration though...
Vorax "Ah, you stabbed me in the heart. I'm probably going to die"
as far as I can tell from these vids, the point seems to mostly stay in place while the rest of the blade flexes as he tries to push further in, so not sure how well it would jump, idk tho
Even hearts
For measuring the flex you could measure angle between tip of the blade and the handle, when you bend with same force. Like with most flexible rapier you got nearly 180 deg, and with stiff blades you got only about 30 deg. It's not linear, but it can tell you roughly how much it can flex when you will hit target. The only problem would be with bending it same for every blade, since force should be applied perpendicular to blade, and you would need to maintain that and force between different blades.
If you want a metric by which you can assess the flexibility of a sword, you'll want its Young's modulus. It's very well understood and easy to measure without specialized equipment.
It's the ratio of force per unit area and total material deflection, which is literally a direct measure of how flexible something is. Put a scale on the tip of the blade and measure how much force it takes to bend it a certain distance, repeat for other swords, and you can quickly compile a list of ideal Young's moduli for different types of swords, then you can request those specific values when having one made.