Can a Rapier Go Through a Head? - Also: Halberd!
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- Опубліковано 28 кві 2018
- The rapier used in this video (Arms & Armor Gustav Vasa):
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The polearm (Cold Steel Swiss Halberd):
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The realistic skull analog inside clear synthetic ballistic gel ("Sammy") is made by Zombie Go Boom.
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Regular "Ivan" head:
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As a physician, I can attest that the head you used in this video is way tougher than a real human head. The human head is actually surprisingly vulnerable to penetrating wounds through the eyes and to penetrating as well as blunt force wounds to the temporals. As a collector, I can inform you that real rapiers are way stiffer than the rapier-looking sword you are using in the video which is so flexible and giving in that it seems that it would have much difficulty penetrating even modern day winter clothing. The same thing -I mean over flexibility- applies to the Angus Trim long sword. European swords were flexible in comparison to the Japanese, but not so much as to be almost completely stripped off of their cutting or thrusting capabilities by being too springy and floppy like foils. Too much springiness is a good thing for modern sword making firms and smiths because it means that a sword is much less likely to break during use and abuse and it is a good thing for the modern day swordsman because it means that he can abuse his sword and most likely get away with it but it is not historically accurate. One of the knights that murdered Thomas Becket missed his target and his sword upon hitting the stone floor broke to pieces. A few years later King Richard the Lionheart was passing through what is now Italy got himself into a fight with some villagers over a hawk and not willing to spill blood and use his sword as a cut and thrust weapon, but rather as a club started hitting the commoners with the flat and the blade after a few blows snapped. Arguably his sword must have been of the best quality money can buy yet it broke when abused. Now I guess that I can abuse my Albion Alexandria for as long as I wish hitting with the flat emulating Richard without much suffering. Is a modern high end sword well made, with superior quality materials, tough and resilient? Absolutely. Can it cut and thrust better or even equal to its equivalent of the past? Nope. Too much hardness/stiffness means that the blade does the job well but it is brittle. Too much springingness means that the blade is tough, but it cannot cut/thrust as it should. If you ask me since nowadays we use swords only as toys, for them to be resilient and not super effective is actually quite desirable.
Jack Kando
one of the major reasons for the extremely stiff blade is because they did not know how to remove more than a little amount of carbon from the iron. this means that it was overly stiff. today we can put in as much or little carbon into the metal as we please (and other metals as well) but then it was not possible
@@kyle18934 Or maybe they just didn't want to make a thrusting weapon that was basically just wt spagetti?
@@JohnSmith-ty2he people then did not know how to remove carbon. That only happened around 1700 to 1800. Swords were just stiffer then. They could make flexable blades sometimes but it was incredibly difficult.
@@JohnSmith-ty2he metalurgy has come a long way. We know how to add and detract carbon, how to change the grain size to a specific point required, how to perfectly harden the outer shell of materiel, we can intentionally change the iron and steel to 9 different elemental shapes. And finally we can add different metals to get properties that people back in 1800 and before could only wish for.
Metalurgy has come a long way which can reflect on how a modern sword could be far superior in what we want such as flexibility, hardness, durability, and weight.
Sorry for the long winded off topic reply, but overall we gave far more ability to make swords flexable than people did whine swords and spears reined king on the battlefield
@@kyle18934 You seem to be missing the point. We can also make plastic... but it wouldn't make for a practical weapon. The extra flexibility might be great for sport fighting, and so you don't have larpers returning a broken weapon every 2 months... but it's damn impractical if you are actually trying to thrust through bone. You'd want something with far less flex for that. Just because don't is more advanced, doesn't mean it's better for every task. Electic cars aren't exactly known to be amazing farm utility vehicles.
I think the problem is that you guys aren't naked like in the manuel.
Richard Trager I agree
Nudity makes for stronger and deeper penetration. Duh, It's so obvious.
Alfatazer _ now i know why in fantsy women wear bikkini-armor.
Richard Trager It's manual. I know this because my name is Manuel.
Yeah it'll improve the thrusting a lot.
when I die I donate my body for sword testing
Thats Fucking brutal
That's a nice thing to do i guess?
If you have a family idk how happy they'll be about that but props to you for deciding to make that decision.
yu dead yet?
@@i_was_the_one_who_asked lol
"Only shaved off a bit of the bone"...
That's not something I'd like to hear a field surgeon say to me after the battle.
At least they would be saying it to you! 😅
Atleast it the wound didn't go straight to the brain
My mastoid process!
2:39 That guy was like "I think I just went into the wrong neighborhood"
That guy is the whole point of this video
he saw that and instantly thought a: "i'm going to die if i stick around" or b: "what the actual hell are they doing"
🤣🤣🤣👏🏻
The only thought going through his head was " nope nope nope nope”
"The fuck is going on here ?!"
Thanks for the tests! We will definitely review our bone material. Once we tweak the material I will send you another Sammy free of charge so you can review it again :) Awesome video
I think the main problem was the flesh. It is way much tougher than normal flesh.
@@blastomerx I don't necessarily think that it's that much stronger, I think because of the extreme amount of friction, it's very tough, if it were normal flesh, that bled, the blood would lubricate the flesh and would make it easier for the blade to pierce.
@@markmoore4079 So you saying they should use some lubricant?
blastomerx it’s the lack of weight. A normal human has a lot more weight to him than a simple lump of head has. A hit to the head with a halberd would not make you bounce back like in the video
@@markmoore4079 "the blood would lubricate the blood"
Wtf
The funniest thing is those people passing by. I would pay money to see their reactions lmao
What's even scarier is that they don't even seem to react to this mayhem.
@@brianmccarthy5557 it’s not scary , I am UwU
They probably saw it multiple times already
i’d stop and watch for a bit if i wasn’t busy
1:00
(Jean Pierre Polnareff attacking a time stoping Vampire,1989,Cairo/Egypt,Colorized)
Polnareff doesn't do shit, that's Silver Chariot doing the stabbing.
Can't escape the Jojo anywhere I see
What?
ZA WARUDO!
@@thenutbucket5971 you have to remember stands embody there user, so I think it's safe to imply polnareff is at least somewhat of a skilled swordsman
2:29. Just imagine that you're taking your daly walk/bike ride and you see this.
Personally I would be interested
I'd definitely stop whatever I am doing and join them xd
I guess most people just take it as an extra motivation to push those pedals harder and get the hell out of there:))
i'll pay to join them if i meet one
danny devito I would ask to join in
"Can I hit it with my bike lock, please?"
2:40 (in his mind) "what are two neckbeards stabbing a weird coca cola skull?"
"Damn kids and their anime"
lol xD
"Why are those HEMA guys all so fluffy?"
"Whelp, I'm moving."
Wolf-E What the heck is a neckbeard?
"What kinda haircut you want fam?"
"Open 'er up fam!"
"Say no more."
1982 Rome Olympics -Vladimir Smirnoff dies when his opponents's broken Epee pierced his mask and skull. It's physics. If a broken Epee can do that to mask and skull, then a real battle ready Rapier can pierce a skull -piece of cake.
I've seen something like that nearly happen with foils. About six inches of the tip of someone's foil went whistling past my face at high speed, and when we checked whose had broken we found a tiny hole in his opponent's jacket, shirt and skin, exactly over his heart, where the remaining length of the blade had sprung straight like a striking cobra.
The freshly snapped point was amazingly sharp. Imagine taking a length of 3x2 mm steel bar and using a Dremel to polish 8mm diameter circles through one end, centred 0.8mm off onhe side and 1.8mm off one face so there's a point left at the opposite edge with about a 10° slope each way on the inner faces and straight outer faces. Needle!
The 18th century very flexible and absolutely no way even near as strong as the modern reproductions and Rapier was good sword for minor stabbing and Public defence.It was never intended as the war sword although the situation forced its use as one but it was not as powerful as the Pole-arms or scimitar for instance.
i study anatomy in university and dissect real cadavers on a weekly basis. unsurprisingly human tissue is just like any animal tissue, tissues such as skin, muscle, bone and even ligaments, while very strong, are not very resistant against cutting by sharp blades. you can really yank on stuff without damaging them, but need to be very careful when using a scalpel as it's really easy to accidentally cut delicate structures. it's also very noticeable when blades start going dull and need replacing. in the illustrations the rapiers are shown to penetrate under the chin, through the mouth etc. while the base of the skull is very thin, going through the back of the head as well is not very likely as it is actually thicker than the front (you can see this in the xrays in this video), and you'd probably push someone over before going through the back of the skull. in general i would estimate it's easier to thrust through soft tissues but easier to cut through bone (cutting through the skull with a strong blow from a sharp sword is quite probable)
The gel is definitely tougher than skin and flesh, but to me the "bone" analog in these skulls seems a little bit more fragile than real bone
in the illustrations both fencer are lunging at eachother, the thrust to the head looks like a counter thrust, wouldn't this put much more power in the thrust?
then hitting on the inside of the skull wouldn't glance off like when hitting from the outside
ps: is true that a living body is more sturdy than a dead one because there's muscles tention?
Fabio Varrà
Depends on what you define as "sturdy". If you mean "more resistant to being cut", then, assuming there hasn't been significant decomposition, no, muscle tension in a living body doesn't make it more resilient to cuts. On the contrary, tensed muscles, like tensed ropes, are more likely to be more easily cut.
yeah, i wouldn't think a living or recently deceased body would be any different aside from the absence of brain activity and whatever caused it.
thinking about it again, it might be possible if the blade is very stiff and the entry hole itself is preventing the tip from flexing, effectively half-swording the blade through the back of the skull as well
Thanks for this analysis, Soon-to-be-Doctor-L. I was a butcher's assistant one summer long ago (those guys don't get the respect they deserve for the huge education they need for their craft) and chopping up the dead livestock was pretty easy but any time I had to pull stuff off, it always tired out my arm quicker than the chopping did. Of course everything we got was headless and animal, and a slicing scalpel is different from our more sawing and chopping blades. But I always remember sometimes I had to stab through fleshy fibers just to weaken the fleshy threads enough to pull it off.
Hey Skall, big fan here and a practicer of olympic fencing. If I may add a thing, I believe the rapier looks a bit less effective due to the very light weight of the target dummy: you are applying a lot of force on the edges, so the dummy gets pushed around a bit as there is no force downward in those lunges (which would increase attrition), but only horizontal (straight in the eye socket or the cheek or the forehead) and upward when the thrust comes from below. Our target dummy in the fencing gym is more weighted toward the base for this reason, and also because your opponent is likely to be much firmer on his feet than the dummy in the video: even with a weapon that is almost a toy like the e-pee from olympic fencing, I can swear that you really feel the punch when a long lunge hits your mask, so a sharp version would VERY likely pierce through tissues and bones, especially given the stiffer blade that isn't meant to dissipate part of the force :D Just my two cents, would love to see how the rapier performs with a steadier dummy.
Yeah,I feel a real person would have a lot more resistance due to the rest of their body's weight holding them in place while this dummy has none meaning it'll be more likely to get knocked around then realistically resist and absorb to full force of the impact and penetration
I'm not so sure... The base could use more weight, sure, but I think the stability may not be as much an issue. If you were fighting with real weapons, rather than fencing, you wouldn't be pushing against the weapon trying to pierce you, you would be pulling back to try to lessen some of the damage! (Or better to try to dodge for glancing thrusts)
If you notice those old treatises, they are bending and contorting to minimize the possible contact/damage as much as possible.
How flexible is an epee? I have a rapier from a bohemian weapon smith who is specialised in "Schaukampfwaffen" (i think blunt, but functional weapons for training), and the rapier is more stiff than the one from skallagrim, so i think it should penetrate at least a longer way through the skull
I'll also observe that the old drawings depict thrusts entering through the eye socket and mouth, cutting the resistance in half and guiding the blade inward.
I imagine that.....bodily fluids..... Would also allow for a deeper thrust by lubricating the blade on its way through. Ballistic gel always seems super sticky, stopping all but the most mighty swings.
5:44 my ancestors are smiling at me imperials, can you say the same?
I question the rapier used in this video. A proper battle ready rapier can easily pierce a skull, or body. The physics of it -a slender point, a leveraged blade and force applied to a small area equals easy penetration. Even a broken Epee can penetrate both mask and skull and kill s person, by this physics. Skallgrim, you don't have demostrate a rapier doing this, as it has been documented. Olympics a few years back: the German fencer's epee broke mid blade when made a touch against the Russian opponent. His lunge was so rapid, the touch made so fast, that he didn't realize his blade had broken and pierced the mask and skull of the Russian. It was that easy. The Russian died later in the hospital. So, yeah, an actual rapier can definitely and easily penetrate a human skull.
Wow, I thought the masks were tested for pressure points.O.O Or did they up the requirements after that incident? I know this is just the reason sports fencers use kevlar suits and their strength and fit are regulated and monitored in competitions. I've had the opponents epee bend on a low curve the wrong way (they can be bent safely downwards but not upwards) when she hit my chest and for a second it felt kind of scary. I believe I've seen a statistic that in the olympics most deaths have occurred in fencing, but mainly in the early 20th century.
Regulations on the fit means there can't be an unprotected "hole" between the trousers and the jacket even when you lift up your arms. My old coach had had a broken epee blade pierce his stomach.
@@elainelouve
"The match was immediately called off as Smirnov fell in pain. He died nine days later, one of the only seven fencers to die as a result of injuries sustained in competition. The death naturally led to sweeping changes in fencing, and fencing gear safety. Carbon steel blades like the one used by Behr and Smirnov were replaced with maraging steel blades, which are much tougher and far less likely to break upon impact. Further, fencers now are more likely to wear Kevlar or strong nylon uniforms, as well as masks made with stronger steel alloys. Since the 1982 accident, there have been no deaths in high-level fencing."
www.bathroomreader.com/2015/07/tragic-fencing-death-vladimir-smirnov/
@@bebop. thank you, I wasn't aware of the incident.:) I practiced epee fencing in the 90's and we had kevlar and the masks needed to sustain a certain level of impact. I believe the safety requirements have become even higher since then. My first blade actually broke on a lesson. We had been told about all the dangers on a general level, so I knew it was a potentially dangerous situation. Nothing happened though, I just needed to get a new blade. A good lesson about the quality of steel: the first one was rather stiff, easy to maintain in shape though needed a good warming up before use, but as said, it broke. The second one I fixed to the handle part (sorry, English isn't my native language) was super soft and I needed to constantly straighten it after every point. So frustrating! Then I needed to get a second sword for competitions as it was the rules (need to have a spare sword just in case), spent a bit more money and got a good quality blade that worked well. BTW the good one was German and both the crappy ones French. It's funny because I've learned that the German Solingen was a well known rapier manufacturer.x)
Halberds are so cool, they can stab, slash and inflict blunt damage and have the reach of spears, they are all about adaptability. Although the balancing point away from the handle means more energy is used to manipulate it.
Its the Swiss knife of polearms pretty much...
Come to think of it, weren't halberds Swiss originally?
Eric Sprague No one said the Swiss army only made knives.
My thought was more like "the Swiss army values versatility".
Great for formations and armored combat, not so much for dueling or personal defense.
The only reason Skall didn't use a pommel is safety. It would have gone entirely through the head and could have hurt someone nearby
Could've blown a hole in the wall behind the target
the bending happens when we use blades to train to indicate how much it would pierce if it was real, replicas aren't exactly great compared to the real ones in the old age. My Fencing Master has a genuine rapier and despite the age is very stiff but we didn't go far to stress the blades because being old and didn't want to break such relic.
Besides, the way you guys thrusted, saw some mistakes especially the blue guy, to attack, the arm must extend then the body follows.
the first guy made quite alrigth though,
So this is super late judging by the date, right. But as a person who's been working with machining and what not, I really start to feel nervous when I see those splinters start flying. Will you please, although it looks silly, use proper PPE for your eyes when you do these things? I know you and your friends are wearing glasses, but that's not enough, trust me.
Anyways, great content as always Skall, do keep it up!
Indeed, it's always fun until someone loses an eye!
Imagine winning a medieval bout, but dying later from infection sheerly because your opponent's skull got in your eye.
@@itsyaboychipsahoy.7989 there's actually a funny story similar to that
a man dueled someone he hated. he won and cut the guy's head off, then hung it on his horse's saddle and rode away. but the dead guy got the last laugh because his head bit the other guy in the leg, and he died of infection days later
Can you imagine how historical battlefields must have been when these weapons were being used en masse? It must have been a horrifying experience.
Probably why everyone wore a helmet at the very least.
Casualty rate during historical battle; during battle phase was not too bad. The killing started with the rout, provided that the pursuer run faster than the fleeing party. The fleeing party can run faster by dropping their weapons and shields.
pitched battles rarely were the all-out, chaotic melee where people get cut down left and right at breakneck speeds. But yeah it was probably horrifyingly loud, and probably smelly, as people often crap themselves when dying. And the injuries and deaths, of course, still happened. But oftentimes they could go on for hours with both sides only losing 10 to 20% of their forces
I imagine a town raid was the bloodiest thing, especially if it was an enemy and no quarter given.
Beardshire:must be(one reason) why the mongols were so damned effective, that must've been terrifying especially to simple townsfolk/peasants.
A stab with a knife from an angry guy surely has more penetration than a rapier thrust. Rapier thrusts can be very seriously hampered by the inherent flexibility of the blade, while in a stab you can get your full body power, basically just like punching. The stab at 1:58 is a typical "gorilla style" downward hammer punch, only with a knife, it's a very very bad move as far as fencing goes, since it leaves you very open while you wind the strike, but it's tremendously powerful.
By the way, while searching for occurrences of "rapière" in old French texts, I stumbled on a book recording examinations from a 16th century surgeon, basically his journal. He once had been called for a man who got in a duel, and got a thrust to the upper jaw. It was really a small wound, and it healed pretty rapidly. But after 6 weeks or so, he started getting very badly ill, quite suddenly and without explanation nor remedy, coughing and being feverish and livid. He died in a few days. The autopsy revealed that the very tip of the rapier broke, and got buried in the jaw bone, were it slowly festered and caused a blood poisoning. The surgeon records finding blackish blood all the way down the neck, to the shoulder. It wasn't all fun and games...
MadNumForce No it’s just that they don’t know how to lunge like in fencing
ErCavaliereNero _ in fencing it is either get a hit first or to hit without getting hit. You don't require force
Crab Soup I don’t agree originally fencing wasn’t just a sport, you made duels when offended as you could kill your oponent so you did require force and if this video talks about real historical fencing then you have to fence like people did in the past because it’s been studied and if you fence correctly you will definitely make a good thrust. A rapier is useless if you don’t use the entire body, it’s the movement that gives speed and force to the weapon.
MadNumForce A knife is small and light so it’s logical that you will have more force with a thrust but the rapier is going to penetrate more because it’s longer and fin. and you don’t have much reach with a knife. If you have a knife and you come at me and I have a rapier I’ll thrust you two meters away from me and you’re not going to be able to block my attack (unless you’re Jason Bourne) and most of all: you’re not going to be close enough to get me.
For one that was a practice rapier for training students you can tell by its flexibility a real rapier is quite stiff cause you know the purpose of a rapier is thrusting? It wouldnt help much with penetration if your rapier bent in half as soon as you went in so thats how you can already tell this rapier wasnt the real deal and also little broader then the one shown they also have shit technique and have never used the rapier for any meaningful amount of time also id like to see you try to get in close with your knife when someone has a rapier which is longer and can be wielded pretty fast cause they are no more than 3 lbs (and yes they can leave a nasty slash wound so its not all stabbing) as well as the fighting style used with rapiers and if you knew anything about Rapiers its that they are accompanied by parrying Daggers for when an opponent closes in its a nice broad long blade 12-18 inches and probly bigger than the knife you were imagining of using
Those lunges were still pretty weak compared to the lunge of for example a pro olympic fencer, so it seems pretty reasonable to think a trained soilder would be able to stab through someones head
Also worth noting that in these images the guy bring stabbed through the head is also leaning forward, so their head wouldn't be pushed backwards by the thrust as easily as the dummy head is being pushed backwards.
@@snapgab also, I think the rapier would easily tear through the flesh and muscle.
Yeah, those were terrible lunges
Not sure what word should be used at the forward acceleration of so much lard.. certainly not "lunge".
But what I'm sure about is that no sane person would try doing it with an extended arm (and since eliminating the acceleration the arm can add, halving the force) and no person would wobble backwards even from a morning breeze as the dummy did.
@@3goats1coat On the other hand, a straight arm creates a more effective structure behind the point. You can see their hands moving after contact is made and I wonder if power transfer to the target would be better with an unbroken chain of alignment from the tip back to the shoulder.
I think you meant to say, "T'was what she proclaimed"
I know who I'm joining when the zombie apocalypse breaks out
The zombies?
Uryendel, Came here to make s funny comment. I can't top that
WarlandWriter The Army?
Who? Definitely not skall, maybe uryendel’s right lmao
I'm joining Demolition Ranch, sorry but guns would be better than halberds as much as I like my halberds.
Polearms have so much power, you can tell why swords were sidearms and these were the weapon of choice
Andi Crimson Not just reach and formation.... How can a sword be "as powerful" with less mass and inferior leverage? A 6 foot polearm can hit significantly harder than a sword of comparable size, not to mention the ability to hook, attack from both ends. And how is an axe just as good as a far more versatile weapon combining a spear, axe, and hammer?
Pikes are better for open field formation fighting due to reach and mass, but polearms are better for everything else, even indoors in castle dunjeons.
@Lord Admiral Spire true, true, though if the stairs are so cramped it might be easier to use daggers and have the second and third rank (carefully!) stab around with their polearms. But yeah, in those kind of terrain, not even longswords can be used effectively. But at least they can halfsword- can arming swords be halfsworded? I guess they can but you'd need to discard your secondary weapon/shield, hmm
5:44 “My ancestors are smiling at me, Imperials. Can yours say the same?”
Polearms most certainly deserve more love! :) I'd also like to see the impact of the hammer portion of a Poleaxe on a skull.
Greetings from Switzerland
Halberds are like one of my favorite weapons!!
Weapons in general:Bad choice
Medieval Weapon:It is kinda cool but I prefer a morning star
I particularly take to the Gundyr’s Halberd and the Splitleaf Greatsword myself.
Now Ubisoft needs to buff lawbringuer
Eliseu Wenzel But the Halberd isn't the M O S T V E R S A T I L E W E A O P O N
Eliseu Wenzel Deus Vult
AD MORTEM, INIMICUS!
N O S U P E R S T E S
yeah, polearms 4 life brother!!!!!!
2:39 that dude had to have been either seriously confused or intrigued
By the way he started walking faster, I think he needed new pants
Glad to see the halberd getting some much deserved love
I think the skull falling back hampered it too.
Phoenix Tracer I can't imagine someone getting stabbed in the face would remain standing through the blow.
I feel as if they'd put up more resistance than the video shows. What's easier to topple, the model or a human? Obviously they'd fall, just not as suddenly as shown
Yeah, but you have to remember this is going to be a full weight person, in an en garde position (very stable), with tensed up muscles, rather than single pole with no way near that amount of weight.
Also the victim may be moving/lunging forwards.
at 5:00 all I hear is "stop poking me" in a very winy voice
Montaron! You are so aggravating! Tis disturbing to my demeanor!
Boo says "What?" :-)
That's what she said.
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Very interessting, but in my opinion the zgb sammy heads are way to hard 💀😮 (which is not negative) For many different cutting tests it is the best target on the market so far!
I must say, I’m imagining an actual head there, and it scares me.
you should have plug the hole properly, the liquid was flying everywhere, whenever it got hit.
2:40
Also the dude with the bike must be like WTF
What that guy at 2:40 might have thought lol
xD
"Just keep walking, Ned".
Or the dude at 5:43
*Oh lord those weirdos are practicing beheading people*
Yup. Imagine myself walking past those bearded guys with all kinds of medieval weapons and a skull of some kind getting heavily beaten..
*Would definitely come to join them :D*
"I think I'll stop taking this shortcut..."
I think the problem is the flexibility
Lots of modern rapiers are made to work more like foils and epees
I think proper rapiers are more like thinner longer longswords
I'm so glad that you make these videos, because it makes it so that I can watch super cool weapons being used in videos that aren't filled with actual violence against people. Bless you. 💜
But can a thrown pommel go through a head?
Expand Dong they didn't end it rightly XD
The pommel would keep flying after it went through the head and keep flying into space
The original holy hand grenade
I can rightly end an engine block with a pommel
What I find particularly interesting is the strikes do not look all that dynamic and yet I know from working steel on an anvil a blow does not need to be massive and huge to do a whole lot of work. I can fully believe the cuts and thrusts demonstrated here are not dissimilar to what soldiers wielding these weapons would have used. Thanks Skall!
You should've added the human body weight factor/momentum to that wooden stall as well. It moves easily, wasted all the effort for nothing imo.
Keep doing these type of videos! Loving them!
rapiers are like rappers, they be flexin
Also you don’t Fuck around with either
hahaha I would def. fight like, macklemore for money ,, not a rapier tho
except real gangsta rappers from the late 80's to mid 90's didn't just flex, they were all strapped as they say.....
nowadays rappers all be flexin but are no steel if ya know what I mean lol
nice wordplay , just an opinion i dont see blasting some guy when they dont have a weapon that "legit" , on the other hand dueling with sharp swords thats "realer than real deal holyfield" as our friend from the 90's said once
rapiers are like rapists, all about involuntary penetration
Yay for halberds! And polearms in general! I would be interested in seeing how the hewing spear would do, both cut and thrust.
Mine tends to get bent on hard cuts.But it's easily enough to bend back.
what I dont think you are taking into factor is that in that type of a situation, both fighters would be pushing forward with their lunges. I know that your skull is on a post in that test, but, maybe make it to where it comes at a certain speed or a certain force. btw, love the vid!
your videos are oddly intriguing and entertaining, great work dude
I ~adore~ Polearms! Much love!
I read once in a 18th Century(?) Treaty that you have to aim with the Rapier or Smallsword for the spot were the nose and forehead bone meets.
But that was more than 30-odd years ago, can't for the life of it remember by whom this treaty was written, found it in the Public Library.
Other than hardness of skull, notice how in the pictures from the manual, rapier goes usually around the jaw and throat - bypassing most or all of the bone.
Stopped watching this channel for whatever reason a while ago. Almost 1 million subscribers, congrats!
I think, one problem is with the gelatine. It's similar enough for ballistic tests of firearms, but cold steel weapons move much slower and keep much more cotact with the blade.
Gelatine doesn't seem to cut as easily as flash does, and any freshly cut gel surface is super sticky, clinging unto a blade and creating a TON of friction. any moist living tissue is going to offer little friction resistance to a blades weapon.
LutzDerLurch if you make ballistic gel with gummy bears, then yes. But if a lesser amount of gel and without sugar, it can work pretty well.
it still seems to create much more friction on any bladed weapon, than tissue does, though.
LutzDerLurch open mouth.
*?*
The thrusts are not to the head (skull) they are to the throat and mouth all of which are soft tissue that is easily penetrated. Just like thrusts to the chest are off the center line not to the sternum.
The second Vindvept song is the battle music of a mod I use in Skyrim and my eyes immediately darted to the top of the screen to take a look at the compass...
"Only shaved off part of the skull" Yeah, I'm sure he'd be fine after that lol
Yes, finally another polearm review coming! I've been wanntinng to buy a bladed polearm for the longest time, but i've found it rather difficult to find quality reviews.
It will surely go through if the target is moving towards the thrust.
not this skull
Peter ohne Nachname it's not moving towards the thrust.
yeah, I doubt a 200 lb person will fall backwards if they are also attempting to strike you with a rapier.
It would likely go through if it weighted 150 pounds.. Obviously that stand does not.. I don't think falling towards it as big of a factor as weight.
Im thinking maybe he should get a drum tie it to the stand then fill it with water. It would then be close to the weight of a person.
Nice video mate, this halberd looks so damn sweet
I have always been a fan of halberds, was nice to see one in action.
"lunge" dude literally just walks into it holding the sword out in front.
4:12
Capt. Falcon?!?!
Great vid skall. You should mention the t-shirts you have for sale once in a while in your videos because I totally forgot that you sold them and was going to tell you that you should. I don't think a lot of people open up the description and read through it.
The standing pole on which the head is strapped doesn’t offer anywhere near the resistance a standing dynamic body, or even a sitting one would. It dissipates a LOT of the strength in the initial percussion of the thrust. A rapier or even a smallsword can absolutely go through a person’s body, pretty much anywhere except perhaps a femur, and without that much strength besides.
You guys took a little too much pleasure out of this
4:10
"That really was a Hattori Hanzo sword."
-O Ren Ishii (Kill Bill, 2003)
I wonder if he could apply so much force as to accidentally snap the blade while trying to withdraw it.
KaiserAfini Yes, it is definitely possible to get a sword bound up in a target, and break when you take it out.
Edit: It doesn't even require the sword to he buried that deep in the target. All it takes is it entering at a weird angle, and you trying to brute force it out at a different angle.
These people in the background were like "WTF are you doing!"
Great video. The first thing that came to mind while watching the Halberd demo was the forensic account of the head blows that killed Richard III at Bosworth field. The halberd also reminded me of why the Swiss were so effective with them. A bit of a Greek Phalanx type formation with halberds would be devestating without a ranged attack to keep separation.
i blame the sub optimal mount, realize that a real human isnt bolted to the ground but that whole dead weight sorta bag of water thing we have going probably would stand up a bit better than the wooden post for the trust tests.
Michael Brennan And the guy was attacking wrong. You're supposed to use legs for power and he was using his arm.
Michael Brennan Maybe laying a heavy object on the foot of the stand can improve the dynamic realism. Needs to be calculated properly of cause.
Dude on bike: huh, I wonder what they're doi- WHATTHEFUCK
"Ryan is a strong guy and you can see there's a lots of force behind his thrust"
Lots of effort, at least. I'm not sure about his mechanics.
I love the testing vids they are the best, the Halberd is freaking scary!
The “ping” the halberd makes kills me for some reason
Random stuff with Michael yeah
Random stuff with Michael critical hit
3:48
AD MORTEM, INIMICUS!
NO SUPERSTES
I approve
guy on bike in background "I NEED TO PEDAL FASTER!!!"
I would love to see more videos about halberds! They don't get enough attention!
2:39my dudes like “well I gotta find a new route to work”
Additionally I would point out that even though real targets "give in" when receiving a hit, a head penetrating thrust would most likely be a counter (like in boxing/mma) therefore not only should the target be fixed but also we would have the added bonus of his momentum. (edit- I know that the neck would give in but the opponents momentum would be quintessential nonetheless.)
That looks like it would be such a fun way to relieve pent-up frustration.
I love how they're casually doing this in public
This was 6 minutes of my time well spent
2:40 dude was concerned lol. 4:26 as well.
I see why you want land.
My offer in Ontario still stands but I assume that’s too far from BC. Unless skall says it isn’t?
I love your shows you show more stuff & not always talking about it & you have. Fun w/ it
If you look at the plates you can see that a good number of them show the stabee is leaning forward as well, probably moving forward and adding his momentum to the thrust.
Having a little experience with historical fencing I can say that even modern blades hurt like hell when you "run up" on them.
That being said, I have no problem believing that a rapier, properly sharpened, could peirce the human skull.
Love the videos Skall! Keep up the great work.
cool, that you will make a rewiev of a polearme, some more would be cool maybe some Spears
Wait a second, aren't they stabbing through mouth in manuals? No wonder they can go all the way through - with good (or poor) accuracy you're not hitting any bones, only flesh. Yeah, stabbed one will die after that, but probably because of terrible bleeding, not instant death. I mean, yeah, good enough, but it's not the same as to stab through skull.
Speaking as a subscriber, I do appreciate it.
I would argue that a thrust with a blade short range has more damage than a long one. The thrust continues through the body with the force of the arm. The rapier is not a skull crushing weapon. It also needs more resistance to penetrate. A standing human will give more resistance and in effect more penetration will happen.
It seems to me looking the manual pictures that those are mostly thrusts through the neck/open mouth, that could better explain the difference
all of those images show the blade entering a soft area through the eye, under the jaw and through the ear and mouth, looking closely at the exit wounds the blades aren't actually depicted going through the back of the skull, they're going through the cheek, between the cheek bone and base of the skull and through the mouth or neck to the base of the skull again and all of these wounds would be debilitating either severing the juggular or the spinal column.
I'm guessing the images depict that this is what's capable with precision more than potential penetration.
tekkakukuchikukan Bingo! An especially soft path is through an open mouth and the neck muscles, avoiding both the jawbone and spine. Might not be instantly lethal though.
Some of them absolutely have to be going through the skull. The blades are exiting too high up to be coming out the cheek or base of the skull.
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thetavernknight.files.wordpress.com/2016/08/capo_ferro_plate_7.jpg?w=672&h=334&crop=1
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Girard Thibault's rapier manual is replete with depictions of swords going through eyes and sometimes out the backs of heads---I don't have my translation with me here, but he has the student, for example, drive his point through the opponent's eye and out the back of the head up to the hilt, in some parts. Just from quickly googling (if only I had my translation! I'll only get to see it next week, unfortunately, so I can't provide more detail now), we can see an example of a blade entering the eye (Thibault's illustrations and description very explicitly show this idea of attacking the eye) and exiting the back of the skull. Besides some biomechanical concerns mentioned by one of the commenters, it should also be noted that in many cases, these thrusts are working against an opponent's forward motion, as well. Combine a well-aligned blade, proper body structure, and opponents moving toward each other, and it's quite likely that this is possible, as seen in the lower section of this illustration from Academy of the Sword:
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More explicit targeting of the eye in Thibault:
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Never got my bell rung harder than a halberd strike on the helm. Polearms are indeed terrifyingly effective
Halberd is truly and mind-blowing weapon.
literally
Skall which weapon has the best chance to execute a horizontal decapitation with one hit. Do you think it is possible to be demonstrated by one of you? It would be cool
Andi CRIMSON like beheading a standing person. Guillotine is mostly effective because of gravity. And so... I don't think it counts as a weapon. :D
executioners sword. Thats precisely what it's designed for. It's sole purpose
LutzDerLurch I'd love to see that in work on this channel.
Péter Egomi tulwar probably.
narp XD
2:41 I would love to know what he was thinking
When you guys are decimating it after with the halberd i can just feel the "im gonna get my moneys worth" with every hit
So that scene of Stanis Baratheon cutting straight through a guy's head at the battle of the blackwater in GoT is actually realistic
Well you can do it with the butter knife cause BK is really short and does not flex like Rapier. I even remember from some other of your videos that the flexing was a problem when you tried to go as deep as possible in the target until you used half-sword technique but I do not see half-sword used in the manual picture. Maybe then used "not flexing" rapiers in the manual? Like the triangle profile or diamond one?
I’m sure a pommel will go through it easily.
I love these videos!
Skall! Please do more videos on halberds and polearms, their my favorite kind of weapon and there's not enough content about them