Melee weapons

kheegster · Post by **kheegster** » 2003-01-08 09:10pm

Sea Skimmer wrote:
kheegan wrote:I read somewhere that the most deadly melee weapon is a katana in trained hands? Certainly their craftmanship is (present tense...many of the things are still around, despite being centuries old) incredible, and easily cut a man in half.

As an aside, I once saw a WWII US Army pamphlet instructing what to do when faced with an sword-weilding enemy trained in classical Western swordsmanship. I doubt they faced many in Europe, but I wonder how many casualties were caused by katanas in the Pacific, since Jap officers definitely carried katanas around with them...
Very few. Japanese officer also had a habit of leading attacks and charges with them. The lead guy charging troops armed with automatic and semi automatic weapons doesn't last long. I'd bet twice or more times swords got shipped home with returning troops then inflicted wounds.

I read somewhere that katanas taken as trophies by victorious Allied troops later turned out to be VERY valuable indeed...

Raxmei · Post by **Raxmei** » 2003-01-08 09:16pm

jodathalas wrote:Chains with blades on the end. I forget what they are called. They are cool though.

That sounds like a chain whip to me.

Keevan_Colton · Post by **Keevan_Colton** » 2003-01-08 09:18pm

Sounds like something along the line of a kasuri-kama (i cant recall the exact spelling) very nice weapons.

jodathalas · Post by **jodathalas** » 2003-01-08 09:21pm

I remember seeing something about martial arts on discovery channel and they were showing chain whips being used. This person went onto a dojo mat and it appeared she had no weapons. She kicked and punched and all of a sudden from out of her sleeves fly two chains with blades. She keeps spinning them and twirling them and they never touched the ground. It was cool.

Keevan_Colton · Post by **Keevan_Colton** » 2003-01-09 12:38am

jodathalas wrote:I remember seeing something about martial arts on discovery channel and they were showing chain whips being used. This person went onto a dojo mat and it appeared she had no weapons. She kicked and punched and all of a sudden from out of her sleeves fly two chains with blades. She keeps spinning them and twirling them and they never touched the ground. It was cool.

I'll need to see about getting my webcam working a bit better....I'll try and get a vid of me doing that sort of thing with weighted chains.