Samurai swords are often shown in films slashing through solid stone statues, thivk beams of wood, etc?

Question

What is the densist material a weapon like this could realistically cut through in the right hands? LInks appreciated.

Answer 1

A samurai sword is an extraordinary feet of metalurgy. Basically they are made to cut like a razor and still be flexible enough to resist impact damage(bending or breaking). The technique of making such a blade is very complex and basically involves different sheets of steel being folded and welded onto one another(a sword generally contains between 120-200 folds) then they are differentially hardened through the use of a clay treatment this means that the edge is very hard but also brittle and the back is very soft but resistant: hard steel has the advantage of being able to be sharpened razor sharp but it is brittle soft steel hardly holds an edge but is very flexible. This way the Japanese developed a weapon that has the best of both ways. However one must take in to consideration that no matter how sharp the fact that the blade is farely slim in design does not make it as suitable for hard chopping as for example a european broad sword. I have been able to cut of some not too thick branches 1-2 inches of an oak tree near my house without any damage to my katana. And cutting practice with these swords is usually done with bamboo(though light a very hard material) and in the olden days a samurai had to be able to cut off someones head in one blow with their sword. I believe thats about as heavy duty as you will get out of a katana it is more of a cutting weapon.

Answer 2

often the katana were tested by samurai on live prisoners whom chose execution rather than life imprisonment, from previous research on the katana i do believe their is still one in existance which has an inscription on the tang in kanji that reads "cut through 3 bodies", the secret of the katana is what is known as a "dead cut blade" which means the each side of the blade is shapened in the opposite direction, i have one of these katana and i can hit my own hand with moderate force and leave no mark yet slice a defrosted chicken clean in half with no resistance, thus showing the katana is a slashing weapon and not a hacking weapon like european swords from the same era. at one time i used to slice through 3x2 with it to get chunks of fire wood but take holywood with a pinch of salt. here a few names of famous swordsmiths for your research... amakuni, shinsoku, yatatsuna, sanemori, yukihira, munechika, tononari, yosiiye, the most famous of all muramasa and masamune, myth and legend say the masamune was the greater of the two as the muramasa brought bad luck on the owner. also if the katana is your interest you might want to do a search on "miyamoto musashi" often refered to as the greatest sword master of ancient japan. have fun, the info available is almost endless. also if this helps with your question, if the katana had such a cutting power then why would the ninja stab a fully armoured samurai in the arm pit?

Answer 3

The Katana in the right hands can cut through bamboo, small trees, peoples necks!
It takes a percise downward diagional stroke using the weight and movements from your whole body. The power in the strike starts in the stance, moves up the calf, trhough the leg, Hips twist and shoot the power up through the back, down and out the arm and through the sword. The timing is very important and takes a while to get.
It's sort of like throwing a good Karate punch with the sword being the extension of your arm.

BTW - No sword is going to cut through a stone statue.

Answer 4

No, wood beams and solid stone statues are the stuff of Hollywood.

The katana is very powerful however, and I have seen video of a blade cutting into an old motorcycle gas tank and not leaving a mark on the blade, compared to a western-made blade that only dented the tank and nearly broke in half.

I have also seen video (both of these a part of a Japanese documentary on a modern swordmaker) of one blade test cut into a Japanese civil-war era helmet (also forged and folded like the blades themselves) that left a 1" gash in the helmet and all you could see on the blade was a line where the laquer from the helmet transferred to the sword. If I remember correctly, this was only the second sword to take and succeed in this challenge to penetrate this type of helmet.

I personally have practiced tameshigiri as part of my iaido training, cutting bamboo and tatame mats. when I was cutting the bamboo/tatame equivalent of a human arm or neck, there was no resistance as the sword cut thru, and my sword is not as sharp as it could be (not sharpened since WW2). One of the test cuts used on cadavers long long ago was to cut completely thru the pelvic bone from side to side.

These swords can penetrate tremendous amounts of bone and tissue, slicing like a razor, but stone is too dense and wood posts would close around the blade not allowing it to pass thru, but smaller pieces of free-standing wood could be cut. I don't know why anyone would waste such a wonderful weapon on that when that's what axes are made for.

Here is a link to some tameshigiri info. http://www.tsuki-kage.com/shizan.html

Answer 5

That is Hollywood. The Katana was made for the style of fighting of the Samurai. The only thing it needs to be sharp enough for is to cut through human bone. Furthermore, the attacks are focused at the joints and soft tissue areas (wrists, ankles, knees, neck, shoulders, elbows, stomach, etc.) A katana in the right hands would not be swung into stone statues because they would know better. In fact, the flashy sword fights you see in the movies are not necessarily true either. A samurai always looks for the one move one kill attack because the clashing of swords wears the edge and eventually destroys the swords quality. This sword was made for quick deadly and precise kills, whereas European swords might hack you in half but have slower reaction speeds.

Answer 6

A Samurai Katana cutting through solid stone is absolutely ridiculous, but these swords could cut through wood (if not too dense) and several bamboo shoots. I have heard that in ancient times they would kill two birds with one stone. They would test a Samurai sword's strength by having a master Samurai line up criminals of the village who were to be executed, and then he would see how many of them he could behead in one strike of the Samurai Katana. I have heard sometimes they got up to 6 or 7 in one single blow! The replica swords they craft nowadays were nothing compared to the swords of the great master Katana craftsmen. They would sit at a bench for years just to perfect a single sword. the steel was folded and presses hundreds of times to ensure twice the sharpness of a razor blade.

Answer 7

Katanas are way overhyped. The reason that all of 'em are so dang well made is that Japan lacks large amounts of iron ore. So every blade was precious. Europe, on the other hand, could churn out iron weapons like no tommorrow.

Some Spanish Rapiers were the equal of any katana in terms of quality. They could pierce thick armor and were flexible enough to be bent double.

Answer 8

it is said that a blacksmith would fold the metal for a sword 200x and to test the quality samurai would attempt to cut the head off of a corpse with one swipe.. if the sword wouldn't severe the head with one clean swipe, it would be melted down and start again......

in martial arts history and myth are often combined to create an ideal, to intimidate and to inspire...........

check out this site for more information on the katana (samurai sword): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katana

good luck!

Answer 9

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Answer 10

slicing into solid stone statues with katanas are a waste of money, this makes your poor expensive katana into broken bits.

beams of wood? depends on the wood. cause some wood are weaker than others.