Modern tech swords

[Tomsdad]

Originally Posted by Dangerious P. Cats

Now I really want to see the "experts" actually fight. A punch up between T E Lawrence and Theodore Roosevelt would be amazing to watch.

I only got into the first season and saw bits of the second myself. Still it was a wonderfully silly show.

"Historical death match" It's what GURPS was made for!

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by blacksmith

This is not entirely true, bullet resistant vests are great against bullets but suck against knives due to the properties of kevlar.

I specified 'stop rifle bullets'. Knives can often penetrate class IIIa armor, but not class III.

[DanHoward]

Originally Posted by blacksmith

People who never make anything to sell but spend their full time in research? Or artisans working at making swords and improving their craft?

I know materials scientists and metallurgists who are paid to perform research in fields that could directly lead to superior swords. I know others who are full time sword smiths who are constantly trying out new materials and techniques in order to improve their swords. I know a couple who are both -- their full time job is in materials science R&D but they spend their spare time making and selling swords. And due to the wonders of the internet, all these people are in close communication with each other.

[Flyndaran]

That's creepy/awesome on so many levels.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Dangerious P. Cats

Depends of the waster. The rawlings ones are quite good and make a decent sword substitute but most other I've found are not so good. Those made Cold Steel for example are too hard hitting and otherwise unswordlike to be useful. Also they have rather pointy tips all too often. Any synthetic that requires as much armour as blunt steel is a bit useless to my mind.

That's an issue with brand preference, not with carbon fiber practice swords in general.

That said I may change my mind about wooden weapons after a friend gets some accurate single stick reproductions. I've heard much of the problem historical fencers have with wooden simulators come from us not using the same types of wood or design that was used historically.

Carbon fiber practice swords aren't just closer in performance to live steel than wooden wasters, they are also considerably more durable. Even if you have a wooden construction that is close in performance it will still be fragile.

[Þorkell]

Originally Posted by Anders

Wikipedia seems to give him right, though. When did you have a king who wasn't also king of Norway or Denmark?

The phrase with the failed History roll was "Or Danish when Norway was part of Denmark" From 1814 until 1944 Iceland had a Danish king, and during that period Norway wasn't part of Denmark. During that time Norway was either under the yoke of the evil Swedish imperialists, or independent.

[combatmedic]

Originally Posted by Þorkell

The phrase with the failed History roll was "Or Danish when Norway was part of Denmark" From 1814 until 1944 Iceland had a Danish king, and during that period Norway wasn't part of Denmark. During that time Norway was either under the yoke of the evil Swedish imperialists, or independent.

Norway was never 'part of' Denmark, was it?

If Jason was referring to the arrangement that lasted into the early 19th Century, in school I was taught that it had been a personal union. The king of one country was also king of the other, but both countries remained sovereign nations. They just had the same kings.


This is not like what happened in Great Britain, with Scotland and England being made into one state through the 1707 Act of Union.

[combatmedic]

EDIT-Looked it up. Yep, it was a personal union from 1524 to 1814.

[Dangerious P. Cats]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

That's an issue with brand preference, not with carbon fiber practice swords in general.

It's an issue with a lot of the synthetics out there mind you. Outside the rawlings synthetics and the mods sold through purpleheart armoury all the synthetics I've tried have been pretty useless.

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Carbon fiber practice swords aren't just closer in performance to live steel than wooden wasters, they are also considerably more durable. Even if you have a wooden construction that is close in performance it will still be fragile.

Synthetics are much more slippery than sharps when it comes to blade contact. Also they tend to adsorb the energy that you use to beat an opponent's blow aside. Many people who employ a lot of beats don't like them for that reason.