Sharp Knife

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Þorkell

What is a large fish in this context? Cod, haddock, salmon, or larger? Only asking because there are numerous people in this country that can fillet a fish very quickly. My mother can do it still and she's in her 70s, my aunt can and she's a bit younger. It's a skill, the tool helps. But I've seen them do it pretty quickly with not very good knives.

I saw my grandfather butcher a dear with a stone he knapped on the spot. Cleaned it up in about 20 minutes with bones so clean they looked boiled.

[Polydamas]

The damage bonus for Fine and Very Fine weapons is already not the most realistic. You can get any iron-alloy or copper-alloy arbitrarily sharp, harder metal just holds the edge longer (and can stand to be made thinner in the cutting parts). Harder metal might do a bit better against difficult targets such as soft iron armour. So I'd be comfortable with letting the weapon do damage as if one level sharper.

Originally Posted by Varyon

Note the latter basically works out to Signature Gear (Dwarven Whetstone). In fact, the Dwarven Whetstone is $500 (DF1:25), which is how much you get with each point put in Signature Gear for DF.

How does the Dwarven Whetstone work mechanically for those of us who don't have Dungeon Fantasy? It sounds like I and the author of that book were thinking along the same lines.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice

I know. That's why I said it. :-)

Heh, fair enough.

Originally Posted by Polydamas

How does the Dwarven Whetstone work mechanically for those of us who don't have Dungeon Fantasy? It sounds like I and the author of that book were thinking along the same lines.

Pretty much exactly as Mr. Rice described - you get a +1 to damage on your first hit in a battle. I believe there's a certain amount of time you have to spend sharpening your weapon to recover this bonus, but am away from my books at the moment - something like 10 minutes should work fine, I'd think (whether you recover FP while doing so is up to the GM; I might say you can rest and sharpen at the same time if you take 20 minutes to do the work, recovering 2 FP in the process).

[Willy]

Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice

I saw my grandfather butcher a dear with a stone he knapped on the spot. Cleaned it up in about 20 minutes with bones so clean they looked boiled.

If you know how to do it, it´s in fact pretty easy, if you have the right stones around. The edges of them are sharper than a razor, and can cut through a thick leather boot easily. I don´t know if the use it still know adays, but at my time at university medics used some special scalpels with flintsone edges for special purposes were they needed the best edge they could get.

[DouglasCole]

This started life as a for-Pyramid article. Some of it (the parts not in this post) still are. This stuff below . . . I could never make work well enough that I thought it would work for general consumption. So here it is. It’s “unfinished,” so details have not been fully worked out.

So again: this is posted because I didn't like it. Too fiddly, etc. Ironically, The Broken Blade was the second part of this, and it DID make it into Pyramid, as it was the more satisfying part of the system.

https://gamingballistic.com/2014/02/...at-didnt-make/

(Just edited it to conform with my blog styles and make it easier to read. That doesn't change the article to make it refined or playable, just readable)

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Willy

If you know how to do it, it´s in fact pretty easy, if you have the right stones around. The edges of them are sharper than a razor, and can cut through a thick leather boot easily. I don´t know if the use it still know adays, but at my time at university medics used some special scalpels with flintsone edges for special purposes were they needed the best edge they could get.

In the college course I took where we got to play with a transmission electron microscope (where you want very thin sections), we actually had a device for making glass blades to do the cuts (although very fine work was done with purchased diamond blades). They were, indeed, quite sharp - but didn't last long before you had to replace them.

[Willy]

Originally Posted by Varyon

In the college course I took where we got to play with a transmission electron microscope (where you want very thin sections), we actually had a device for making glass blades to do the cuts (although very fine work was done with purchased diamond blades). They were, indeed, quite sharp - but didn't last long before you had to replace them.

That´s right the really don´t last long and break easily, by the way it wasn´t flint it was obsidian for the edges - a volcanic glass.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Willy

If you know how to do it, it´s in fact pretty easy, if you have the right stones around. The edges of them are sharper than a razor, and can cut through a thick leather boot easily. I don´t know if the use it still know adays, but at my time at university medics used some special scalpels with flintsone edges for special purposes were they needed the best edge they could get.

Yes. I'm quite aware. :-)

[Tomsdad]

Originally Posted by Jeminai

When I see video where large fish are being sliced up by fillet knives, these knives go through scales and flesh with very little effort. Would this be some special level of sharpness for purposes of damage or is that just how sharp your knives are supposed to be for the purposes of combat?

In a realistic game, what kind of damage should a fillet knife do? I'm also figuring that the knife is quite weak for a stab but if like to get some input on this any way.

Thanks in advance!

As others have said filleting a fish aren't combat blows, generally speaking such knife use involves applying constant pressure in a controlled way over a comparatively long time (compared to combat).

As a combat weapon call it a small knife with a fine blade if it's a good one, but I'd increase the chance of breaking since these blades are not suited for combat stresses.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Polydamas

For example, many professional cooks sharpen their knives every time they use them (and give them a major sharpening once a week or so). In a commercial kitchen, knives are expendable. If you are used to a cheap knife which has not been sharpened since you bought it, you are going to be impressed by someone who actually sharpens their tools! In GURPS terms, someone with enough points in the relevant skill is likely to sharpen their tools better (although there are exceptions such as British cavalry in the middle of the 19th century who were not taught to sharpen their weapons themselves just let the regimental armourer do it).

Which may not be irrelevant to the fact that they were afraid of tulwars.