Back when I used to hang out on deviantart, I encountered a few people who were very interested in swords, but had developed a complete misunderstanding of how they work.
It’s not hard to see how this could happen: a diet of manga and samurai flicks, or Star Wars lightsabers, with no real experience with knives – you can see how one samurai can cut right through another’s blade (“ka-tingg!”) or some such, and it might become real to a person. Similarly, I once had a gamer insist to me that sniper rifles make a visible vapor trail and the shooter can see the bullet. Sazz and I [sazz] found ourselves arguing this point at length, with Sazz even saying “when I was a sniper in Vietnam, I never noticed any vapor trails and the air there’s a lot more humid, but hey…” I didn’t realize that Call of Duty (I think it was, or one of the other big first-person shooters) has visible bullet trails. I suppose if all someone knew about swords was that Hanzo Hattori swords are magic +50 vorpal blades, then they might believe you’d be able to chop the main gun off a tank if you roll double zero, or some such nonsense.
Then there was another time I got in a semi-protracted argument/discussion about the cutting ability of katana. So, I posted a picture:
self-portrait (200?9)
I’m still pretty happy with how that came out; I deliberately worked the motion-blur into the cut by actually doing a full speed cut just short of the very fine black thread-thin steel wires that were holding the hard drive pieces in position.
Let me tell you: sawing a hard drive in half with a table-saw is a loud, nasty, messy process. I made a custom temporary sled for the saw-top and bolted the drive down so nothing would fly around and hit anyone (like the saw operator!) which turned out to be a good idea – my cut went right through the drive’s spindle, which is a hardened piece of stainless steel. It was loud. But I got the job done.
Then I posted the second picture:
self portrait (200?9)
I tried to drop my shoulder into the cut, like I was really grunting a lot of power into it. I’m pretty pleased with how that one came out, too, although my expression is too relaxed inwardly-focused. But mostly, I was laughing like a maniac the whole time I was sawing a Compaq Presario in half with my table-saw. (It was a very old, non-functional system a friend had given me so I could wipe the hard drive; it was also the source of the drive in the first photo)
Hilarious. As well as excellent photography. And that hard drive never did work again, did it?
I love the sword.
That must have been fun and the photos are fabulous.
kestrel@#1:
Hilarious. As well as excellent photography. And that hard drive never did work again, did it?
Nope, it turns out a table-saw is a good way of reformatting a disc.
I love the sword.
It’s a showa shin gunto military issue sword from probably around 1920. They hadn’t quite started mass-producing bad ones, at that time, and it’s actually pretty OK for what it is. The grind-lines are nice and it’s good steel, though it’s not layered. I scrimped and saved and bought it when I was in high school. I had Ted Tenold remount it in purple and silver* (my ex-wife’s favorite colors) with that shiromusashi guard as a wedding gift around 2000. When she left, she pointedly left it behind, and I pointedly decided not to send it along.
The military issue swords were made of pretty good steel that was split down the bottom of the bar, and a piece of higher carbon steel was inserted and welded into the jacket. That gives a blade with some of the desirable properties of a layered forge-welded blade, but of course it’s nowhere near as much effort to make. I carried that sword a lot in high school (it’s funny how little trouble you have with bullies if you carry a katana) until it came to feel like a piece of me; it’s an old friend that has never let me down and I will always take care of. There are better swords and there are prettier swords but that one is mine.
[* I loved Tenold’s attitude. He never blinked or asked “why would you want to spend a lot of money re-mounting a mediocre military issue blade?” He immediately understood. He did mention that purple was an off-limits color during the feudal era, but given my reasons for it, he wouldn’t tell the shogunate if I didn’t. Traditionalists can just go be shocked in the corner.]
Very cool. At last ‘proof’ of the superiority of those blades.
No doubt in my mind that is how those photos will be seen by an unsuspecting few.
Carbide tipped saw blades are very cool. I’m old enough to remember when most circular saws, even those used by professional carpenters, swung High-Speed steel blades and hitting a nail almost always meant you needed a new blade. A decade after that carbide tipped blades came down in price so professionals started using them but they were still so valuable that we sent stacks of them out to be sharpened at a couple of bucks each. Of course, now they are so cheap that most blades are, effectively, disposable.
Things change.
In the 80s I watched in amazement when a carpenter pulled out his circular saw and cut aluminum bar stock. I guess I knew it could be done in theory, carbide will cut aluminum, but it simply never occurred to me to use a hand-held circular saw to cut 3″ x 3/8″ aluminum bars. No lubricants, guides or special blade. He just lined up the cut by eye and took it slow while keeping both hands on the saw. He had a feeling for what his saw could do. It would not occurred to me to use that tool, that way. Learn something new every day. I’m still learning.
The last few years I’ve started to keep a little 4″ grinder with a diamond blade handy. We have used it to make short cuts in cut damn-near everything. Stainless cable, wood studded with hardened masonry nails, concrete, tile, cast iron, galvanized steel, and PVC pipe. Sometimes mixes of two or three materials like a cast iron hub filled with poured lead or steel conduit encased in concrete. Lots or them toxic. PPE is mandatory.
Do you chop wood, too? I have a few stacks that need doing, and it comes so easily for you…!
Both photos are nicely done, I like the emotion in the first. The second, as you say, is way too pensive, but there’s a certain meditative “aaaah, finally” quality to it, which just makes the whole photo hilarious (to me).
rq, have you ever tried chopping wood with these demon blades? You’d have to be very careful to not demolish the chopping block, and even then your sword will be almost always getting stuck several cm into the block and you have to wrestle it off like you’re goddamn King Arthur.
Those photos are awesome.
It would make sense if this gamer was a child, but adults ought to understand that video games (or movies, or manga, or whatever) do not always represent weapons realistically. In fact, unrealistic portrayals seem to be more common than accurate ones.
My attitude is that authentic historical materials, colors, techniques are necessary for museum pieces and situations where people want everything to be historically accurate. Other than that, I see no problem with mixing historical techniques with modern colors or materials. Why not, as long as the resulting artwork looks cool.
lumipuna
Which is why I want Marcus to handle it. His photos have convinced me that he has just the right flair for the job.
lumipuna@#6:
You’d have to be very careful to not demolish the chopping block, and even then your sword will be almost always getting stuck several cm into the block and you have to wrestle it off like you’re goddamn King Arthur.
It is convenient when I need to move an anvil, though. Just chop it into a couple of neat pieces with my sword, move them, and tack it back together with JB Weld at the destination. I mentioned this technique to a master bladesmith and they slapped their forehead and went “OMG I NEVER THOUGHT OF THAT!”
Ieva Skrebele@#7:
It would make sense if this gamer was a child, but adults ought to understand that video games (or movies, or manga, or whatever) do not always represent weapons realistically. In fact, unrealistic portrayals seem to be more common than accurate ones.
Watching gameplay of Red Dead Redemption, I keep laughing at how fast they can reload those 6-guns. And how accurate they are.
I need a calibration for my sword-cutting knowledge.
Something I read a while back — and it might have been in a novel; the author repeating several layers of apocrypha in a work of fiction — was that during WWII, US soldiers were told to block sword attacks with their rifles. But the Japanese swords were supposedly so good that some?/all? such blocks were ineffective because the swords would go through the barrel?/barrel&stock?
I don’t know enough about swordsmithing or rifle manufacture to figure out if that’s truth or bogus.
Owlmirror@#11:
US soldiers were told to block sword attacks with their rifles. But the Japanese swords were supposedly so good that some?/all? such blocks were ineffective because the swords would go through the barrel?/barrel&stock?
That is almost certainly not true. Rifle mechanisms are made of really hard steel. The stocks are dry hardwood and that’s nothing you’d want to hit with a hard sword-edge, either.
I wondered the same thing and never was able to get a good answer; my theory was always that it’s a bad idea because trying to block with a rifle just means you’re likely to get a mangled hand. Remember: most of the Japanese army were not samurai, and even the few that were may not have had extensive training with swords. Their skills were probably at par with the US infantry’s bayonet skills – you’re looking at a nasty flailing fight with deadly weapons and not a lot of expertise. I suspect the “cut through the rifle” story came from someone who managed to deflect a cut with their rifle, and it wound up in their arm or hand (or face).
A trained swordsman would never hit something as damaging as a rifle; they’d fake a cut, draw a response, and cut the rifleman’s hands off at the wrist. (Wrist cuts are entirely plausible and were even common. In fact, there was an incident in 2009 [ref] where a fellow with a samurai sword was attacked by a burglar he caught in his garage. The burglar lost a hand at the wrist and ran off and bled out and died. I recall the Baltimore police saying that he was pretty easy to track and they’d never seen anything like it before. The guy with the sword was not charged with any crime. Just digging up the reference I am reminded that the swordsman was a medical student, clearly a Hippocrite.)
My favorite (OLD!) pop culture item sorta related to this was on the old C.H.I.P.S. soap opera in which PONCH (Eric Estrada, who has become a religious nut in his old age) SAW THE LASER BEAM COMING…..
and DUCKED! HAHAHHHAHAHAHHAHAHAA
@bmiller:
It appears to be Season 5, Ep 15 “Bright Flashes”. It’s available on dailymotion here.
I haven’t found the exact scene yet, but there’s nothing else in the CHiPs canon that appears like it could have that scene in it. I assume it’s near the end?
@Marcus:
I love the photography. Great stuff. I wouldn’t have thought you could get shots like that at home. It must have taken a ton of work.
Crip Dyke@#15:
I wouldn’t have thought you could get shots like that at home. It must have taken a ton of work.
I have a room dedicated to photography in my fortress of solitude, and a few years ago I built a big cyclorama sweep in there, which I roller-paint as a background. Having a good clean background always helps a lot. Then, since I have dedicated space and don’t need to tear things down, I got a 7-foot octodome softbox which I use as a primary light source, combined with a gridded spotlight on the background to knock the subject off it. It’s a very reliable and easy set-up and it does look very good. I was fortunate enough to have access to a fully kitted commercial studio for several years, so I just implemented my own version in my fortress of solitude; I’ve gotten great mileage out of it in the ~12 years I’ve had it set up, but because of the way I light, and the background, my photos all have a very consistent look. Some people like that, some don’t. (I do)
Fun pictures :-)
It seems obvious to me that a sniper would want to make sure that there wasn’t a vapour trail, minimising anything that woud point to where you were is just basic common sense if you are trying to hit people without them knowing where you are, and your ammo would be designed to take that into account. And I know nothing of sniping.
Marcus @#16
I also like this look very much.
@Marcus, #12, after thinking about it, it seems a lot more likely that one or more US soldier(s) looted the body/ies of one or more Japanese samurai officers, and later fabricated a wild tale of a fight with the original owner, with the rifle being cut before he did something to deliver the winning blow.
It also occurs to me that one or more such soldiers might take a hacksaw to rifle to lend verisimilitude to such a story.
Hahahaha!
Oh my, I saw the second picture a few years back posted by someone in a german forum of sword enthusiasts. They argued quite a bit about wether they are real cuts.
Like: “I see no debris” “Well, they ARE that sharp!”
I really enjoy these photos, dynamic and really over the top! :D