Why the Katana is a GREAT sword!

not sure if it's been mentioned.....but i always assumed the curved design made it better for fighting from horseback....

I think the reason the katana got its reputation from the warriors that used it because samurai where very trained and disciplined to be able to stay calm and be precise during battle but people probably seen the performance of this and thought the katana was the reason (I’m no expert just an educated guess from what I know)

My favourite myth about the Katana is that it could cut through European swords.

Watch any cutting competition outside of Japan. A lot of competition cutters and a few broken katana occasionally

I absolutely love the katana. There is just something about it. I will freely admit that there are many other better "all rounders" out there. I think CerberusArms said it best for people here in America and that is that Americans don't have a historical and cultural sword. We dont have a sword for our myths and stories (except for the lightsaber of course). Europe has the Longsword, Japan has the katana, there's the scimitar and many others. So we gravitated towards the katana as many movies, anime and manga featuring it exploded in the 70's/80's onward and the general public knew so little about it that it was pretty mystical and magical. Hearing that really made me think and I believe there may be a little truth to it.

Shad, I'd like to know your thoughts on the tachi. It's almost the same as a katana, but with a more pronounced curve. It's an older design that, as far as I know, was used more on the battlefield than the katana. Does the cutting ratio on the tachi make it a better cutter than the katana?

“Is war too uncomfortable? Increase your comfortability with the O-Katana!”

maaan it pisses me off how ppl who have loads of money get stuff just gifted to them!!! 🤬 (I have always wanted a sword but cannot afford one.....and here u r just getting ppl sending them to you)
yes yes, i know, it's a character flaw and i'm half-joking.... comment is just for ur algorithm anyway.... Now send me a sword plz! 👋

my thoughts being this, they wouldn't have made any weapons during the time period that were terribly inefficient. It took too many man hours to make weapons. Therefore in my eyes are any of the swords considered bad? They all do their job and are impressive feats of engineering. When was the last time you wacked some steel against steel and it didn't warp/bend/dent/scratch/ or break. I wonder if they knew about spring steel and chose to avoid using it for various reasons, for instance sword smiths and black smiths may have been used to working with the folded steel method, they would have to relearn/perfect a design of a sword that already existed to what gain? If you were trying to outfit an army your goal would be high production, with low production times. I wonder if they chose to stick with what they knew because they could equip their people faster. I am scratching my head on why they didn't think about a cross guard. Great video!!

The katana is the ultimate noob sword. The short blade with a long handle makes it easy to maneuver, and the rigidity together with the curve (it helps with edge alignment because the top of the blade naturally wants to be correctly aligned when moved) makes it easy to cut with. Also, the lack of a big crossguard makes it easier to draw quickly for a fast cut (won't get stuck behind clothing) as is done traditionally with the katana. All this makes it a great backup blade or self-defense sword.

should talk about the point too. they are shaped like that for particular reasons

Katana means single edged sword I japanese

Finding random nuggets or sifting through the sand, gold is king, wether from a mine or a pan.

Tis a fine side arm.

Iron (Fe) does not occur in nature. All iron is found with some level of carbon or oxygen or other impurities. Pure iron can only be found in a vacuum container, in a lab..

Also, it is not pronounced , "Katana", it is pronounced ", "Ka-ta-na". Learn you languages!

Now I love the katana, but I know it is not as good as people say, like I prefer the blue sword with the hand guard that you made in your story

One sword that gets a lot of derision is the Smallsword. Which is the opposite effect of overrated. I have a few 200 year old Smallsword antiques and that point is still sharp to this day.
Many don't see it as a "Real" sword for some reason. Maybe from it's diminutive size or from it's thrust centric triangular blade.
Sure, steel beats brass. I hear that. But a Smallsword is still a good sword overall. Especially if you want convenience,carry, lightweight and such things. Many people died from them historically.
So yes, they are real swords.
And at that time a thrust causing internal bleeding was very lethal. They couldn't do anything for that. They could fix lacerations or cuts.

Shad, maybe you could do a video on the Smallsword. You did one for the Rapier already debunking a few myths. I think the triangular Smallsword has a few merits ( and limitations) too.

Whoever came up with the hypothesis that the curve or balance of the blade would initiate some sort of "target assist" has clearly very little practical experience using tools. For that to work, you'd need to have such a loose grip that you're much more likely to accidentally throw it. And if you did manage to somehow retain it in your possession, you'd likely sprain your wrist(s) once the sword made contact, as well as, damaging your weapon. That's if you even hit the spot on your target that you were aiming at, e.g., a gap in your opponent's armor. You understand if you've ever swung a hammer, axe, machete, etc. You need to guide the tool as you swing it, not allow the tool to guide you.

Traditional samurai swords would have had an iron rod in the spine and would have been able to bend to 90 degrees. Would have been folded to monosteel Damascus up to 200 times resulting in high grain and the best of the best smiths would have taken up to 6 months to hand forge sharpen and make a scabbard but you also have to think they weren't meant to cut thru full steel armor like medieval Europe but alot of the armor of the time period was bamboo with iron or light steel plate the Shinto or Shinobi "religion" they believed they put there soul in there swords and ultimate test of steel was cutting thru the enemies sword all together.

The reason that swords can break fairly easily is also because of how hard the swing is

Cameraman... needs to chill... that was painful and distracting. Please dont zoom in and out in and out and in and out and in and out.
Great video still

So you're telling me Katana are good because of "vibes"?

The only thing you seemed to miss here is that the differential temper causes the 'spring' to be direct from blade to spine. That's why the vibrations are taken down. It's soft spine acts as the cushion to the impact on the edge. So they're made to take impacts front to back and are VERY bad at taking impacts to the flat of the blade. Some schools even focus on how you 'flip' them when swinging left-right-left horizontal cuts because are hard flipping snap could damge them. Some schools teach to block with the spine, yes, but some schools teach to block with the blade, but kind of on the grind of the blade not the edge (so slightly twisted), and some throw caution to the wind and say to just block witht the edge because it's the 'right' way and when your sword gets to damaged from that, replace it. Either way, the fact that the blade is designed to take impact on the edge while the spine absorbs it is just a really important aspect to take home in your thought process of how to use it. Obvs, this isn't important with a modern spring steel katana, and that kind of takes away from the spirit of the blade and it's use

funnily, i once heard pig iron was what japan had for "iron" but then people also forget pig iron is actually a type of steel... it's high carbon... xD
As for where i heard this, it was either a former friend or a documentary.

Shad makes a video saying katana are great swords, over the next few months makes many videos saying katana suck.

I think, with modern forging techniques, the katana could be GREATLY improved over traditional katana builds. It's not a supersword, after all, and can be made much better while still using the basic general katana shape. Katanas could be improved with a sharper point, for example, thanks to modern steels.

The easiest explanation for why everything asian is so different from europe is that they got their technology from different aliens, obviously.

I would mention one thing re: your edge alignment portion.

In the traditional usage of a katana, you would intend to cut within about 6" of the tip -- and the closer to the tip, the better. Cutting closer to the base is a carryover from tameshigiri cutting, which, as many kenjutsu, kendo and iaido practicioners would tell you, is not a martial art nor is it the intended traditional usage. In fact, tameshigiri cutting is intended to be a demonstration of the quality of the blade, not its wielder.

In this circumstance, the curve would indeed aid edge alignment. Though, in my personal experience, this is minimal.

Can't do draw cuts with a cross guard that easily which is where the Katanas have the advantage for personal defense weapons imo (again personal defense not a battle field with armor) talking day to day. If you can cut your enemy before they even draw or know what's happening pretty big advantage i'd say?. Gotta remember Katana and well just about any sword (aside from the big 2h boys) are side arms and would be a last resort on a battlefield (again here 2h being the exception)

Wonder if there are similar misconceptions in japan... "Ahh suge! Chūsei yōroppa no subarashī ken no dezain wa, ichigeki de yoroi o tsuranuku to iu tende hijō ni kanpekideshita!" Or something like that, hence why we've got stuff like berserk and dark souls which really idealize the european sword styles, y'know? (Disclaimer: the joke was written in google translate)

Try Murata-To, Kogarasumaru tachi, and Tachi sword.

But after all Tachi is THE samurai sword in terms of usage

Seeing you sitting in a high-backed chair makes me think that "thrones" actually served a protective function by helping to prevent surprise attacks from the rear.

Katana look cool and are aesthetically gorgeous. The lack of a cross guard and the single cutting edge make it not as functional as other swords (rapier, long sword, arming sword, etc.).

I can't even watch the whole thing, you spend so much time debunking myths and so little time actually talking about its benefits. Like dude. we all know the katana isn't perfect. but if you call a video "why the katana is great" and then spend a significant portion of the video NOT talking about why its great, that's just annoying.

Hmm, no - a great sword is a great sword - a katana is a katana ;-)

And yet the tachi was the sword of the bushi but mainly used riding a horse

In terms of cutting performance and edge durability, I have had excellent luck with Hanwei's 1566 blades, spring and differentially tempered. I'm kind of lazy though, and don't much care how my cutting blade looks, so I would personally rather straighten a bent blade than sharpen a dull one. It's true that tamahagane blades are likely far inferior to most spring steel blades, but modern quality steel and DH techniques do create a very durable and hard edge which can withstand heavy cutting for an extended time. Plus, it's just badass, right?

Presumably it would have developed a cross-guard had Japanese sword combat evolved in a way that would benefit from one?

Spring steel wank wank spring steel wank wank damage control rinse repeat

Huh, I've never heard of a katanarrr before. Seems like a cool sword. Looks a lot like a katana.

Quit grifting loser

Great video as always Shad. The people who thought that you hated the katana from previous videos obviously weren't paying enough attention to what you were saying. There is a huge difference between hating something and debunking obvious "fan fic".