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ahc1272
17th July 2010, 21:06
Hi everyone. A Fun Topic:
I have a boy whom I tutor and he was talking about swords and something he said he saw on TV.
He claims that there was a sword so sharp that:
a thread or hair dropped on the blade would be cut.....

I argued that it's probably impossible.
Has anyone ever seen something along those lines? (I'm guessing probably not).
In that case, what is the sharpest sword that you have ever seen?
*For me it was a sword polishers "test cutting" a small stack of paper. Sickeningly sharp.

Al Chang

Black and Blue
19th July 2010, 03:22
I have not seen anything like that but I did see a bullet fired at a katana and it split the bullet with no damage to the blade.We have some gendai blades we use for test cutting that are very,very sharp.

Phil Scudieri
ZNBR
wwwDelawarebudokan.net

Brian Owens
19th July 2010, 09:27
Myths and legends about swords abound. One tale tells of a sword that was dipped into a stream, and a leaf floating down the stream was cleaved in two.

The reality is that a sword that is razor sharp would not be practical for use in battle; it would be so thin at the edge that it would chip too easily.

pgsmith
19th July 2010, 16:10
A sword cutting a bullet is actually no big deal as steel is much harder than a lead bullet. I agree with Brian that swords should not be too sharp. I remember being at a tameshigiri seminar with the late Ueki sensei. Ueki sensei yelled at one of the students and made him use a different sword because he said that the student's sword was too sharp, so he didn't have to cut correctly.