Zweihander in use

[claidheamhmor]

zornhau posted this video clip of a zweihander sword made by some company called Cold Steel being used by the company owner on all sorts of things - carcasses, horse-heads, boots, bamboo, rope, water barrels, and masonry blocks. Based on this clip, that sword must be bloody incredible: strong, and very, very sharp. As zornhau says, though, the guys wielding it are somewhat amateurish. It's also a little weird that it's being pitched as a home-defence weapon.

Comments

[herne-kzn.livejournal.com]

Can't see the video oat work, but I'm guessing it's much like their others. they're a little daft really.
The problem has been that they treat their swords like knives. over-engineering them to add strength is fine when you're adding 10 or 20% to the weight of a knife, when you're adding it to a 7 or 800g sword it makes a difference.

[claidheamhmor]

In the clip they put the sword over a bar, and a guy hangs on it; the blade bends into a parabola, and straightens when he lets go. I thought that was pretty impressive. It didn't seem very rigid at all, and he mentioned a weight of 6 or so pounds.

[musicalchaos.livejournal.com]

My problem with anything like that as a home defense weapon is two-fold. First is the matter of whether it is legal to utilize lethal force in self/home-defense in your area (many places I've lived, it's not, to my recollection). Second, you have to have room to utilize the weapon. Like it or not, I can't think of a single place in my apartment where I'd have clearance for a single blow with that thing, save perhaps a thrust. Nah, my preference would go for a short club, such as a nightstick, personally. Easily utilized on the defense, able to be used to disable or kill, and effective in close quarters and tight spaces.

[claidheamhmor]

Damn right on those points. My choice would be a sharp thrusting sword, if I had to have a hand-to-hand weapon. Fortunately, I have a fair choice; most usable would probably be my cavalry sabre or my Scots broadsword.

[bodine.livejournal.com]

OK, I watched the first few minutes. The wielder wasn't nearly as impressive as the sword!

I have a katana and wakizashi in my bedroom on a rack. In the **extremely** unlikely event we had an intruder, I suppose I would grab the wakizashi. They are both decorative only and not sharp. But being shorter and stouter, the short short would be less likely to bend!

Once I tried to use the katana to slice a snowman in half. It was mushy half melted snow, but the katana still bent to a terrible angle!

Luckily, not too much violent crime in a tiny Iowa town!

Although, two nights ago, a man was killed at the rest stop on the interstate. I don't know if you have something similar. On the long interstate, they have rest stops every 40-60 miles with rest rooms. Unfortunately, a worker was cleaning the restroom and some one shot him. They caught the guy 50 miles away with the pistol still in his front seat. A mentally deranged man.

Uh, ok, that was totally unrelated. Just rambling now.

Take care.

Bodine.

[claidheamhmor]

Oh, we have plenty of violent crimes here. We're a world-leader... :S