Posts: 186 Location: NYC
Fri 15 May, 2015 1:02 am
Best blades for toughness
Hey Hector
The del tins were super solid, tough and can take such abuse
They are very heavy however.
Atrim and tinkers are very similar in handling and toughness
I just broke my second tinker a few weeks ago. It takes a beating and like the atrims they stay true. I prefer atrim blades to play with however because of the price level.
Albinos are fun. I've had four but rather then break for a while they bend. Which sucks to try and bend them true again
Never broken a bks yet. I only have one and I think I'm dialing back a bit now it's expensive to collect and use the blades so hard
Posts: 385 Location: Melbourne, Australia
Fri 24 Jun, 2016 9:39 pm
If you look closely, he does flinch... from the noise.
Posts: 587 Location: upstate NY
Fri 24 Jun, 2016 9:40 pm
I don't suppose anyone can explain why we are talking about katana when we should be talking about tachi. Even the name 'samurai' is anachronistic (try 'bushi'). Even this gaijin plate armour smith knows that. ;) A tachi is a field sword, used best on horseback, with a blade often well in excess of 30", and the katana is a street fighter with a much shorter blade (but see below). It is itrue that many a tachi was shortened and used as a katana blade. In any case, some sort of pole weapon was used when fighting armoured folk on foot, same as in Europe. It does seem to me that katanas were carried by footsoldiers much as a pistol is carried by today's soldiers; if you lose the use of your rifle, at least you still have something that might do in a pinch.
Posts: 1,504 Location: Brisbane, Australia
Sat 25 Jun, 2016 1:04 am
James Arlen Gillaspie wrote: |
Even the name 'samurai' is anachronistic (try 'bushi'). |
While bushi would be the usual term for warrior, samurai is not anachronistic, dating to before AD1000. "Samurai"="servant", so is analogous to "knight" or "knecht" = "servant" (or even "mamluk"="slave"), and is distinct from bushi just as knight or carl is distinct from warrior.
James Arlen Gillaspie wrote: |
It does seem to me that katanas were carried by footsoldiers much as a pistol is carried by today's soldiers; if you lose the use of your rifle, at least you still have something that might do in a pinch. |
Or carried by courtiers as a badge of rank. It looks to me like the tachi-to-katana transition was driven by a decreases in the relative importance of cavalry. As armies got larger, and no more horses were available, cavalry became a minor arm. So, rather than tachi slung from the belt (very suitable for cavalry), we see katana worn through the belt (very suitable for infantry).
Posts: 587 Location: upstate NY
Sat 25 Jun, 2016 9:09 am
Years ago, when I was researching a novel I intended to write that was set around the year 1600, I came across something written by a bushi at that time, in which he said that for one bushi to call another 'samurai' was a great way to start a fight. Those of higher rank could get away with it, but apparently the label had not yet acquired the honorable status it would gain under the Tokugawa bakufu, something that amused me immensely.
Posts: 1,504 Location: Brisbane, Australia
Sat 25 Jun, 2016 3:50 pm
It would be saying "You can't make it on your own. You have to work for somebody else." Whether or not this would be seen as an insult by somebody whose highest ambition is to become a retainer for a daimyo, I don't know, but it would certainly be an insult to a daimyo or anybody with ambition to make it to that level.
"Samurai" was used in administrative documents, to describe retainers. Before "samurai" became a distinct social class (an Edo Period thing, mostly, though Hideyoshi started the process), I suppose that ronin weren't samurai - "samurai" was a job description, not a class.
Posts: 3,637 Location: Maitland, NSW, Australia
Sat 25 Jun, 2016 4:24 pm
The term was used by superiors to refer to inferiors. It had derogative connotations in the same way that "servant" does in our society.
Posts: 805 Location: new orleans
Sun 26 Jun, 2016 7:11 am
James Arlen Gillaspie wrote: |
Years ago, when I was researching a novel I intended to write that was set around the year 1600, I came across something written by a bushi at that time, in which he said that for one bushi to call another 'samurai' was a great way to start a fight. Those of higher rank could get away with it, but apparently the label had not yet acquired the honorable status it would gain under the Tokugawa bakufu, something that amused me immensely. |
You could call samurai armor "katchu" and be correct except that almost no one uses that term, same with "bushi", when I have read period accounts from Europeans or Americans that were in Japan during the samuri era I can not remember seeing either "bushi" or "katchu" being used to describe samurai or armor, some terms just become popular and get used more often.
Do a test, search for "bushi armor" and "samurai armor", see what gets more results, you also can search for "katchu" and "samurai armor" and compare results.
On a side note, do a search for "chainmail / chain mail" and then search for "mail" and see which brings up the images you are looking for.
Posts: 2,698 Location: Indonesia
Sun 26 Jun, 2016 10:23 am
James Arlen Gillaspie wrote: |
Years ago, when I was researching a novel I intended to write that was set around the year 1600, I came across something written by a bushi at that time, in which he said that for one bushi to call another 'samurai' was a great way to start a fight. Those of higher rank could get away with it, but apparently the label had not yet acquired the honorable status it would gain under the Tokugawa bakufu, something that amused me immensely. |
Could you cite the source? I know of this kind of thing happening much earlier in the 12th and 14th centuries, but I haven't heard of an instance of it happening as late as the 16th or 17th century. Would be a very interesting data point if the somewhat demeaning connotation of the word "samurai" hung on for a couple of centuries longer than I previously knew.
Posts: 805 Location: new orleans
Sun 26 Jun, 2016 11:48 am
"Samurai" has been used by Americans and Europeans for a long time, one example is "Honda the Samurai: A Story of Modern Japan", William Elliot Griffis, 1890. This book describes the authors travels in Japan, 1852.
Quote: |
Life in a Japanese city, to one fresh from the intense life and energies of an American metropolis, would have been like existence in the thirteenth century. Society was so simple; there were but two classes, the governing samurai and the governed people. The latter class knew nothing of the government, except that they must yield unquestioning obedience to its decrees. |
Posts: 3,637 Location: Maitland, NSW, Australia
Sun 26 Jun, 2016 3:49 pm
Eric S wrote: |
On a side note, do a search for "chainmail / chain mail" and then search for "mail" and see which brings up the images you are looking for. |
It isn't particularly difficult to add an additional word. Entering "mail" and "armour" into a search engine brings up plenty of relevant results.
Posts: 805 Location: new orleans
Sun 26 Jun, 2016 9:40 pm
Dan Howard wrote: |
Eric S wrote: | On a side note, do a search for "chainmail / chain mail" and then search for "mail" and see which brings up the images you are looking for. |
It isn't particularly difficult to add an additional word. Entering "mail" and "armour" into a search engine brings up plenty of relevant results. |
Your right but how many times have you seen people having discussions about "mail" on forums were they do not use the term "armor", what happens then is that internet search engines often will not find the discussion for you, it gets lost amoung all the "mail". If you use "chainmail / chain mail" search engines are way more likely to find it, so even if not the correct term it does have its use, if you want your discussion concerning mail to be easily found use a term that search engines will pick up on.
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