[Sir Kenyth]

I've made a point of this once before. The asian martial arts portrayed in movies and television have completely skewed everyones view. A well trained European knght in full armor was a formidable opponent! Full steel plate was not anywhere near as heavy as many think. Full nobleman quality battle rattle with weapon and full shield was about 75 lbs. of distributed weight. The woven cloth and laquered wood of the samurai was not exactly feather weight either, although it was lighter. The Katana is designed to deliver broad contact slashing attacks with it's curved blade. Ideal for unarmored or lightly armored opponents. Not so good when used against a material of nearly the same hardness. In truth, the long sword wasn't all that great for this either. A broad sword, being shorter and heavier works a little better. Concentrating the force of the blow on a smaller area and not relying on razor sharpness is more effective under these circumstances. That's when you started seeing weapons like the flanged/spiked mace and the war hammer/pick start coming back into fashion. Weapons and armor are designed to overcome a certain type of threat in the most effective and economic way. That doesn't necessarily make one warrior any better than another, given their individual circumstances. But one thing we can say for sure. Steel provides a more sure barrier against steel than wood and cloth.