[Ilander]

*knew that this would be Dron's verdict, as many long hours have been spent on this discussion*

I'd say that even one of those nice, 14000 layer katanas would have trouble cutting through particularly thick plate mail...I sure wish I knew how thick the steel was in full plate! Katanas can cut through the roof of a car...but a 1/4 inch of steel? I think not.

The katana however, is, even by modern metallurgical standards, almost the perfect sword. True, better swords can be made, using better alloys than lowly steel, but they basically have to be made in the same process as the Katana. Really, while I have no doubt that there were indeed poorly made Katanas that would break in battle, I must say that only the finest of European swords would survive in the conflict with an average or better katana. So...if the sword is Excalibur, or it came from Toledo Spain, or Damascus Syria, then my bet would be, based soley upon the equipment (as in, assuming all else equal, which is mildly absurd) that the knight would triumph. The Samurai would win if (using same invalid assumption) the European sword was not of high quality, the armor was not the best, thickest steel, and the katana was at least average.