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Old 12-26-2003, 08:41 AM   #1
SpiritWarrior
Jack Burton
 

Join Date: May 31, 2002
Location: Ireland
Posts: 5,854
Happy christmas to all! Hope you had a good one .

I received a gift this christmas from my best friend, a sword. It's 18 inches long (looks like a short sword but he insisted it was a long sword). Now it looks really great, the hilt is mahogony and the pommel is gold but I was wondering what are real swords made from, the ones they use in this day and age to spar with. This one is made from stainless steel which leads me to beleive it is really only a collectors item to be hung on the wall rather than clashing with another blade as stainless steel would shatter on enough impact wouldn't it?
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Old 12-26-2003, 08:53 AM   #2
Stratos
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Join Date: January 29, 2003
Location: Sweden
Age: 43
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I believe Azimaith is the sword expert here on IW, so maybe he can enlighten you further.

I don't see why stainless steel would shatter on impact considering how often it's used today. It's just an alloy consisting of iron and chrome, nickel or molybdenum to create a strong metal that doesn't rust.
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Old 12-26-2003, 10:04 AM   #3
Spade
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Join Date: August 3, 2002
Location: Dublin, Ireland
Age: 39
Posts: 166
I don't know much about swords but I know a little bit about metals. IIRC, most stainless steel is as tough as regular steel.

Austenitic stainless steel is usually pretty tough and could probably be used to make a decent sword.

Ferritic stainless steel is usually tempered and hardened and this makes it brittle so this type probably would shatter on impact.
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Old 12-26-2003, 10:30 AM   #4
Cerek the Barbaric
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Join Date: October 29, 2001
Location: North Carolina
Age: 61
Posts: 3,257
Stainless steel is used by most cutlery manufacturers for pocketknives and even hunting knives. Theoretically, there is no reason it wouldn't be strong enough to be made into a sword also.

As for the long sword/short sword question. There actually was no such thing as a "long sword" in medieval times. That was something Gary Gygax made up strictly for the D&D game. However, by the D&D definition, a long sword is usually about 3ft long and a short sword is roughly half that size...so your sword would definitely be considered a short sword.

Either way, it sounds like a pretty cool gift. [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img] This guy must be a good friend.
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Old 12-26-2003, 10:33 AM   #5
lethoso
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Join Date: March 27, 2002
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Age: 38
Posts: 248
the steel used in proper swords is higher carbon steel, so it holds an edge much better than normal stainless. Sword steel is more likely to shatter than normal stainless as well (more carbon makes it more brittle). Pretty unlikely though.

I might be wrong though, wait for a real expert to answer [img]smile.gif[/img]
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Old 12-26-2003, 11:25 AM   #6
Larry_OHF
Ironworks Moderator
 

Join Date: March 1, 2001
Location: Midlands, South Carolina
Age: 48
Posts: 14,759
Sometimes you will find numbers associated with the metal. 440 steel is average good quality, 420 is a bit softer, adn more bendable...so it will not shatter, but 460 is more brittle because the higher in number you go, the harder the steel is, and the harder it is, the more chance of shattering. This was taught to me by a guy here on Ironworks over a year ago.

By the way...I own five swords, but the only one I would use to fight with for real is the one I bought off of Century Martial Arts website...it is a ninja-style, leg/back sword, 17", black standard. It is 440 Steel


[ 12-26-2003, 11:28 AM: Message edited by: Larry_OHF ]
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Old 12-26-2003, 12:51 PM   #7
SpiritWarrior
Jack Burton
 

Join Date: May 31, 2002
Location: Ireland
Posts: 5,854
Thanks all. And yes he is a great friend of mine (I told him a suit of armor and a shield could mean 'Best friend' status if he's lucky [img]tongue.gif[/img] ). I had a look a a web site and the "battle ready" swords were made from carbon steal and the decorative from stainless it seems. That occured to me also about cutlery being made from stainless steel which I have seen kids hurl around the place without a break. It is a lovely sword though, reminds me of a holy avenger with the golden pommel on it. I am even thinking of getting the blades name engraved on the blade of it - SpiritWarrior [img]smile.gif[/img] , although I'm gonna either translate it to Irish or Elven (the elven translation of SpiritWarrior I don't know) but this all depends on whether this sword would be suitable for wielding or not.

Basically I can mess around with someone else and go searching for evil in my local field without worrying about breaking it?

[ 12-26-2003, 01:25 PM: Message edited by: SpiritWarrior ]
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Old 12-26-2003, 01:17 PM   #8
Larry_OHF
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Join Date: March 1, 2001
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There is only one more sword in this world that I need to be happy...and that is a replica of the one that they made for Arwen in the movie.
If anyone wants to get it for me, I would gladly put "your name" with an "= best friend" tag on it in my signature.


[ 12-26-2003, 01:18 PM: Message edited by: Larry_OHF ]
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Old 12-26-2003, 03:15 PM   #9
Haldir
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Join Date: March 15, 2003
Location: Green piece of Europe-Slovenia-Ljubljana
Age: 36
Posts: 179
Quote:
Originally posted by SpiritWarrior:
Happy christmas to all! Hope you had a good one .

I received a gift this christmas from my best friend, a sword. It's 18 inches long (looks like a short sword but he insisted it was a long sword). Now it looks really great, the hilt is mahogony and the pommel is gold but I was wondering what are real swords made from, the ones they use in this day and age to spar with. This one is made from stainless steel which leads me to beleive it is really only a collectors item to be hung on the wall rather than clashing with another blade as stainless steel would shatter on enough impact wouldn't it?
Let me tell you straight. I also received a nice Wakizashi stainless and so on, and it was really master-crafted blade. And in the shop they said that it is made only for fighting and so I and my friend bought the blades and the very next day we went into forest and made some swings, and we kept fighting till the dawn andlooked at the blades! Blades!? they were sliced, yes... I was dissapointed really. Just don't want it for you...


Enjoy...
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Old 12-26-2003, 03:17 PM   #10
Gabrielles blades
Baaz Draconian
 

Join Date: April 26, 2002
Location: florida
Age: 42
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http://www.thearma.org/spotlight/heymr.htm
http://www.armor.com/2000/info.html
Basically these sites say that your weapon is created using the wrong material for real sword fighting (gold is weak!, and so is stainless steel)
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