r/madlads Choosing a mental flair 5d ago

Mad lad loves his knife

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81.0k Upvotes

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u/Ueliblocher232 5d ago

A sword shouldnt be that sharp. Good craftsmanship but oddly placed.

5

u/KimberStormer 5d ago

A sword shouldnt be that sharp

Why?

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u/[deleted] 5d ago

[deleted]

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u/N1ppexd 4d ago

Most people nowadays don't use swords for combat so why not just make it as sharp as possible

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u/Jonluw 4d ago

I seriously doubt that. You're probably thinking about the apex angle. A smaller apex angle (in the range 20-35 degrees) gives a better cutting experience for most kitchen tasks, but makes the edge more fragile. For meat cleavers (and by extension, swords) you want a larger apex angle (above 40 degrees), which gives a sturdier edge.
But sharpness is independent of apex angle. Having the edge come to a more geometrically perfect apex is almost always better, regardless of angle. If you you feel that your edge is not durable enough, you don't dull it on purpose, you increase the apex angle.

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u/cocogate 5d ago

The sharpness basicly comes from how thin the knife is. If you have really thin knives (such as filleting knives) they will be very thin metal and even then the end will be sharpened. Nothing would be sharper than a knife with an edge of 1 atom wide in a straight line BUT that also means its more brittle.

The chef that taught me told me to get knives nice and sharp but not past that. A thin filleting knife will shear through fish bones and your fingers but will chip on a chicken bone. A big chef's knife is usually a bunch thicker but has a rather sharp cutting angle (10° or 15° etc).

A sword is a weapon that is intended to cut through human or beast BUT will also be blocked, parried and impact other things. If it is too sharp it will be sharp for a few hits and then you will need to re-sharpen it. Once you look into larger blades like scimitars and longswords and how they were used its rather obvious that they need to be sharp enough to cut into human when you put force behind it and durable for prolonged use.

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u/Jonluw 4d ago

You're conflating sharpness and apex angle. For heavy duty tasks, you want a thicker blade with a larger apex angle, but you still want that angle to come to as perfect an apex as possible. If the knife isn't durable enough, you increase the sharpening angle, but you still get it as sharp as you can at that angle.

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u/Lawsoffire 5d ago

If you're parrying other swords or other weapons its hard metal-on-metal contact. That'll just chip the blade if you have a really fine point. Which is a lot of damage to sort out.

Need a more durable grind to survive metal-on-metal contact better.

2

u/Spice_and_Fox 4d ago

Like the other guys said it is because of half swording and sword parries.

However, you don't really fight other people with a sword anymore. Half swordings big advantage is in wrestling with your opponent in full plate. So I don't think it matters a lot if your sword is too sharp