Physics of Halfswording

[Richard Strey]

Hi.
These days I can't do much studying for university, having somehow damaged the cornea of my right eye by getting dirt on my contact lense. This sucks. So I spent some time pondering swordsmanship and physics.
A few years ago, I watched a christmas lecture on physics (with lots of experiments) and one in particular came to my mind as I was shopping for groceries today. The lecturer took two chocolate santas, put them on a table and placed a two by four piece of wood across their heads. Then he proceeded by taking a baseball bat and slamming it on the wooden lath. It broke in two and the santas escaped unharmed. They were eaten later.
Now, what's the relevance of this? The santas were placed directly under the vibrational nodes of the lath and as a result, the wood only rotated in those places, rather than slamming down on them. When we halfsword, we have one hand on the handle of the sword (being one vibrational node), the other very much in the vicinity of the other node. Has anyone ever looked deeper into this effect? I suspect it might very well swallow an appreciable amount of the primary impact energy, even though recieving a blow not directly on the flat will counter this to a degree.
Any thoughts?

[Shane Smith]

I'm not into physics per se' ,but I am into halfswording.

As a matter of fact, the left hand moves up and down the blade, now here, now there. Since the hand can be in a multitude of locations upon the blades length, how would that affect your hypothesis if at all?

[Richard Strey]

Well, the closer the hand is to the node, the more of the primary impact should be absorbed. The question is if the effect is substantial or only marginal anyway.

[s_taillebois]

As M. Smith has noted, since the L hand would move to varient positions, presumably the point of stress could also be moved, or even randomly (or subconsciously) controlled?
Also, with something like a bastard sword, it could be M. Strey has a valid point. The 'weak' of a blade of this form, might be more vulnerable to these stresses than another blade form. But the problem here, is varient blade thicknesses towards the tip. Width narrowing would be compensating for by changing the cross sections of the blade to the point, and the 'weak'.
Problem is, most modern bastard swords seem to have way too much flex towards the blade point/weak. So these might simply vibrate and not break.
And original period blades (bastards), seem to have been subtly reinforced to the weak/point.
And in general, halfswording would place most of the stress (being used in linear rather than oblique strikes) down the blade center to the hilt and pommel. Perhaps if warding M. Strey's theory could apply, but what about the varient positions of the left hand.?
You've posed an interesting idea, but mayhaps it would be very hard to test...
And since I'm inordinately fond of the bastard type blades, and have predominately worked with those...mayhaps an opinion of someone who has worked more with other types could be more valid.

[JeffGentry]

Richard

Your talking about say I throw a zornhau and you go to the half sword and take the blow?

other wise half swording seem's to me to be about the thrust and leverage to throw, disarm your opponent or using the half sword to set aside blow's as opposed to direct oppositon , and even less about striking heavy blow's.

Jeff

[Richard Strey]

Hi Jeff,
"catching a Zornhau" would indeed be one of the instances, in which this effect would probably apply in a larger degree. The kinetic energy applied to the "flat" of the blade is connected to the sine of the angle of attack, if I am not mistaken. Obviously, we have an interesting relation here: The more the proposed effect establishes itself, the more stupid your action was in the first place.
But let's assume you were doing this with a goal in mind. Suppose someone throws an Oberhau to your right upper opening and you respond by going into a bind on your way to a half-sworded right Ochs and catch the incoming blow in the middle of your sword. Let it slide into your cross, lock it there and stab the opponent. Now, the "catching action" would occur anywhere at an angle of 0 to 90 degrees between your sword and his. At 0 degrees, you'll miss and at 90 degrees, you'll get the full force into your arms, not nice. So, you'll go for the golden mean and then wind the point forward. In this instance, a portion of the energy will be directed into your sword, thus slamming the weapon into your hands.
As I said, it's not going to be much if you're smart, but the effect should be there.

[JeffGentry]

Hi Jeff,
"catching a Zornhau" would indeed be one of the instances, in which this effect would probably apply in a larger degree. The kinetic energy applied to the "flat" of the blade is connected to the sine of the angle of attack, if I am not mistaken. Obviously, we have an interesting relation here: The more the proposed effect establishes itself, the more stupid your action was in the first place.
But let's assume you were doing this with a goal in mind. Suppose someone throws an Oberhau to your right upper opening and you respond by going into a bind on your way to a half-sworded right Ochs and catch the incoming blow in the middle of your sword. Let it slide into your cross, lock it there and stab the opponent. Now, the "catching action" would occur anywhere at an angle of 0 to 90 degrees between your sword and his. At 0 degrees, you'll miss and at 90 degrees, you'll get the full force into your arms, not nice. So, you'll go for the golden mean and then wind the point forward. In this instance, a portion of the energy will be directed into your sword, thus slamming the weapon into your hands.
As I said, it's not going to be much if you're smart, but the effect should be there.

Well see that is why i was asking about the zorn, because the dynamic effect of halfswording i think will play a part, it is more dynamic that you catch and slide the opposition's blade, I am just trying to learn to go to the halfsword in a fight, so i am by no mean's experienced or an expert.

I do agree you will see some effect and i think most of these type xviii blade's were designed to do this type of thing maybe not with physic's in mind, just as part of the inherent design from user feed back.


Jeff