"Splitting a bullet with a Samurai Sword" Topic

About 1/2 way through you can see ultra slow motion of it happening.

wimp.com/strongestsword

Where are Kari, Grant, and Tori when you need them?

May the sword Rest in Peace

I hope it wasn't their best sword.

Slpitting is not the hard part. Hitting it is.
;-)

Well, so much for that idea

So, on the next Deadliest Warrior, the 16th cent. Samurai guys will claim that they can cut down the Special Forces guy because "it's been proven that you can split a bullet with a Samurai Sword".

Wouldn't the fragments still hit the target? Arrows I can understand, cos the wood would warp away from the cut and the trajectory of the two parts would change as it is travelling slower and has less kinetic energy, but a metal slug would just carry on, wouldn't it? Physicists and ballistic specialists, answers on a postcard….

Of course it snapped the blade. It was a freaking .50 caliber round!!

That it took several hits to break the sword was pretty cool. I figured the first 50 cal round would have done that.

LLC aka Ron

I'd still rather be armed with a gun than a sword.

B'b'b'big deal. Two b'b'bullets out of one….

I have played both "split the bullet" and "card shoots" with my .50 cal.

The result of split the bullet is 2 bullets from one and not a far spread either.

So I am not surprised somebody did it with a sword.

Now if they want to impress me, have them stand behind the sword while they do it…

From the video it appears that the sword actually split or shattered several bullets before the blade parted. Also, the blade broke because all of the impacts occurred roughly on the same portion of the blade (see the pattern of notches). That's one tough piece of steel.

I'm actually curious as to what would have happened if a bullet had hit the flat, or struck the blade at an angle.

I'm also curious as to how much energy the bullet lost on hitting the blade. Obviously, it didn't stop, but the bullet is clearly slowed (as should be expected, just by physics)— would it be slowed enough not to produce a lethal impact?

(This is what happens when you have a bunch of guys, two lethal weapons of differing types, a video camera, and too much time on their hands…)

I don't read or speak Japanese, but wasn't it billed as "the world's strongest sword"? I don't think it was a normal blade. It sure looked extraordinarily thick from the camera angle shown near the end to me.

Impressive nonetheless. I believe it sliced 6 rounds before succumbing. I don't think it lends any credence to "slicing a bullet in thin air" in actual action, though.

- Bob

Interesting experiment but in general meaningless.

It would have been more impressive if someone was holding the sword when they did it…

I know what you're thinking. "Did he chop in half six shots or only five?"….But being as this is a Samurai sword, the sharpest sword in the world, and would chop your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?

I just had to drop in a comment on this one. The video is a short clip from an old tv show. Don't remember when I first saw it, but it was several years ago. In it, this American guy wanted to find out, if you could split a bullet with a katana. Like in movies and stuff. The guy can be seen at the end of the clip. He's the one in a blue shirt commenting that it did split the bullet.

So he found a swordsmith who was willing to take up the challenge. He's the Japanese fellow who is seen at the beginning of the clip, and at the end lamenting the death of the blade. Anyway, he was pretty sure he could forge a katana, that could split bullets just like in the stories.

I don't remember who he was, but I do remember that he was a certified smith and the sword was a shinken, a true sword – made with the proper traditional techniques. Not just some hastily fabricated mock up.

First they tested it with a handgun. I did a fast google and found the first test at:

link

So, not only did the blade split the bullet, but it also deflected the halves. So in theory, if someone had quick enough reflexes to swing at a speeding bullet, he could defend himself against gunfire with a katana.

And the sword itself didn't seem to suffer any damage at all. Apart from some scratches along it's sides. The edge of the blade itself didn't even have a notch in it.

Then the American guy wanted to rise the stakes, and pick a gun of his own choice. And instead of choosing something sensible, he picked an M2 machine gun. He argued that the fact, that it shoots at full auto, would still be fair, since it would only be one pull of the trigger. Just like with the pistol.

Yeah right. I always found that to be rather weak argument, but hey, whatever floats one's boat, right?

And that's where we get to the part shown in the clip.

I was actually pretty surprised that it managed to take 6 rounds before breaking. I was sure it would fail at the first. A .50 cal bullet can, after all, penetrate an inch of armor plate grade steel!

So all in all, that was a pretty impressive sword.

Hi

It was observed in WW2 that japanese officers often DID attack americans shooting at them.

Not a very successful event. Think "Alligator Creek".

Some decades ago I was at a chinese theatre watching a movie about WW2 made in china. The heros were these expert circus knife throwing brothers who had this belt with a dozen small knives that they could just throw out like a machinegun.

And in the movie, to their dismay, they ran into a Samurai who was caught with his gun across the room, but cleaning his katana. And live shot, they threw the dozen knives which the guy deflected all of them. Did so in such a way that they stuck in the far wall of the building.

Then the traditional sword fight ensued.

But it was a remarkable demonstration AND involved the chinese heros being defeated by a japanese. As a side note, a very young "Mako" was a minor bad guy in the movie.

Rocky