Let’s say you are weilding a brand new samurai sword. It was made by the finest sword maker of the finest materials. It was for all intents and purposes the sharpest it was ever going to be.
Now you walk into my back yard, with the intent on slicing through a tree. you have several to chose from, oaks, maple, ash, hickory and chesnut.
Let’s say each is 6 inches in diameter.
Could it be done in one foul swoop? Not many little ones.
If yes, how large of a tree could it be done to. If no, how small would it have to be?
I doubt it could swlice through a 6" tree in one fell swoop. Look at the shape of the blade; it’s a great deal thicker at the trailing edge than the cutting edge. Most of the ones I’ve seen are greater than 1/4". So, once you start the cut, unless the tree bends to allow the blade to penetrate deeper, it’s going to just wedge itself in at some point. Maybe a 1" sapling, about the thickness of the larger human bones the swords are known to be able to cut through in one swipe.
I don’t think so; you’re trying to cut perpendicularly through a massive bunch of parallel packed fibres, furthermore, because the blade is slicing and not sawing, there will be no kerf; the blade will jam in its own cut - the weight/mass of the tree means that a)it is pressing down in such a way as to tend to close the cut and b) the force of the blade will have a hard time displacing the material of the tree in order to pass through.
Oh and the pedantic facet of my brain wants to say ‘fell swoop’.
If you’ve ever seen those “miracle knives” they hawk on late-night informercials, you’ve seen them used to cut through all sorts of materials. What they don’t tell you is that the chef demonstrating the knives has sinews like a lumberjack and that most of the cutting power of the knives is a direct result of the force applied by the wielder.
I’m not sure what, if anything, this has to do with the OP, but I just thought I’d mention it anyway…
I’d think it could be done by a strong man or woman who knew what they were doing. But maybe 6 inch diameter is too big. Maybe half that… Is it too much to ask for a doper whose tried it to post here. Or a doper who has seen something similar?
Like most things in martial arts, it depends only a tiny bit on the strength of the swordsman and more on the technique and skill. A very strong person might be able to brute force it, but a tiny person with good skills could do as well or better.
Japanese sword arts use a cutting practice called tamishigiri where they cut rolled tatami mats. A good katana is extremely sharp, like a 40-inch razor blade, and success at tamishigiri depends mostly on the speed of the blade (governed mostly by the wrists and forearms) and the ability of the swordsman to hold the blade absolutely flat in the direction of the cut so it encounters the least resistance.
A good swordsman is able to cut a 6, 8, or 12 inch roll of tatami, but this is significantly less dense than a 6-inch tree. Some tamishigiri is done against more realistic targets like pig carcasses (which I find distasteful, but that’s another forum) and report that a good cut can easily sever flesh and bone. I don’t personally do tamishigiri so I have no way to estimate what’s realistic, but I’ve severed 2+ inch saplings in one stroke of a machete while clearing brush, so I think a good swordsman with a good katana could do much better.
It depends on the material (tree in this case). I’m sure a katana could slice through a 6" bamboo tree (so much ‘samurai’ themed anime depicts abuse directed towards bamboo trees that I am fairly confident that yeah, they did slice thru these, if anything to intimidate people/clear land for farming )
A katana or similarly made weapon is particularly effective in cutting through soft flesh. Sword makers would often test the weapon on corpses (or prisoners for that matter) and would engrave its prowess, such as “cuts through 2 bodies” or “Cuts through 3 heads” (sorry no cite). I’ve even heard of prisoners holding stones in their mouth, then swallowing them at the last moment when the guy is cutting their head off, in the hopes of damaging the sword in the process.
No, no, and no. Go check out http://swordforum.com for more info. They’ve done lot’s of test cutting. They rarely if ever test on any thing larger than a 2" sapling. A 6" tree would shatter even an L6 Bainite katana, supposedly the toughest katana made. Even if the blade didn’t break, I think the blade geometry is wrong for that kind of cutting. It would get wedged, no matter how sharp it is. That’s why a machete is such a good too for clearing brush. It’s blade is thin and unlikely to get caught.
Are you kidding me? Try cutting a 6" tree with an Ax, let alone a sword. Unless you are Paul Freakin’ Bunyan, I doubt it could be done by anyone. Well, a Ninja maybe but then a Ninja would use what the ancient Japanese called a Ninja Sword, which could cut anything.
If you cut from at an angle from upper right to lower left and the inital cut was deep enough wouldn’t the tree begin falling to the left? Thus relieving tension on the thick end of the blade? Would that help?
Part of the problem is that live trees are full of water which makes them relatively dense (the scientific term is “gooshy.”) A dried out 6" thick cylindrical piece of wood would be much easier.
Speaking from some little experience hacking through heavy stands of Arundo Donax (a reedy, cane-like grass) with a machete, six inches of wood would be too much.
As Q.E.D. said, one-inch, of sapling wood (not hardened wood) could probably be done.
Memo: with wood (or cane) attack at a slight angle rather than chopping directly in at the perpendicular. Probably everyone already knew that when using an axe against a log, but it works for a machete too.
A kid can cut through a 3" pine sapling with a pocketknife, but it takes several cuts and (mainly) the sapling has to be bent over as much as possible, so the cut occurs where the fibers are straining to part.
This would be an unknown amount of assistance with a 6" sapling.
…A foul swoop would be sneaking up and getting in a chop from behind.* Perfectly legitimate language…
Listen I’ve handled an ax many a time in my life and to cut through a 3" green log in one blow would take an incredibly massive swing force, even if you layed it sideways on another log to back it. You’d be real lucky if you could get through a 1 1/2" “standing sapling” with any blade in one fell swoop!!! There is not enough backing and the sapling would absorb most of the blow by moving when struck.If you ever tried to take a sapling out with an ax you’d know it’s pretty tough.With a sword you may be able to generate enough speed that the sapling wouldn’t be able to absorb the blow,but I saay at max in the best of hands a sword could only cut through approx. 2" of green sapling…and thats pushing it.
This seems true…so in theory a pseudo-scimitar might do the job combined with the same process to make a katana allowing for a much thinner and lighter blade the scimitar like curve in a thin yet strong blade might be enough…throw in a longer blade, you would get somewhat of a sawing motion, longer blade providing more mass to help it through, the blade sliding across it would prevent jamming, slice the tree with a ( / ) motion gravity would help compensate for the weight of the tree against the blade, would be preferable to do it after a rain, temperature extremes would cause the tree to have less moisture content making it denser.
Or a doper who has seen something similar?