It's too bad Albion sword videos of the testing with their traditional blades. The videos I remember showed something you can't do with a katana: cutting the mat on an upward diagonal, using the back edge. The demonstrator did that not only with a replica arming sword, but also with a gladius, and in both cases, he did it one handed. Granted the guy was a smith with Conan-style arms, but it was still an interesting demonstration. The Cold Steel videos show similar results.
Bottom line is that a well made western blade (i.e. Albion) cuts at least as well as a katana, and a heavy Chinese dao can cut even better (if you believe Cold Steel). If you use a single demonstrator who is familiar with all the blades and test cuts them all against the same type of target, the katana shows little if any superiority. IMHO, the katana really shines when you have Mr. black-belt kendoka demonstrating against Mr. Joe Average reenactor.
Best,
F
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22nd September 2009, 06:43 PM
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