I got a katana, for when there is no ammo.

reply to post by downtown436


yeah it takes some getting used too but it's not that heavy feels to be about 5 pounds at most.

reply to post by downtown436



You are going to kill only 4-5 zombies before your blade dulls and you die. Miraj will kill 10-15 zombies before his blade dulls and he dies.

My zombie plan is to just give up and join them.

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[edit on Fri May 15 2009 by Jbird]

I have a 3 1/2 foot long sharp stainless tanto sword, a carbon steel 3 foot long ninjato, a seki steel combat knife, a chinese 4 inch tanto hunting knife(most reliable for the cost), and arrowtip throwing knives. All of these are part of my survival kit.

Thats a Ninjato, the blade is straight and is used more for slashing and stabbing, a Katana has a curve to the blade and is used more for cutting.
A true Katana is a peice of art and should be treated with respect, also to anyone who buys one thinking he can use it without training is wrong. They can be easily damaged if you use the wrong technique to cut (paper and cardboard will blunt your blade really quickly) and can end up bending or shattering the blade. This is why a katana has a folded blade which mixes strength with flexibilty which you don't get with a standard cast blade.
I have trained in a mix of arts including Kendo and Aikido and would recommend some type of training or my end up losing a finger or worse.
Heres a good vid of some cutting!!





[edit on 15-5-2009 by Kurokage]

I hate to bust up things but harking after a katana for close combat is blundersome.
They are massively over-rated. They are more for dueling with another swordsman and not for survival in the wilderness etc.
They are pretty things but somehow would be too delicate for use in the wild.
I don't doubt they can cut and are quick weapons, but unless you've a lifetime of training they are a bit of a white elephant.
The sword was developed with an isolated island mentality and it shows. Very fine and art-like but not exactly utilitarian or handy.
Something like a ninja-sword would be more suitable for survival. They tend to be slightly shorter, straight and being blunter and be usually good for things like using as a foot-boost to climb walls and grabbing hold of to climb with etc etc.

For me it'll be a xbow and knife. Save the sword play for if civilisation reverts back to a pre-firearms infra-structure.

My boyfriend has a katana. I think he would use that against someone before he would ever draw a gun on someone.

A katana in trained hands is a formiddable weapon, for sure. I've seen people do amazing things with them. That being said, in untrained hands it's as likely that you'll injure yourself before wounding your opponant. A sword is not like a baseball bat which nearly anyone can use effectively. Mucho training is required to use a katana effectively. Get some training, or hang it on a wall and get a Louisville Slugger.

Cool, I'm a fellow sword collector, love everything to do with blades. A foot away from me on my computer desk is a 3 piece katana set, snakeskin colored.One's large, other medium and last small(about a 14 inch blade or so). Then I have a pair of wooden nun-chucks, and have 4 daggers(7 inches to 12), then I have a separate medium size regular black katana, and a wooden box filled with pocket knives and switchblades(30 or so) along with the 6 inch belt clip switch blade I carry with me every day.


Always good to be prepared, always.

reply to post by Kurokage


Thanks for that clarification, as I am a sword uber noob.

It is my first sword, and the blade will most likely get damaged and dulled with what I am going to do with it. I plan on practicing slicing things in half that are thrown at me. That is going to be my training. So when it slices a thrown softball in half, yeah it will probably get jacked up. But that is why I didn't get a 5000$ sword.

Originally posted by downtown436
I wanted a sword that was practical for defense, and possibly sneak attack. So I got a katana. I got it from budk. It was like 60 bucks. It has a stainless steel blade. (Yeah, I know a real damascus one would chop it in half) But it still makes a pretty good weapon.

dude! you could of bought a thick, hand honed, carbon steel blade (Razor sharp) for $50 www.swordsofmight.com...

You could even get a machete for $5-10 and it'll probably last longer than that sword you bought.

reply to post by subject x


The sword replaced the bat, that was the whole point. Yeah, I realize what is involved in using a sword. Let me tell you I'm an expert already because I have watched at least 4 minutes worth of youtube videos on how to chop something in half with a katana, and then come to find out I actually have a ninjato which is not even in the same planetary system as the katana.

reply to post by imitator


I have a machete. I have a ball peen hammer. I have a big ass crescent wrench. I have a sledge hammer. I have a mini sledge hammer. I have a baseball bat. I think the 59.99 stainless steel budk sword will be pretty good for my collection. Don't worry, I won't put my own eye out.

reply to post by downtown436



Except that link you sent is for a ninjato which is different than a katana. Same purpose though. And yes even for just 60$ that was a good purchase.

It beats throwing butter knives at your enemies and just the sight of that thing in your hands would be enough for most people to run.

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[edit on Fri May 15 2009 by Jbird]

Originally posted by downtown436
reply to post by imitator

 

I have a machete. I have a ball peen hammer. I have a big ass crescent wrench. I have a sledge hammer. I have a mini sledge hammer. I have a baseball bat. I think the 59.99 stainless steel budk sword will be pretty good for my collection. Don't worry, I won't put my own eye out.

Damascus katanas are actually not that expensive. Payed 300 for mine a while back =\..However, i doubt we would ever use it because the other side will never run out of bullets

Personally I got a longsword & shortsword.

Then a katana, wakizashi & tanto & Katar.

The longsword & shortsword are fantasy blades (as such, they aren't suitable for sword-fighting but they can still inflict pain, not so useful against zombies though).

The katana / wakizashi / tanto are all High-Carbon Surgical Stainless steel, potential tree cutters.

The katar I don't know what it is made of, but it is magnetic for some reason (and I can thrust it through walls )

Those 4xx HC Stainless steel blades can technically cut through trees though, so that's all good.

OP, You completely made the correct choice...

I agree with those that say a better katana would do

and that you lack a bow and maybe some other items.

But I 100% agree when the dust settles, guns might last awhile but not really, in the event of the event, given disease, lack of food supplies, panic

a Good set of modern top of the line traditional weapons, might be passed down to your kids and your kids kids with hardly a chance in the world anyone around you or them will be able to match the quality and use.

I go off on this topic every time the gun enthusiasts open up

You DO NOT want to Fight the first weeks, it's time to run and hide and survive, everyone will be shooting, it will be maniacal, Luck at best will be the only reason a person going out shooting would survive

When the dust settles... in time, real tools, TOOLS, Metals , Plastics that can't be made, even modern bow string...

it will all be out of production...

Most fire arms can't take water much, the ones that can, have ammo that will be difficult to come by... they make noise, draw attention

and frankly

the person back there that says you can't take a Bear with a Katana is right

But wait till you have been in the forest a few months

might not be the same story

as ferocious as a Bear is they tend to back down when injured to survive like anything else... biggest problem is bulk, hard to nail the brain stem or heart with an edged weapon

but our ancestors managed with sticks and stones with nothing to do all day but run around outside...

We are after all (some of us) smarter than your average Bear



I remember a story from ww2 about a Pilot from Japan caught in China who was thrown in a cage with a tiger and knew martial arts very well

He managed to kill the tiger with his bare hands, let alone a katana

Got on it's back somehow and broke the vertebrae in it's neck...

nothings impossible

3 years after sit x, guy with the best sword and bow that knows how to use it rules his neighborhood

Originally posted by downtown436


I have a machete. I have a ball peen hammer. I have a big ass crescent wrench. I have a sledge hammer. I have a mini sledge hammer. I have a baseball bat. I think the 59.99 stainless steel budk sword will be pretty good for my collection. Don't worry, I won't put my own eye out.

I have the same collection.... You made a good buy, it's better than my $19 ninja sword. Though, that Musashi Katana is worth every penny, I would put it against a $1000 Katana, it's been my fav sword for over a year now....

[edit on 15-5-2009 by imitator]

Please don't try to use that for self defense. Think of all the people who would be sad to see you go?

You asked earlier what could go wrong with cheap swords. Imagine taking a swing at an intruder/attacker/zombie/etc, and you miss. You smack the blade off a hard metal streetlamp or concrete wall.

At 59 bucks, your sword is probably made out of cheap metal and is unlikely to be able to withstand that. The blade could break, sending a big piece of sharp metal flying unpredictably through the air.

Or, a far more likely scenario, after a couple minutes of play, testing, or combat your blade will be so dull that just when you're counting on it to stop a life-threatening attack it will prove incapable of doing so.

I have a cheapo sword. I bought it as a toy. It's never been used on anything but boxes and thin air. Despite how solid and sharp it felt to begin with, it's very apparent now that it was never intended to be used as a tool or a weapon. Fortunately I was never under the impression that it was one.

Yours will reach that point, and if you put a real work load on it, it will reach it quickly.

Good call, but for those that cant afford a 1000 dollar sword , Cabela's has nice thin blade machetes or 40 bucks that will cut of body parts of your local Zombie. I have 2 of them. As for the Zombie threat.....like one post said, its very possible, or just lets say I would not be surprised to see some event like that.

reply to post by downtown436


You don't know too much about metals do you? There's a reason folded steel was invented. Forever there has been the battle between hardness and flexibility. Something that is hard, usually is brittle, thus not useful. Something that is flexible is soft and thus the same.

Folded steel was a method by which you could cheat, get something that is both flexible and hard, therefore much much more useful. Now true Damascus steel is special, it has properties that nobody really knows how they pulled off. There are somehow incredibly strong carbon nanotubes within the metal that make is nearly perfect for use as a weapon. Problem is, that technology/luck/whatever-they-did is lost, and none of the so-called Damascus steel produced today has those properties.

Stainless steel is made by adding chromium to the steel to form an alloy that is far more resistant to corrosion than normal carbon steel, however it still does have properties based upon the carbon-content of the steel.

In my opinion, a good survival knife is still the best bet for making it through a variety of situations. Everything from defense to dressing of meats and anything else you can think of. Again, using one of these for defense however needs training.

Also, as a martial artist, I can tell you that "training" by having someone throw things at you and you hit them with the sword will only make you a better baseball DH. My advice is to go take classes, there are tons of quality courses on self-defense offered. The single most important survival skill you will learn in a martial arts study however is discipline. Being able to control yourself and your body in a crisis situation is an invaluable tool that will make you far better both as a person and in a stressful environment.