Underappreciated Historical Weapons: The SWORDBREAKER (the European and Chinese)

[Music] ratings I'm shad and welcome back to underappreciated historical weapons and in this episode as you've probably guessed by the title we're going to be looking at the sword a breaker or a cool name sword breaker I mean that's generally the name you to actually name a some epic kind of legendary sword B world a sword breaker but no this is actually a historical weapon but there is a bit of confusing things because technically there's two types of sword breakers from two different cultures there is the European sword breaker but there's also a Chinese weapon and it's called let's weed why is it called the sword breaker because technically in Chinese it's called the gam JM get I can't pronounce it and I know there's like the GN but that's different to the J dad dad in Chinese so I'm getting out for some speculation as to why they might consider it a sword breaker because it's more a fancy kind of a club the interesting thing about this the strange application of the title sword break error also actually kind of applies to only look at the European version because that doesn't necessarily break swords either a European sword breaker is made to trap and lock away a sword kind of breaking the opponent's ability to use it hence kind of sword breaker now could that logic be applied to the Chinese version maybe we'll get to that so I'll address the Chinese sword breaker a little bit later but first let's dive into the more classical medieval sword breaker and the first thing I can really say is it's not a medieval weapon what's Renaissance and so it seems like maybe no one had the exact idea of that this type of sword breaker at the European one you know earlier on in history but that doesn't mean it couldn't be useful or effective in a medieval setting and you can use it in fantasy fiction stuff like that an actual fact it seems like it's hard to define exactly what type of sword breakers these are but in The Wheel of Time series so you've seen it seen that series right there my favorite fantasy series there is a sword breaker in there a character named Doolin uses a sword breaker and is a thief catches basically some time of freelance cop essentially or bounty hunter one or the other and he uses a sword breaker which is clever to apply to this type of character because he wants to capture and immobilize the people not kill them you can stab with a sort well both saw breakers all right Chinese one it's gone I'm not referring to it at all until I say I'm referring it up okay it's all European boom yeah you're gonna put that into the video on yours what no it's my editor all right I can cut it out and post this in there okay so this is a European sword breaker and what an interesting weapon I have a good close look at okay clearly the thing that really catches your eye ah these kind of tooth like protrusions like a comb running along now on some versions of sword breaker they just like you know comb yeah a tooth straight button others they have hooks or kind of spikes at the end to make it more difficult for when a sword like runs into this blade and then falls into one of these gaps okay that these hooks actually trap the sword in and it can't get out it's interesting to try and figure out if this will only work with thinner bladed weapons and you can kind of see why it was developed in the Renaissance when the rapier was far more prominent you see Arabia is a one-handed weapon so you've got a free hand what are you gonna use that free hand for well rapiers were generally used in civilian tools they were actually used on the battlefield a bit as well but okay we'll look at the civilian self-defense julienne kind of thing like that if you will if you got this set up you've got a rapier obviously in my opinion so maybe it's not so obvious but in my opinion a big shield would be great in almost everything and when I say big I mean I guess I love the Chi shield of course but even a Heda she would still be really good and buckler hmm why would you not want to use a buckle with a rapier well in terms of rape your style combat you actually get a bit more leverage and ability to catch away opponents incoming strikes stuff with a specific type of parrying dagger over a buckler and sorry parrying dagger can actually work better defensively than a buckler which is designed for a defense but then you have the added advantage that it's also a weapon you can do some serious damage with this dagger and sorry it can be argued there are some people who dispute this but let me argue today pairing daggers better and defense but it's far better in offense so even if you think it's not as good defense in a buckler because it has such offensive capacity well a dagger seems to be a favored companion for a rapier and one of the reasons why daggers were better than just dual wielding rapiers is that it gets more maneuverability using two rapiers as a chance that their blades can actually get caught on one another a smaller tact Lee gives you more maneuverability to move around this really long bladed weapon that you're using in your main hand and sorry if the primary offhand weapon in this setting is a dagger what's a way that we could improve this dagger make it even better make it less sorry whatever our strike comes in you could not only block but you can trap their blade in such a way that you can manipulate it push their plate completely away ruin their defense and just kill them all this is where the logic comes in for the sword breaker like seriously we can see people doing sparring matches and stuff where someone is using a sword breaker and as soon as that rapier blade gets caught in which seems very easy just need a face those tooth protrusions to the blade hook it down and then twist or angle it in such a way that the truth so pretending my hand is the truth the blade gets it so the truths get locked in and from pressure and leverage you can't pull the blade out you've got full control of the jewel now it's like a pretty darn clever but also dirty weapon because my goodness and sorry if I lived in the past and I knew of the sword breaker I would always be using a sword breaker over a regular dagger in every instance and I wonder why they weren't more common maybe you guys might know share some insight in the comments below love to hear him maybe they were very difficult to be made because I can't see how you could Forge this shape you would have to make a just a solid kind of big wide bladed knife and then grind those protrusions in it would be a very fiddly difficult thing to make so perhaps they weren't as prominent as the regular parrying dagger because they were really expensive but for those who could afford it my goodness did they have an edge and so I think that's a good point to remember if you're wanting to apply the sword breaker into a medieval fantasy setting okay these should not cost the same as a dagger or a parrying dagger just to let you know a paring dagger is a pretty cool weapon in a void of itself the the guard on a paring dagger is much much wider than a regular dagger okay it's specifically made to be used in conjunction with a rapier so paring dagger is a specifically I think in actual fact you see some parrying daggers that look very similar to aside from Japan you know Marshall outside interesting conversion right there by going back to what I'll say if you're going to be making the sword breaker available in a medieval setting I think you need to remember that these would be far more expensive than a regular dagger okay so perhaps it's difficult to find it or a fewer more elite type of people use this type of weapon but having said that if you're in a setting where there's magical weapons I like a non-magical there's a sword breaking be more expensive than a magical sword so maybe its availability would actually be far more common in a fantasy setting than it was historically but still I gotta say this weapon certainly is an underappreciated one because there's also a confusion about it like what or what exactly is a sword breaker and some people say you should call it a sword catcher that's what break us out so much cooler I do have an interesting question about the sword breaker and that is would it be as effective against swords that have a wider blade because especially the ones that have kind of the hooks and pokes at the end of their comb kind of protrusions those are very much made for a thin blades to get caught right in between those prongs okay and then it can't get out because of the hooks but if the blade was much wider to the point where only half the blade could fit inside the prongs of the sword breaker well there's far less chance of it being caught in this weapon and in that sense they might be completely useless when I say couples I'm talking about its sword-catching mechanic might be used it could still be useless in stabbing and deflecting and stuff but catching wider blades might be completely nullified but having said that again if you catch in a broader blade in between the prongs and then you twist it and really pull it to the site where there's a chance that the friction and leverage actually might lock that blade in place and so we I would need to see experimentation to see if this type of sword breaker could still be effective against wieder blades and my logic is it could be possible but would really need to see from experimentation so guys let me know if you've done it love to hear more alright so I've looked at the European one look at the Chinese one because all its interesting it's a very intriguing kind of weapon in actual fact if you were to try to make a comparison to the Chinese sword breaker their nearest European comparison that I could make would be the S stock because the Chinese sword breaker has an Edge's okay there they know sharpened edges that's basically blunt and oftentimes it's rectangular in cross-section or just square or sometimes that they're square edges okay the flats of the edges are pushed in a little bit so it's a bit like a star cross-section and so that just concentrates the force if you hit with the edge of it but like I said the edges aren't sharpened so you're not going to be coming through but there's weight to it in contrast to this Aeneas TOC is purely a thrusting weapon I've never seen any people to say that the ax stock was used to just bludgeon people and doesn't look like the historical stalks had a lot of heft and weight in the blade where this Chinese sword breaker that does actually have a bit of heft and weight in the blade they're reproductions main supply ad where this is actually made to hurt people when you strike with the edge you can thrust with it it's got a pointy end but it does seem like this is a more wacky weapon - I really hurt people now why would this be considered a type of sword breaker well Chinese swords seem to be quite thin and very flexible depending on what period you're looking at and stuff like that but even if you own a comparator non-flex will pretty hefty sword right these Chinese food breakers seem to be even heavier they're shorter so you get a decent amount of control but still they're there waiting hefty things and so if you have a sword coming at you if you've got something heavier you can whack that blade pretty hard and knock it aside and there's a good chance you can actually damage it and if you're being attacked with a very thinner lighter blade well interesting thing about this sword breaker is if they've tried to block a hit from this hefty kind of steel rod there's a chance that you will break that swords guard because they're so flexible and I'll go through the sword and hit the opponent and in that sense it will break the opponent's sword it might not snap it in two but it could break their guard knock it aside and so perhaps that is why in translation it's considered a sword breaker it's speculation I actually don't know exactly I would love to know because I haven't been now to find out but I can kind of see why it's called a sword breaker in this sense very different to the European sword breaker and it's a different kind of methodology the advantage is that the Chinese version seemed to get would be matched in my opinion by saying European mace something heavy something hefty they acted as a whack aside small kind of blades but the mace is limited in reach in a big way which is why swords usually outperform them this you know Chinese one doesn't seem like I could have as much heft is amazed but it has more reach so you know there's a lot of conclusions that we could probably come true through experimentation I haven't been out to do that but if you have and you have any insights once again I would love to hear them in the comments below but here we go this has been the sword breaker truly an underappreciated weapon and in my opinion I love the European one so much more and I'm not saying that because I'm if you're a hippie and heritage and all that stupid solids right stupid shut up no I like the European one because it's more sophisticated it's more versatile and it can be employed in a weapon combination that has been shown to be devastating this Chinese one looks to be a bit too heavy a bit too comes it's like you know a fancy kind of club and you know I can see benefits and weaknesses to it but in my opinion yeah the actual European one is a true sword breakup and here we go this has been the sword breaker a very underappreciated weapon and there are certain circumstances where it could be fit in really well to fantasy role-playing and other things like that and of course just historical settings and stuff I've lost interest in the musketeer TV show then you know the more recent one made by the BBC so I didn't watch long enough to see any sort breakers there but maybe they appear a bit later on I'm just glad that we're using parrying daggers and stuff in conjunction with the arabia's and the fact that there wasn't just rapiers when the carries actually use a broader kind of side sword weapon but anyway I'm getting distracted still either we very fescue TV movies I have not seen the sword breaker we need also breakers most of a break a lot of people they shouldn't outnumber parrying daggers if it's in a historical setting but you could certainly employ them in fantasy and stuff like that so have fun with them and there we go so this has been sort of breaker thank you for watching guys I hope you have enjoyed and of course I hope to see you again till that time [Music]

Channel: Shadiversity

Views: 1,021,857

Keywords: sword, swordbreaker, european, chinese, dagger, parrying, rapier, longsword, medieval, middle ages, blade, weapon, renaissance, game of thrones, lord of the rings, dnd, dungeons and dragons, d&d, skyrim, anime, wheel of time, top ten, top 10, diel, hema, historical european martial arts, history, historical, prongs, sparring, martial arts, fantasy, breaker, gan, estock, estok, buckler, shield

Id: gUaVFufDiks

Length: 13min 23sec (803 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 19 2019