If you could build a sword with today's tech how would you design it?

[Deleted]

I would dual wield ulfberht viking swords made with modern steel.
I like the idea of having built in tasers, so i would bring solar cells to charge it with.

Hopefully tasers would bring me the edge over ppl that actually know how to fight with melee weapons.

[Amalaric]

Nippon steel, folded over a thousand times, cut clean through steel!

Don't believe the hype and it's layers and not how many times folded i.e. folded five times equals 65536 layers.

[Gaaz]

Depends on many things:
1. Is it for a one time battle or a weapon for countinuous and frequent use. If it is a single shot weapon, I would use some of the hardest vanadium steel on the outer edge, while making a central base out of a relatively shock absorbant titanium alloy. Would be difficult to do though, as titanium would have a lower melting point (not sure, but I think it has).
For constant use, I would very much consider the opposite aproach. No matter how hard your edge is, it is going to be dulled by other weapons, armor etc. You will not be able to sharpen a vanadium steel or tungsten edge. Ever. Unless you have a high temperature modern forge at the ready. So cutting edge would be made from a lower melting point steel alloy, while center base would be either titanium alloy, or higher carbon steel. This will allow me to sharpen and repair it in the field, as well as reforge the cutting edge if needed.
2. Shape depends on circumstances of use. For organized line combat with a shield you need a relatively short blade. Kind of like gladius (and a spear). For loose formations and if your opponents are unarmored, a curved sword will be optimal. Something sabre like. Against armored opponents you need a straight and heavy blade or a flail/warhammer . Katana is actually a bad choice, as it is normally much heavier than a sabre and thus slower to wield with one hand or requires both hands and limits your mobility and defense, as well as not effective at puncturing metal armors compared to straight blade with a long and pointy edge.
3. If you have absolutely no idea as to what you will be facing, an average sized straight or curved sword made for prolonged use would cover most bases. Something like this:

[Flarelaine]

Say you were going to time travel back to 1100AD and you wanted to create a sword to take with you using modern day tech, what kind of sword would you make and what would you make it out of?

You have budgeted $10,000 for this sword.

An important question, am I going on a mission or am I going to stay?

At any rate, I'll take the budget, buy an entirely medieval sword made of high quality modern steel, a kevlar suit and I'll have the leftover budget in Byzantine hyperpyron, thank you.

[Mormolyce]

It's absolutely the case, as you said, because of armor. Maybe "crushing" is the wrong word. "Concussive" may be the better word in that case.

Against unarmored targets, it still doesn't matter if it's sharp, just that it works to physically amplify pressure. That's math.

Edit: If you had to cut down a large oak tree, would you rather have a razor sharp katana or a dull european longsword?

You can't chop down a tree with either of those implements. European longswords aren't dull though, that's a myth. There's a lot of videos on it on Youtube, eg:



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Nippon steel, folded over a thousand times, cut clean through steel!

If you fold Nippon steel a thousand times, it can cut through Nippon steel :P

[Mormolyce]

Urgh double post.

[Artaxerxes]

Don't believe the hype and it's layers and not how many times folded i.e. folded five times equals 65536 layers.

Yea just like the idiot samurai in this video claiming his sword can cut the clouds or something.

Well he would be seeing the clouds at the end of the video to say the least.

Thought the samurai were supposed to be invincible yet not one of them makes it within striking distance of the rotating barrels firing 200 rounds a minute.

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Can I just take back the $10,000 and be rich as fuck?

All I'm going to say here is L2 Economics.

[ranzino]

all the myths and glory aside, just for the craftmanship of a katana build in modern times:



it's a simple build of 2 steel sorts, but still a lot of work.

[Ryme]

A sword that shoots swords is what I'd take to town.

[zenkai]

Say you were going to time travel back to 1100AD and you wanted to create a sword to take with you using modern day tech, what kind of sword would you make and what would you make it out of?

You have budgeted $10,000 for this sword.

I have this hanging on my wall, I would just take this with me.

[Danner]

I would build a gun.

This is the correct answer.
The reason swords are no longer in use is because guns made them obsolete.

Now, I'm pretty sure you could build some ridiculous nano-tech sword that self-regenerates and self-sharpens... but gun still shoots you before you get close.

[ranzino]

This is the correct answer.
The reason swords are no longer in use is because guns made them obsolete.

Now, I'm pretty sure you could build some ridiculous nano-tech sword that self-regenerates and self-sharpens... but gun still shoots you before you get close.

Guns in 1100 AD ? a range weapon would be a bow of some sorts or a really awesome crossbow.

[wowaccounttom]

like a sword....

[dextersmith]

Modern day tech? Like glue a swiss army knife, flash light, and rape whistle to it? There's not much you can do with today's modern day tech. You can tape on a cell phone but cell phone towers weren't built until 1000AD.

Wait, I'll tape a car to my sword.

[Mormolyce]

I have this hanging on my wall, I would just take this with me.

No offence to Frostmourne, but I imagine that's stainless steel, so even if you got it to hold an edge it'd likely break in combat.

You could probably hock it for a mint in 1100AD though.

[zenkai]

No offence to Frostmourne, but I imagine that's stainless steel, so even if you got it to hold an edge it'd likely break in combat.

You could probably hock it for a mint in 1100AD though.

True, ill just have to rig some red LD lights to light up in the skull eyes and make all the monkeys think I am a bad ass sorcerer.

[Pannonian]

But... Glorious nippon steel...



SEE! This guy knows.

And would still be weaker than spanish steel. Thats the sad part - it doesn't matter how often you fold it, japanese steel is stil... well shit - also it doesn't help that the japanese had so many rules regarding the katana and they never improved it over a few hundred years - while the europeans came up with new stuff all the time.

There is a reason why samurai were mostly archers and the katana was a weapon of last resort, because... its kinda shit.

Edit: To the original question - just had to make a picture. I'd settle for something like this:



This was created in prague in 2000. I paid 300 EUR for it and i fought about 50 times with it - of course its dull and has never been sharpened, but for me personally it has always been my favourite sword, and the best to handle

[telygroar]

depend on where youre going to fall and what will be your enemy. If youre going to meet full armored european knight, the katana will be useless. If people are light/non armored you will cut them like sashimi with it. In the case of armored knight, a fucking good claymore with steel alliage would be better.

[Deleted]

Sword design itself was pretty much perfected by the late middle ages; the only things you can improve on are the materials. I would make a 15th century style longsword out of some of the strongest modern steel alloys available. Carbon steel with proper heat treatment is always a good choice, but I'm sure it could still be improved.

[Kathandira]

The epitome of sword technology, literally. Nothing can be improved on the katana.

Thems fightin words!

Katanas fulfill a specific purpose, much like most weapons. A Katana is not the sword to end all swords. It was great for the reasons it was designed. But in a different environment, they may not be better than the weapons which were designed for that specific environment.