That will be due to the superior steel quality Cena, folded 2000 times unlike inferior European swords.

The design is also superior. I don't get why Homer can't get that through his dang dirty skull.

I think the Portuguese would disagree, if they weren't so busy taking Japanese slaves with their superior alloy rapiers.

The Japanese did have the best bolt-action rifle of WW2, though, the Arisaka 99. No match for simi-autos, flame-throwers and nukes, though.

As I've pointed out before, the Celts and the Saxons were pattern-welding swords long before the Japanese. An Ulfbehrt Sword, finest of the Viking blades, would have been demonstrably superior to a katana, as Ulfbehrts were made using the same basic forging techniques as a katana, combined with the better-quality metals that could only be found in Europe, not in Japan.

Moreover, Europeans considered the Ulfberht design to be an outdated historical relic long before the golden age of medieval chivalry began. A proper knight would go into battle bearing a sword several *centuries* more advanced than the Ulfbhert Viking-Katana. If B is better than A, and C is better than B, then C is better than A. As per the transitive law, arming swords are superior to katanas. QED.


I mean, really. Does anyone labor under the illusion that matchlock pistols are superior to Desert Eagles? That Tandy 2000s are superior to modern gaming rigs? That G1 My Little Pony is superior to G4? No, of course they do not. Why, then, conservatives refuse to accept the tide of progress, and persist in clinging to their katanas, is beyond me.

Because sometimes a design can't go beyond perfection. Look atbtje M16, it's been the standard since Nam. The 1911 is still valued.
Vikings? Really? Deadliest Warrior settled the viking vs samurai issue long ago.

I've already debunked the Vikings vs Samurai episode at length elsewhere. It was riddled with flaws, and in fact, watching it convinced me that Vikings were better than Samurai (up until that point, I had always been an adherent of the theory that Samurai > Vikings).

The M-16 has been largely superseded by the M-4, and the 1911, while still an excellent sidearm, is only about a century old. The 1911 could be comparable to a good mid-11th century arming sword; it works, and it will continue to work for awhile yet, but modern gunsmiths (like the Euorpean swordsmiths of old) will no doubt be improving upon its design for centuries more to come.

Ulfberht, in case this is the first you've heard of the Viking-Katana:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTlmrAh1oHI

Japanese swordsmiths folded the steel for their swords so many times because the ore they had access to was absolute crap. If you have purer ore you don't have to fold & weld so many times to achieve the same result.

Oh, I wasn't being serious at all, just poking the sword nerd nest a little with obvious trolling.

that's called jealousy