inevitableisopod

[inevitableisopod]

Hello!

Hello!

mine apologies, but i got a job. unfortunately it took a lot of time. but my contract is now ended, so i'm free!

i return home to the dales on Saturday, so expect some more posts in sequence.

i also have a new sword, which i will receive on Sunday, so new review too.

anyways goodbye for now! i bid thee a good day.

May your edges stay sharp and your points true!

[inevitableisopod]

Attention, Attention

My good friends, cutting is complete and photos taken, sword used for at least a dozen hours, and the review is being written.

coming soon!

(a quick teaser)

[inevitableisopod]

The Carrot

@payerodan you asked, and so you shall receive

Long ago, before we had big fancy machines that got us 1 cell thick slices of plants existed, you had to do it by hand. and how they did this, was with a carrot. you cut a slit in the carrot, put the leaf in it, use it as a vice, and use a single bevelled razor blade to cut your super thin sections. unfortunately, that's fucking stupid; my uni made me and my fellow plant scientists, all 10 of us, try this method because we were going to be assessed on it. unfortunately, we only had the really thick bladed hilariously blunt reusable scalpels to use, and leaves with a very thick middle layer, so it was spongy. this went exactly as you'd expect, and me and my best mate proceeded to spend the next 3-4 hours of hour lives slicing a carrot. we cut over a thousand slices, none where thin enough, the leaves just tore. but it was an assessment. we had to do it. so cue the shouting, as we needed to vent our choler with the stupid orange root, by verbally abusing it.

they decided to drop it as an assessed piece

we were rather upset.

[inevitableisopod]

Silence Is Ending

Hello. Its me. How are you? I'm well.

my absence has been long, and stressful (by absence i basically mean everything after like November), as i am in the second year of my degree now, and they've had me do a lot of very complicated things, like shouting at a carrot for 3 hours. i will not be elaborating. unless someone asks.

anyways, soonish, im finishing uni for the summer, so ill have some free patches to actually get back to writing, until mid june when i've managed to harass one of my lecturers into letting help him. so, i'm in Puerto de la Cruz in Tenerife rn, on a plant diversity trip so im speedrunning an assignment cause they gave us a day to do it, and i head back to england tomorrow. i'll be back with my collection by tuesday, so i should be able to review the sword i got in January in the next 2-3 weeks.

after that ill continue speaking on the landsknecht and other similar troops used by other cultures at different times, and maybe another word review on a miao dao, or a chu jian or something.

soooooo.... that's me!

May your edge stay sharp, and your points true!

[inevitableisopod]

The Lies of Dead Men

sooooooooo you know how i was writing a somewhat fluid account of historical fiction starting with the Persians and ending with the fall of the Byzantine? Yeah so that's going immensely terribly, and this is the woe-is-me/i'm-a-god section of the post now, we'll get to the rant later! okay so uni, assignments, the very real possibility i'm an alcoholic, people are hot annnddddd you're caught up.

So, what i wanted to talk about today is my favourite authors. i hate them. if i got the chance to meet them, id want to beat them with my fists until they felt bad for the things they did, then crucify them. so who are my favourite authors? well, primary sources fascinate me. they are, generally, at best, unreliable and perhaps even complete lies. take Bernal Díaz del Castillo. never heard of him? same, until last year. Diaz was a conquistador, which today has come to mean some kind of conqueror, but was really an investor, who invested in arms and armour, so they could go to the new world, and steal all its stuff. now, Diaz was not Cortez, but Diaz was standing right next to him as the Nahua people burned, and starved, and were poisoned, and died. and, to cover his own ass, he wrote a book justifying it. for his service he became Governor of Cuba. at this point you may be thinking, "the Aztec did human sacrifice." as if that means anything. i, personally, would argue that this relatively minor and common (romans, Christian tradition, etc. i mean jesus was literally sacrificed) does not warrant that an entire civilisation and culture should quite literally be erased of the face of the earth, and their books burned. the issue is much of the history most of you will be taught is from a European perspective, not a native one. you know why? we killed them, we burned their books, and what they really thought, and in some cases what actually happened have been lost, and will never be recovered. this, as you may note, bothers me slightly, and i do apologise for the slightly more aggressive than normal tone in my ramblings, but, so very few people know of these things and i felt i had to pour my anger out, somewhat.

Whatever the case, i do not necessarily hope you enjoyed my madness today, but i do hope it made you think.

May your edges stay sharp and your points true.

[inevitableisopod]

Updates

Hello! i am not dead! the story is continuing to be worked on, and i'm trying to string together a coherent but character centric narrative of the earlier days of the roman republic and its harrddddddddd okay bye!

edit: maybe it would be easier to begin with the Persian invasions of Greece, it rather sets up the whole thing and i just got Persian fire (Tom Holland, no not that one)

[inevitableisopod]

Story Time?

In view of the fact i can't review anything right now, I've elected to tell a story instead. part one to come.

[inevitableisopod]

My Rage Knows No Bounds

They still haven't delivered me bloody sword.

That is all.

(edit)

It is here. review coming at weeks end

(edit2)

never mind it's still fucking snowy i haven't been able to test anything

[inevitableisopod]

Happy Holidays

So. It's been around 3 1/2 months since i've started this blog, and i just wanted to thank you all for the support, it's been far above any beyond what i expected. i honestly still expected to be screaming into the void at this point, but, by your grace, i'm not.

So thank you all for reading. next post when it's ready

May your edges stay sharp, and your points true!

Alex

[inevitableisopod]

Oh Don't get me wrong, i completely agree, i just saw an opportunity to have some fun :D

i do honestly really love your take on him, it's much the same as mine, but honestly i always found his sons much more interesting than him in many ways!

p.s. addition, will you not hail the lord of the night?????

Solruthus Ver Za Jass

As @robot-roadtrip-rants said sanguinis is a middle school self insert fanfic character.

This is correct.

I, however, in my exalted wisdom and unbound ambition, shall hear no more of this slander. my boi is the fucking best, and i shall hear nothing more of these completely true and reasonable lies.

In other news, my actual favorite primarch is Konrad Curze. He skins people :D

Curze found himself on the sunless world of Nostramo, which was full of crime. Curze is very very upset by crime, so as he grew, he started beating the ever living shit out of any criminal he saw, and later, skinning them alive and broadcasting their screams across the entire planet, then leave their skinned, crucified corpses for all to see.

Eventually, he was known by only one name, and it was not the name The Emperor intended for him to have. all his life, he had been called only Night Haunter, and so that was how he thought of himself for the remainder of his life.

As he aged his mental state gradually declined, though the argument his mental state was batshit insane to begin with. Curze did all he did because he saw the future, but instead of pointedly ignoring it like Sangunius, he treated it as fixed; and so did all these terrible things and atrocities because he believed he had no choice, which further lead to the decline of his mental state along with his sons nature as killers, not because of fate but because they enjoy it.

Eventually he effectively committed suicide by allowing an imperial assassin to kill him in-front of all his sons, making a point to the (now dead) emperor, that fate was fixed and that he stood for something in the end.

Why the Night Haunter intrigues me is not because of the fact he was a barley human animal, but of how much more he easily could have been, and his struggle to be that better person, if only in his own head. of course he would never take any actual action to be better, which lends tragedy to his tortured life.

Next time i'll take about my other favorite primarch, The Lion, because duty is its own fucking reward.

I'll get back to the usual fencing and sword related content eventually, probably over christmas and new years, maybe a tad afterwards, but we're going on a uni trip to Wales so i expect to be hungover for at least a week after that so who knows

Thank you for reading, as always, and may your edges stay sharp, and your points true.

[inevitableisopod]

Solruthus Ver Za Jass

As @robot-roadtrip-rants said sanguinis is a middle school self insert fanfic character.

This is correct.

I, however, in my exalted wisdom and unbound ambition, shall hear no more of this slander. my boi is the fucking best, and i shall hear nothing more of these completely true and reasonable lies.

In other news, my actual favorite primarch is Konrad Curze. He skins people :D

Curze found himself on the sunless world of Nostramo, which was full of crime. Curze is very very upset by crime, so as he grew, he started beating the ever living shit out of any criminal he saw, and later, skinning them alive and broadcasting their screams across the entire planet, then leave their skinned, crucified corpses for all to see.

Eventually, he was known by only one name, and it was not the name The Emperor intended for him to have. all his life, he had been called only Night Haunter, and so that was how he thought of himself for the remainder of his life.

As he aged his mental state gradually declined, though the argument his mental state was batshit insane to begin with. Curze did all he did because he saw the future, but instead of pointedly ignoring it like Sangunius, he treated it as fixed; and so did all these terrible things and atrocities because he believed he had no choice, which further lead to the decline of his mental state along with his sons nature as killers, not because of fate but because they enjoy it.

Eventually he effectively committed suicide by allowing an imperial assassin to kill him in-front of all his sons, making a point to the (now dead) emperor, that fate was fixed and that he stood for something in the end.

Why the Night Haunter intrigues me is not because of the fact he was a barley human animal, but of how much more he easily could have been, and his struggle to be that better person, if only in his own head. of course he would never take any actual action to be better, which lends tragedy to his tortured life.

Next time i'll take about my other favorite primarch, The Lion, because duty is its own fucking reward.

I'll get back to the usual fencing and sword related content eventually, probably over christmas and new years, maybe a tad afterwards, but we're going on a uni trip to Wales so i expect to be hungover for at least a week after that so who knows

Thank you for reading, as always, and may your edges stay sharp, and your points true.

[inevitableisopod]

Sup Fuckers

As the title suggests, Sup Fuckers, have you missed me? i'm sure you have, i haven't been myself for a fair while but now ive had several wine glasses of port so imma get reeeaaaalllll weird with it today.

right, so warhammer? the thing all the fascists are into that they don't seem to realise literally exists to take the piss out of fascism? well i love it, and i'm pretty sure i'm not a fascist. so, why do i like it? well, its got a lot of things i love in it, big burly men, big burly women, armour, weapons, heroism, tyranny (is fun to read about in fiction not in real life) is... less fun but i think they generally do a pretty good job of it. to absolutely no-one's surprise, i like the imperium. simply because there is something so fun about the literal worst case scenario being the best option (assuming you're human). also be burly men. and women. and knights. and swords???????????

so i have no idea what i'm gonna discuss in this post, but with my justifications out o the way (i don't want anyone to think i'm not a safe person or like a dick or sm i promise i'm fun. and gay. mostly gay.)

uhh i have been into it for years, i have a good general understanding, so i can talk about pretty much whatever in the universe, though i might make a post on power swords and astartes armour. and the night lords i love the spooky scary batman-with-a-skinning-fetish bois

anyways i wanted to write whatever the fuck this was, goodnight fuckers, i love you all, be safe, punch fascists, and stay sharp, eh? it's getting dangerous out there.

p.s. Sanguinius is the fucking best

[inevitableisopod]

Musings and ramblings

Hi all, to preface i'm doing a lot better now, though i have now become sick again GODDAMN IT (i am calm).

with that out of the way, i saw a short by false edge, and honestly it really helped catapult me out of my anxiety around starting fencing again, because the dude is fabulous. along with that i've had some ideas for a small modification of an existing approach which might be applicable to cut and thrust swords, with more of a focus on dueling cut centric swords, i won't say any more because im still 80% sure i'm talking out my arse, but the snag is i need more experience so i can test my theory, so we need to start fencing again!

with that all said, i'm resuming fencing in the new year after a years absence, i've missed it immensely and honestly this blog has been a bit of an outlet so i can push down my feverish need to fence again

at this point you might be wondering why i ever stopped, and the answer is i broke my right humerus inside the joint around 3 years ago, and it continues to trouble me quite significantly, and last year i managed to tear something internally. i'm still not 100% sure what, so the last year has been me trying to rebuild my strength in that arm, as well as try and take my weight down a bit so i can be a lighter on my feet (and be a smaller target) and i'm finally getting to a point where i can use a sword for a fair while in earnest

this is meant to be the last post for a long while where i speak about how i'm doing, simply because ill soon be able to take steps to improve again. anyways, hopefully this explains some things and perhaps will highlight a change in the content on this blog

i'd also welcome any tips you all have for strengthening my arm again, specifically for fencing cause it still feels a bit spongy in certain binds, especially the hanging parries, so id really appreciate some help there.

the next sword for review is on its way, it's a longquan made (not a downside at all in my book, they can do very good work) katana simply because i don't have one, and i liked the shape, so the review should be up in early january, maybe late i have no idea (teaser image below)

May your edges stay sharp, and your points true!

Edit: This post makes no sense

[inevitableisopod]

A Brief Update

Hello all, this appears to becoming a habit, but once again i must apologise for an absence, this time due to mental health! hooray!

i shan't bore you all with the details my dear readers, but i will say that something more unusual will be coming in the next week or so.

For those unaware, I'm a uni student studying plant science, and part of that is annoying people who are big boy plant scientists until they talk to me. to this end i'm heading to London for the first time soon for a conference, and i was wondering if you all might be interested in that? perhaps i can begin to work in my specific area of interest in this blog, which is Hymenoptera (membranous winged insects). so ants, bees and wasps basically. or i can ignore that and continue with my unhinged sword rambles, just let me know!

May your edges stay sharp, and your points true!

(p.s don't expect the next sword review till January, and it'll probably be something Japanese, but i have no idea)

[inevitableisopod]

Utterly Ridiculous

Okay so, as promised, today is sword review day!

Last year, i bought a LK Chen sword, my first one in fact! For those who don't know LK Chen is a Chinese sword manufacturer that specialises in high fidelity replicas of original Chinese swords

Enter the Yan-Ling Dao. so, what is a dao? its basically the equivalent of a European falchion or messer, especially the yan-ling dao, or goose quill sabre; which usually has a (sometimes sharpened) false edge near the point where it narrows dramatically to a honestly somewhat worryingly fine point, as well as one to two fullers (grooves) running most of the length of the blade.

Specifications 

Sword only weight:  approx. 878 g (1 lb. 14.9 oz)

Blade length approx.         69.50 cm  (27.36")

Handle including fitting     18.00  cm  (7.08")

Total length                        87.00 cm  (34.25")

Point of Balance approx.     8.5 cm (3.35") from hand guard

Blade thickness  

at base:                   8.50 mm  

40 cm from base: 5.00 mm  

5 cm from tip: 2.20 mm  

Blade width  

at base:                   33.5 mm  

40 cm from base: 33.0 mm

50 cm from base: 35.0 mm  

60 cm from base: 31.0 mm  

it features wrought iron hilt and scabbard fittings, a (what looks like oak) handle; which is glued and pinned to the tang in 3 places, 2 bamboo pins and a hollow copper pin that allows a lanyard to be attached; wrapped in waxed cotton what is not glued in place, but is however wrapped so tightly that i sincerely doubt it will ever come loose. the sword carries a sun and sky theme with a sun shaped guard and brass decoration around the copper pin. the scabbard fittings match the square handle fittings and feature cloud motifs at the attachment points with copper rivets to continue the colour scheme.

it comes with a wood cored and vegan leather wrapped scabbard that does not retain the sword. i have few problems with this especially concerning that the blade widens until about 2/3 of the way along but it could certainly be a tighter fit. fit aside i have no problems with the scabbard. the general fit and finish of the sword is superb, everything is extremely tight and i could not find a gap or seam i could actually get a fingernail in. the peen is very clean and the hollow copper pin and brass washer are sanded smooth enough you cannot feel them in your grip.

a final thing to note in details is that it comes as standard with a pattern welded blade, and while this doesn't effect the blade performance in any way with modern steels (in fact perhaps decreasing the durability) it is extremely well executed and honestly beautiful to look at, the pattern reminding of ink in water smoke,or perhaps a wood grain. the pattern is very fine and lightly etched, and the overall blade finish is a mirror polish

Onto usage! this is what inspired the title because the bastard thing is absolutely terrifying. its rather forward weighted but still fast and agile, and most importantly, boy does it cut. it's honestly perhaps too good at cutting? bottles? no resistance, even if you significantly bugger it up, wood is absolutely fine so long as you don't go too far, there is almost zero hand shock and due to the fact that the blade is oh so slightly convex, the edge is shockingly durable and like a razor. I've shaved with this sword, and it was bloody smooth. early on i had a small accident with it where it bit through 4 towels, a hoodie and about 6mm into my arm while i was wiping it off with no notable resistance

above is a cardboard tube i cut with it. these make fairly difficult targets as they are relatively hard on the surface and very light, so they just tend to go flying if the cut isn't perfect. this sword doesn't have that problem. it just does it. below is an example of a rising cut where i massively messed up my angle

here's a poplar branch it cut through in one blow (thumb for scale)

it cuts. really well. it also handles very nicely, it feels half way between a very nimble and agile blade that just wants to move, and a blade that desires to be swung into a target as hard as possible with no finesse, and honestly, it does both really well. it stabs extremely well too, i first tested it against bottles and then wood, deliberately twisting the point slightly, and it's still completely straight.

so it's an incredible cutter, it thrusts well, and it's durable beyond what you would expect it to be. so what's the downside?

well, the scabbard just straight up doesn't retain the blade. at all. and the handle is very square. i personally found the handle very comfortable if gripped below the iron fittings, and the handle geometry is certainly beneficial to edge alignment, but it's worth pointing out

Overall, i completely adore it. it's my favorite sword in my collection and the one i'd keep if i had to give up all the others. it's full of character, it cuts like a monster and honestly it's just drop dead gorgeous.

available from the knight shop (uk) or kult of athena (us) for the low low price of £475 (check kult of athena yourself icba)

in conclusion, get it. now. i am no longer asking. i don't care if you aren't a fan of Chinese swords or sabres but it's so magnificent you need one, even if you think you don't

Thank you all for reading my beloved readers, next post will be something? i'm open to suggestions. the next review may be coming in December or January. it might be another dao or perhaps a sidesword???????

May your edges stay sharp, and your points true!

[inevitableisopod]

Sword review Saturday

What it says on the tin i just felt like i should post sm :')

[inevitableisopod]

a good point! In retrospect I should have mentioned the German perspective on usage which from my reading does seem to be more battlefield based (though I’m probably wrong so I defer to your experience,) at the time it made more sense to talk about my own experience, so a very useful addition. I have literally nothing to say about formation useage apart from some wild speculation so I’d welcome more comments 😅

may your edges stay sharp and your points true!

Bigger Angrier Men

So, the landsknecht, and their signature weapons! in this post i'll mainly be focussing on one of these weapons in particular, the doppelhander (or zweihander, or bidenhander, or montante, or spadone, they're all basically the same weapons for all intents and purposes)

(some original examples)

so, features!

firstly, as it pertains to the landsknchect, these swords had very very long grips(over 50cm including the pommel), large often spherical pommels, or perhaps scent stopper style, very wide curving guards, often with side rings to offer additional hand protection

(more examples)

and now the business end! these blades were often well over 120cm long, and had several interesting and unusual features, firstly, a blunt portion at the bottom of the blade that can be grabbed and gripped in numerous ways without paying much attention (you can grip a sharp blade without too much trouble but it's rather difficult to do without cutting yourself in the heat of the moment) this allowed our big murderous bastards to more easily control the tip of their weapons and made them much more suited to close combat against single opponents, the a smidge further up the blade we have the parrying flukes. these we don't know exactly how they would have been useful but there are a few good guesses; it acts as a forward guard when gripping the blade (half swording), it acts as a way to trap blades in binding and winding, or simply aesthetics. most likely a combination of all three and several other factors i've probably forgotten. lastly, the wavy blades; this is another thing where we do not know why. it may be that it offers additional cutting performance, or some other benefit, but it would take considerably longer to manufacture and be much more fragile (remember, real sword blades break. they might chip, have notches cut into them, have chucks crack out of the edge or even just straight up shatter). it might have been a prestige thing, which is absolutely in character for the half crazed dress sense usually exhibited by these people, and also, ive you've ever been lucky enough to see one in the sunlight, the name of the blade style, flamberge (flaming), becomes rather apparent, as the entire blade lights up in shifting patterns that seem to ripple like silver fire.

aigt so anatomy aside, how do you use the bastard? we have several iberian (spanish/portugese) and i believe a german and italian manual on how to use these, and most of the techniques appear to revolve around an individual idea, which is as follows. large continuous motions, usually swapping between the false and true edge. these actions begin and end in positions where it is easy to flow into another movement that doesn't necessarily seem to flow from the previous one, quickly and easily, but the user can also choke up and use the sword more like a short polearm for single combat, or against heavier armour. this leads us to a conclusion, which is that these swords were explicitly designed to even the score against multiple opponents by creating a large zone of area denial where to oppenents cannot go for fear of having their brains beaten out of their ears (if wearing a lighter helmet), or just being bisected. the idea is during these large movements you use the momentum of the sword to turn quickly to face new opponents continuously (spinning, basically) and so is an ideal bodyguards weapon. also, from personal experience, having been part of a reconstructed scenario where 3 people armed with longswords had to fight a montante wielder, it's fucking terrifying, the thing comes around unbelievably quickly and hits like a truck so it's rather hard to parry if your unlucky enough to have to do so. more often that not it just collapsed the structure of the parry and lead to a hit being scored. great fun to use though, very satisfying.

that'll be it today, and i'll continue the next post with the theme of even biggerer angrierer men, or possibly a sword review??????????? it's one ive had a while don't worry im not spending all my money. i'm also going back to my university this Sunday, so posts might be a tad more infrequent and also potentially much drunker, but i might also be open to doing some live streams on youtube or twitch if that's something you lot'd wanna see, it'd probably be me getting steadily drunker and answering questions sooooo just lemme know?

May your edges stay sharp, and your points true!