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Lawman 0 posted:He could put an eye out with that mustache Perhaps the most preferred outcome possible here
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Sep 2, 2020 04:27
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Dumb question : is there any practical reason you'd ever make a knife-blade out of brass?
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Sep 2, 2020 05:35
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Xiahou Dun posted:Dumb question : is there any practical reason you'd ever make a knife-blade out of brass? Steel will keep an edge better, but I don't see why brass would be terrible. You can get knives in various copper-based alloys for applications where sparking is a concern. Edit: I could also see someone making a diver's knife out of brass or bronze, though I think top-end ones these days have titanium blades, or advanced stainless steel alloys.
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Sep 2, 2020 05:39
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Cessna posted:You aren't?
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Sep 2, 2020 06:02
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Cessna posted:You aren't? You aren't. A good, clean cut is what does the actual damage in swordfighting.
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Sep 2, 2020 06:27
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Beardless posted:Steel will keep an edge better, but I don't see why brass would be terrible. You can get knives in various copper-based alloys for applications where sparking is a concern. I can see it having specialty uses, but no idea why you'd use it for just some random knife. But what do I know, I'm just some rear end in a top hat. Dance Officer posted:You aren't. A good, clean cut is what does the actual damage in swordfighting. Even just cutting firewood and stuff you don't want to be tense. You're basically doing more work to fight yourself from being effective.
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Sep 2, 2020 06:32
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CommonShore posted:All of the Okinawan martial arts claim to be anti-authoritarian in their origins. Edit: Which isn't to say this doesn't happen! I did karate for a bit before Covid hit and I had to bite my tongue when the instructor started telling folk tales about Okinawan peasants fighting samurai. Siivola fucked around with this message at 07:04 on Sep 2, 2020 |
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Sep 2, 2020 06:52
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Xiahou Dun posted:I can see it having specialty uses, but no idea why you'd use it for just some random knife. But what do I know, I'm just some rear end in a top hat. Nobody does use it for random knives, as far as I can tell. Brass is fairly commonly used on knife handles or hilts, though. What prompted the question, if you don't mind my asking?
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Sep 2, 2020 06:56
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Beardless posted:Nobody does use it for random knives, as far as I can tell. Brass is fairly commonly used on knife handles or hilts, though. What prompted the question, if you don't mind my asking? I was watching this show called Hunters and the main character found a brass (I'm assuming rather than like bronze) knife his grandmother had. It looks like a pretty nice full-tang knife but seems to be all brass and it made me go what the gently caress?
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Sep 2, 2020 07:04
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Xiahou Dun posted:I was watching this show called Hunters and the main character found a brass (I'm assuming rather than like bronze) knife his grandmother had. It looks like a pretty nice full-tang knife but seems to be all brass and it made me go what the gently caress? Ahh okay. Yeah, I have no idea about that. A brass or bronze knife would still set off a metal detector as far as I know, so it likely wouldn't be for sneaking through any kind of security. Actually, having looked into the show, I have an idea. Was the knife clearly in view? I'm wondering if it might have been a Fairbairn-Sykes Commando knife, which did sometimes have brass handles:  That's exactly the sort of thing someone who had been a Nazi-hunter might have had, and might easily appear to be made entirely of brass, depending on how the scene was lit.
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Sep 2, 2020 07:15
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Beardless posted:Ahh okay. Yeah, I have no idea about that. A brass or bronze knife would still set off a metal detector as far as I know, so it likely wouldn't be for sneaking through any kind of security. Actually, having looked into the show, I have an idea. Was the knife clearly in view? I'm wondering if it might have been a Fairbairn-Sykes Commando knife, which did sometimes have brass handles: Nah it had a curved blade similar to an under-sized bowie knife. Not that size but that kind of edge. And then then the handle looked like some slightly decorated bone/ivory kind of deal. Never seen a knife like it. And definitely it's all brass on the blade (or coated at least) with a visible tang. How weird of a knife it was is part of what made me perk up and be curious. I don't know if it'd be a bad knife but it reminds me of that Saab that had a joystick instead of a steering-wheel. You've clearly made some uh non-standard decisions what is going on.
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Sep 2, 2020 07:43
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Xiahou Dun posted:that Saab that had a joystick Lots of Saabs have joysticks 
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Sep 2, 2020 07:46
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I walked into that one. You got me.
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Sep 2, 2020 07:53
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Disillusionist posted:I'm also reading Winning a Future War by Norman Friedman (also from this thread) and would enjoy something similar, whether it's naval doctrine or just the history of how military organizations evolved between wars. Winning a Future War is $1.99 on Kindle at this exact moment, not a bad book but I wanted a lot more on what scenarios they actually gamed out. Learning War: The Evolution of Fighting Doctrine in the U.S. Navy, 1898–1945 has a ton of material on how the US Navy developed a world class professional officer corps that could solve really hard problems in doctrine and tactics in a distributed fashion. It is not on sale (  ), but is very much worth cover price. You'll learn about how organizations change, grow, and learn over the course of decades. If you want to know more about the importance of doctrine and how it is developed and applied, get this book.One of my favorite sections is on the development of the modern CiC. When the SG radar got to the fleet, nobody knew how to integrate it into the tactical operations of the fleet. It gave the operator a god's eye view of the battlespace, but that doesn't automatically translate into decision support for the officer in tactical command. Some early SG-equipped ships had the XO watching the radar plot and updating the captain by yelling from the door to the radar room. This came to CinCPAC's attention in late 1942 during the Solomons surface actions. The word went out to the fleet: every ship needs a CiC to concentrate information from signals and sensors, and relay that to the officer in command; build one and tell us what you did. They didn't say how, they weren't prescriptive, they didn't even get the type commands to prescribe specific spaces in the ship for the CiC. They let hundreds of bright, well-educated officers loose on the problem, collated the various solutions, and then issued orders for a standard CiC layout and procedures for each type of ship. The USN got a better CiC layout and superior procedures, faster, by distributed problem solving than they ever could have by having the rear area admirals impose a solution gleaned from brainstorming in Pearl Harbor. https://smile.amazon.com/Learning-War-Evolution-Fighting-1898-1945-ebook/dp/B07BF86ZH2/
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Sep 2, 2020 08:00
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PittTheElder posted:Sitting discourteously to own the king It probably speaks volumes about how obsessed with propriety they were that they felt compelled to note that the guy sat wrong  after failing an assassination attempt, having a cut across his thigh (probably exposing an artery), and being stabbed eight times.
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Sep 2, 2020 09:35
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Brass is used in particularly naval knives for being rustproof for the handle, diving knives in the pre plastics era would have brass sheaths, wood or leather being unsuitable for fairly obvious reasons. Brass still sets off most metal detectors, ones in airports for instance are active detectors that generate their own EM field, this works by creating electromagnetic fields that are disrupted by any conductive material entering them, ferrous materials will set off all detectors because they generate their own magnetic field that can be detected even by detectors who don't generate their own field (passive). I don't know if any security scanners use passive means, I don't see why they would so it's more things like handheld metal detectors. Brass will blunt pretty quickly if you try to use it as a cutting surface, hardening it so it lasts a little longer is a right pain in the behind and I believe that hard brass is incredibly brittle so it would likely shatter if it hit bone. So even in old divers knives they will make the blade out if steel, it's easier to just sub the blade out, clean it or in extremis use a new knife after a few dives. The alternative being that you have a knife you might need to cut something like naval rope with in order to save someone's life, not work because brass won't stand up in that situation at all. If it's in it's sheath it should be pretty well protected in any case and corrosion doesn't happen that quickly. Broadly no there isn't a reason you'd make a blade out of brass other than as just a cool looking thing. You could conceivably make one out of bronze and it would be better but again there isnt really a reason to other than looks if steel is available. Polyakov fucked around with this message at 10:33 on Sep 2, 2020 |
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Sep 2, 2020 10:05
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:It wasn’t like he was randomly thrust in to the role from an ordinary unit, or even an ordinary Cheka/NKVD unit. He was noted even as a Chekist for his skill at wetwork, came to the attention of Stalin, and was notable enough that he was put in charge of a special secret wetwork group within the NKVD. He enjoyed and was good at his job, which was killing people. From Wikipedia: After Beria's fall from power in June of the same year, Blokhin's rank was stripped from him in the de-Stalinization campaigns of Nikita Khrushchev. He reportedly sank into alcoholism and serious mental illness, and died on 3 February 1955, with the official cause of death listed as "suicide". Now SU being SU, it's hard to say what really happened. He might have enjoyed his job so much that he was sad when he couldn't do it anymore, or perhaps the job made him mentally ill, or most likely, he was that to start with. He definitely was good at his job, but did he enjoy it?
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Sep 2, 2020 12:16
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glynnenstein posted:Some regular posters seem to mostly hang in the discord these days. Yeah, and it has made this thread more quiet.
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Sep 2, 2020 12:18
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ChubbyChecker posted:From Wikipedia: After Beria's fall from power in June of the same year, Blokhin's rank was stripped from him in the de-Stalinization campaigns of Nikita Khrushchev. He reportedly sank into alcoholism and serious mental illness, and died on 3 February 1955, with the official cause of death listed as "suicide". It’s very hard to advance to being The Guy without enjoying your work. He was absolutely hosed in the head. I’m just trying to push back on the idea that was advanced that Noble Comrade Blokhin decided to be the trigger puller to spare his men’s sanity. It seems very improbable given his body of work.
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Sep 2, 2020 12:41
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Xiahou Dun posted:Nah it had a curved blade similar to an under-sized bowie knife. Not that size but that kind of edge. And then then the handle looked like some slightly decorated bone/ivory kind of deal. Never seen a knife like it. There's the standard historian response: Could it be a ritual tool?
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Sep 2, 2020 13:13
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CommonShore posted:Preamble - I'm an MMA dork with quite a bit of training experience, and I have some academic credentials on top of this. I've seen a few academic presentations on 18th century boxing too. TL;DR is that your friend is not entirely wrong, but he's not so far from wrong for me to say that he's right. This is an awesome answer, thanks!
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Sep 2, 2020 13:30
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:It’s very hard to advance to being The Guy without enjoying your work. He was absolutely hosed in the head. I’m just trying to push back on the idea that was advanced that Noble Comrade Blokhin decided to be the trigger puller to spare his men’s sanity. It seems very improbable given his body of work. I mean it might not require ”noble comrade Blokhin” for him to realize that nobody else can pull off 35 executions an hour So better just have them as the hosemen and bodyhaulers. Gotta meet that quota, otherwise Stalin might get unhappy, and having half of your detail collapse from mental breakdown isnt going to mean the dead people carry and bulldoze their own remains. You can be hosed in the head and still figure out the most functional way to mass-produce atrocities.
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Sep 2, 2020 13:42
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Valtonen posted:I mean it might not require ”noble comrade Blokhin” for him to realize that nobody else can pull off 35 executions an hour So better just have them as the hosemen and bodyhaulers. Gotta meet that quota, otherwise Stalin might get unhappy, and having half of your detail collapse from mental breakdown isnt going to mean the dead people carry and bulldoze their own remains. I agree with this! Blokhin was The Guy and it was his responsibility, so better be sure that it's done correctly. However, you don't get to be the Guy without talent, initiative, and an affinity for the work. I'm specifically pushing back on this post: Fly Molo posted:...given his past experience with executions, it almost seems like that could've been a horrifying attempt to spare the mental health of the guys under his command.
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Sep 2, 2020 13:47
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Kinda TFR, but - still working on my Jedburgh thing, and am wondering: - Which marks of Sten Gun were dropped to resistance fighters in France 1944? - What might be normal makes and brands of hunting shotgun/rifle in France 1944?
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Sep 2, 2020 13:58
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Tias posted:Kinda TFR, but - still working on my Jedburgh thing, and am wondering: The Mk. II was the most common Sten pattern and the one I can immediately find in photos of the French resistance. The Mk. III was even cruder and I wouldn't be surprised if it was supplied as well. Resistance groups across Europe also manufactured thousands of Sten copies in garages and basements. The potential make and model of a hunting gun in France at this time is one that's hard to answer simply because there were so many manufacturers across Europe of varying sizes and prestige. Verney-Carron, Didier-Drevet, Mauser, Sauer, FN, L. Douard, Meteor, Mannlicher-Schönauer, etc. You could easily find a few dozen double-barreled shotguns in 12 gauge or 16 gauge that were virtually identical to each other and only differentiated by name and minor details. I believe Lebel M1886 rifles were also sold on the commercial market in addition to dedicated commercial hunting rifles. chitoryu12 fucked around with this message at 14:26 on Sep 2, 2020 |
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Sep 2, 2020 14:23
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Tias posted:Kinda TFR, but - still working on my Jedburgh thing, and am wondering: I don’t know about the sten gun thing but the hunting gear is going to depend entirely on who it was for. Someone with money might have a super nice Mauser Model B, for example, that would be functionally identical to a military Mauser sniper rifle only prettier and frankly better made. Meanwhile a farmer might have a piece of surplus from the last war, sporterized or not, or an older commercial gun like one of the various Mannlicher designs. A poor farmer might have something fairly ancient, up to and including black powder. To give an idea, military surplus guns from the American Civil War were not uncommon as hunting guns for dirt poor people during the Great Depression. Remember, that’s only ~60-70 years after the civil war so it’s about the same as someone hunting with a cheap surplus Mosin in 2010. BasicallY when it comes to civilian guns the answer is just about anything you care to come up with.
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Sep 2, 2020 14:26
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ChubbyChecker posted:From Wikipedia: After Beria's fall from power in June of the same year, Blokhin's rank was stripped from him in the de-Stalinization campaigns of Nikita Khrushchev. He reportedly sank into alcoholism and serious mental illness, and died on 3 February 1955, with the official cause of death listed as "suicide". A spiral of alcoholism and for example depression and dementia could just be the "normal" reactions for an old dude who suddenly fell from grace, lost his job, and maybe didn't have that much of a social support network to begin with. You'd need more info on that mental illness at the very least.
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Sep 2, 2020 14:44
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aphid_licker posted:A spiral of alcoholism and for example depression and dementia could just be the "normal" reactions for an old dude who suddenly fell from grace, lost his job, and maybe didn't have that much of a social support network to begin with. You'd need more info on that mental illness at the very least. There's no way we can armchair diagnose him at this point. This is setting aside how problematic a ruling of "suicide" in a post-Stalin USSR is for someone who obviously knew so many of Stalins dirty little secrets. That said, depression and alcoholism are very well established as being problems with German soldiers who were involved in the big shooting actions. Both the Soviets and the Germans also made copious amounts of alcohol available to their soldiers after those kinds of massacres. I don't know about the particulars of the Soviets, but in the German case it was basically considered a ration. They'd start them drinking during the killing and keep it going after it was done, and then just leave them alone to keep drinking for a few days afterwards.
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Sep 2, 2020 14:57
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Lots of old single shot service rifles in large calibers received conversions to shotguns were kicking around. The Tabatiere was commonly converted.
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Sep 2, 2020 14:58
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:Lots of old single shot service rifles in large calibers received conversions to shotguns were kicking around. The Tabatiere was commonly converted. How does the conversion happen?
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Sep 2, 2020 15:03
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Sniper Party posted:Tensing up does slow the strike down, but wouldn't make it more powerful. If you can find a way to use strength without tensing up let me know. Maybe we have imperfect terminology here - I can't think of a way to use strength without some sort of muscle tension, let alone describe it. Dance Officer posted:You aren't. A good, clean cut is what does the actual damage in swordfighting. Sure, I don't care about doing actual damage. Fencing is a sport, not a real swordfight. I do not (or, more accurately, should not) CARE how hard I hit someone, all I have to do is make contact - that completes the circuit, the scoreboard lights up, I get a point. But, that said, I've done other martial arts for decades, and they require force and strength behind the strikes, so when I strike all of my prior training is telling me "use strength" and I tense up, while I should be more about "use speed" and less tension, more quick movement. It's tough to change that mindset. Here's me fencing, I'm the guy on the left. I get this point, "in preparation." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7n7joTINmI Cessna fucked around with this message at 16:55 on Sep 2, 2020 |
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Sep 2, 2020 15:08
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Cyrano4747 posted:I don’t know about the sten gun thing but the hunting gear is going to depend entirely on who it was for. Someone with money might have a super nice Mauser Model B, for example, that would be functionally identical to a military Mauser sniper rifle only prettier and frankly better made. Not really a gun guy (like I know how to shoot and that's kind of it), but isn't this really the same as asking "what were the common civilian guns of [Canada in 1983]/[California in 1910]/[Swindon in 1920]/etc.?" Where you might be able to google what was the new hotness that was the largest seller or something, but in practical terms the answer is going to be [whatever the gently caress was available that some rando might have including something weird for contrived reasons].
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Sep 2, 2020 15:17
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Cessna posted:If you can find a way to use strength without tensing up let me know. Maybe we have imperfect terminology here - I can't think of a way to use strength without some sort of muscle tension, let alone describe it.
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Sep 2, 2020 15:36
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ChubbyChecker posted:How does the conversion happen? Generally you just bore out the chamber for a shotgun gauge approximately appropriate to the barrel size. Maybe bore the barrel out too if it’s too small. You see a fair number of old ~.30 cal rifles turned into .410 shotguns this way. Occasionally it gets a bit more complicated (the Geha Mauser shotgun conversions took off the front locking lugs for example) but in general they’re simple and involve removing rather than adding material. Otherwise it would be expensive enough to not bother.
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Sep 2, 2020 15:50
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ChubbyChecker posted:How does the conversion happen? The reason so many were converted is because the breech lock design required almost no modification. With the Tabatiere, the rifle caliber was pretty close to 12ga in the first place (,69-.71 vs .73 inches), just with a short overall length. You just bore the thing out a bit. Mechanically, the hammer still strikes a firing pin that strikes the primer at the base of the shell. Since a shotgun barrel and chamber is essentially a big tube, you can use any length shot since the case does not have a neck or shoulder. Guys shoot commercial loads today in them although evidently they strongly prefer brass hulls. The conversions also included modifications to the stocks, but that's not strictly necessary from a functional perspective.
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Sep 2, 2020 15:50
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Cyrano4747 posted:Generally you just bore out the chamber for a shotgun gauge approximately appropriate to the barrel size. Maybe bore the barrel out too if it’s too small. You see a fair number of old ~.30 cal rifles turned into .410 shotguns this way. KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:The reason so many were converted is because the breech lock design required almost no modification. With the Tabatiere, the rifle caliber was pretty close to 12ga in the first place (,69-.71 vs .73 inches), just with a short overall length. You just bore the thing out a bit. Mechanically, the hammer still strikes a firing pin that strikes the primer at the base of the shell. Since a shotgun barrel and chamber is essentially a big tube, you can use any length shot since the case does not have a neck or shoulder. Guys shoot commercial loads today in them although evidently they strongly prefer brass hulls. 
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Sep 2, 2020 16:34
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Siivola posted:In this case I think they’re meaning tension throughout the limb. Because muscles can only contract, you need to train to relax some muscles so that others have room to move your limbs. Imagine trying to throw a punch while relentlessly clenching your bicep – you'd rob your punch of both speed and power because a key muscle is not participating. The same thing happens when you squeeze the life out of a fencing sword. Yeah, it's the same thing as if you were playing tennis. Death-gripping your sword or racket inhibits proper technique, which is where your real power comes from.
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Sep 2, 2020 16:41
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Siivola posted:In this case I think they’re meaning tension throughout the limb. Because muscles can only contract, you need to train to relax some muscles so that others have room to move your limbs. Imagine trying to throw a punch while relentlessly clenching your bicep – you'd rob your punch of both speed and power because a key muscle is not participating. The same thing happens when you squeeze the life out of a fencing sword. Exactly this. In sport fencing actual power is functionally meaningless most of the time since you're just trying to make a touch. (Yes there are obviously edge-cases like some ripostes but that's why it's called a generalization rather than a universal truth.) Meanwhile even on the other end of the spectrum, something like cutting wood or using a sledgehammer : you still shouldn't be tensing up any muscles. You're just gonna get tired sooner and do a lovely job. You're much better off swinging from the hips and kind of pretending like your arms are a rope with a weight at the end. (Source : I grew up with a wood-stove and have done construction ; I don't want to think about the amount of times I've swung a heavy object to break things.) When I did traditional Chinese martial arts a big part of training was teaching us to relax the muscles in our arms so you can get more power from the hips/footwork. Then, eventually, adding in the right muscles so we're not fighting ourselves. If you're death-squeezing your fencing saber you're not helping anything.
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Sep 2, 2020 16:44
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Thanks everybody!KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:Lots of old single shot service rifles in large calibers received conversions to shotguns were kicking around. The Tabatiere was commonly converted. The, er, tobacco tin? Is this slang?
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Sep 2, 2020 16:55
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Xiahou Dun posted:When I did traditional Chinese martial arts a big part of training was teaching us to relax the muscles in our arms so you can get more power from the hips/footwork. Then, eventually, adding in the right muscles so we're not fighting ourselves. Right, yes. I may be describing this badly. I'm used to using different muscles than the ones used in fencing. You don't really get any sort of hip-swing, instead it's lunges and quick snappy strikes. Xiahou Dun posted:If you're death-squeezing your fencing saber you're not helping anything. True; I tend to hold it too tightly when I extend in a lunge, that's something I'm working on.
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Sep 2, 2020 17:11
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