Differences in swords of Europe and Asia

Between two different continents, each place has a different culture, from military arts to religious forms. Although swords are weapons around the world, there are significant differences between Asia and Europe.

European swords are not as sharp as Asia

The Great Sword of Europe (pictured above) and Katana (Japanese sword) (pictured below).

Taking the two most concrete examples between Europe's Great sword and Katana (Japanese sword) you will see a distinct difference. In order to dig deeper into the armor, Westerners will immediately think about increasing weight to increase kinetic energy, bringing about high destructive power because they have good physical strength. The Asian sword is thinking in the opposite direction, increasing the damage by making the edge of the knife thin so that the blade goes 'sweeter'. Thanks to that, Asian swords are not too heavy while carrying and using.

The sword is designed according to the practicality

In medieval Europe, the majority of knights wore thick iron armor. Too thin swords are impenetrable, even broken swords. That's why swords need to be strong and have enough weight to break the armor, sometimes swords need to be 'blunt' so that warriors can use 'chopping wood'.

The 'chop wood' strike with a sword.

In Asia, many places of iron armor are only for generals or more, soldiers sometimes only use bamboo armor, even cloths. Therefore, weapons need sharpness and speed to kill enemies quickly.

Depending on the amount of minerals

According to some studies, minerals in Japan are less and less refined than other countries. Partly because Japan is a 'young' island nation (compared to the world), the amount of iron Fe ₃ O ₄ (formerly known as 'black sand') is not much, although the armor is not different from Europe but not popular (each Samurai armor weighs about 30kg). So depending on the quality of minerals, each place has different ways of forging and different quality.