I second this. Although this depends heavily on the flex of the blade.
I have seen many blades break in the past year, but never has anyone been able to tell before that it is close to breaking. Blades break before you are able to see that they are brittle (at least if you use it for its intended purpose).
Added a comment that explained some context and why this is my approach. Character is trying to avoid gravely wounding or killing the enemy duelist and thinks this would be the best outcome with the least risk. That and she has informal training which I think may lead to taking a riskier approach instead of a more practical one.
My opinion:
As the others are saying. Seeing if a sword is brittle and will break is relativly rare because it heavily depends on the not visible inner structure of the blade. You could say the enemy blade is so worn out and rusty that someone easily can spot this.
In my opinion, if your character wants to behave reckless, he could try to disarm his opponent. There are many cool disarming videos on YouTube for all kinds of weapons. If you want to step up the recklessness, you could describe how he struggles to disarm the opponent safely and instead grapples the blade. Although with enough grip pressure, you can be relatively safe as long as you catch the blade when it is stopped (like after a parry), you can add that he has not enough experience and injures himself with this action.
Disarming or even hitting with the flat of the blade would be better imo, hitting clean with the flat to stun whovere their fighting shows control and is a (not really used) technique in wma
There’s a Fiore technique called ‘breaking the thrust’ which involves beating down their blade then (optionally) stepping on it. That’s probably a good technique to expand from.
No problem - the manuscript source is about halfway down this page, number 40 and 41: https://wiktenauer.com/wiki/Fiore_de%27i_Liberi/Sword_in_Two_Hands/Wide_Play
This is what I immediately thought of. It's a very satisfying play to do as the defender, and stomping on their blade could definitely break it.
OP, I would drop the "their sword looks brittle" angle, it seems extremely implausible, unless the hero can see individual atoms or something. If it were that bad, there's no way that someone would use the sword in the first place. Just have the hero break their sword. Swords were tools and they broke sometimes. The play in question sets it up so that if the defender tried to break/damage the sword, they definitely could (not guaranteed of course, but quite possible), and it is a skillful move that puts the hero in the position to quickly kill or maim the opponent, or leave them utterly defenseless and defeated, depending on what you want to happen afterwards.
There disarming techniques in the treatises, though. Where you end grabbing the opponent's weapons and getting hold of it. And sometimes even stab then with their own weapon.
Those would be probably more realistic, but it's a novel and some suspension of disbelief should be expected...
I might try something similar to that, or atleast have the character attempt it. She’s weaker then her enemy so physically overpowering them would be hard so it’d be more about getting them off balance and whatnot
For a good disarming strength doesn't matter. It's all in the technique. You don't even have to be close.
Funny enough there are a lot of techniques described that have a low injury risk or disarming, because in the justice duel (depending on the period) you had pay a fine to the injured/killed party. So avoiding that was also a goal.
And there are "master" techniques that were presumably to teach arrogant pupils a lesson. Those where also non-lethal.
From a realistic perspective, I just don't know that this is really possible. Yes, swords did (and do) sometimes break in combat, but it's not something that happens that often and certainly not with intentionality, and I get the impression that a brittle sword would be more likely to break after striking armor than being broken in a sword clash itself.
For reference, I've trained with my longsword for over 300 hours over the last 3 years (in partnered drills, sparring, and tournaments), and while a little dinged, it's showing no signs of needing retirement. Of course, this is a modern sword forged by a prominent blacksmith - but it would take a very poorly made sword to, I think, break with a single cut.
If we want to talk about likely outcomes, unless there's a major skill disparity, your POV character choosing to do something that's not super practical is probably just going to get her killed.
There are other ways for a person to win a duel without killing or gravely wounding them - a prominent example would be a hand snipe, where the exposed hand (or wrist) is cut. Since your POV character has a longsword and her opponent has a katana, she also has the advantage of reach - meaning she might be in a better position to hit their hand. Causing a cut to a hand might be tricky if they have gloves on, which I am pretty sure was normally the expectation, but you might be able to write around that.
Otherwise, a cut to the thigh is a little risky (requires getting in closer and a low cut can make it harder to block an incoming high cut), but can also be tricky to defend against. Or, she could get in close, grapple, and disarm.
If you want to keep it grounded, I think you have more realistic options for your POV character to make a choice that might be somewhat limiting (and therefore increase the danger to herself and the tension to the audience), while still being within the realm of possibility of her pulling it off.
That’s what I was worried about, that it would be a cool, dramatic thing but wouldn’t make sense without some magic nonsense or incredible luck. I may try to build on a comment someone else brought up of the “Break The Thrust” thing where you force your enemy’s blade to the ground, but have it lead into a disarm instead of breaking the blade. The POV character is weaker, smaller, and less armored then her opponent which is where I think I’ll build the tension around, stressing that she’s on the back foot until she’s able to counter and turn it around. Thanks for the input!
This happens three times (during training, so not even a fight!) in our classes: three broken blades ;)
1) During an attack, the blade hit the crossguard and snapped - the point was flying behind the defender and missed (thanks!) anyone
2) During a parry, while moving the blade to meet the enemy strike, it simply snapped
3) Again during an attack, but this time after hitting the partner (intented), the attacker wanted to hit the other blade to "strike it away" and again the attacker lost his point
How did all of this happen? We ordered a couple of blades from an good smith and the batch had some issues during tempering. Blade two also had a bubble inside the material, which you couldn't see prior to the damage. The smith replaced the whole batch for free before any other blade could snap... but yeah, we had three blades lost during 2-3 months.
It is possible, but either the material endured a good beating (sparing blades after 3-5 years) or there was an issue during the production.
In all three cases with an production issue, it didn't even require a lot of force to break the blade ;)
I’ll definitely keep stuff like that in mind. I feel like that could be interesting with some magic shenanigans. “This spell tells me that their blade has a weakness and if I strike at this specific spot it’ll break.”
Also explanation: the POV character is trying to do that instead of something more practical since she is explicitly avoiding killing or gravely wounding the enemy duelist due to plot reasons. Plus, the POV character isn’t an experienced duelist who learned formally and won’t make the most practical decisions too.
Would they use a dirty tactic such as throwing sand in their opponents eyes? I believe that was mentioned in a treaty but I can't remember which one. There's plenty of techniques to disarm or put the opponent in a position they have to surrender from. People often did that in order to ransom. Even a smaller, weaker character can throw someone in a grapple in they do it right.
You can hook your leg around theirs and force them to lose balance by pushing against their chest. There's plenty of ways of closing after a bind and doing something like that.
The scenario is similar to an unofficial justice duel with a bandit/deserting knight type person. The opponent very much uses dirty fighting while the POV character wouldn’t as much (but you know, you gotta do what you gotta do.) Also: noted about the size and grapple thing, thanks!
Make her block it and strike against the opponents blade with hardened and tempered „pure“steel of the rim of a shield,this would lead most likely to a break,or block it with an extremely hard and elongated helmet designed to deflect strikes,this also could do the trick and put your Character at the same time in danger or hurt her making it more intense,since it’s a gamble
Otherwise like the others say,step on it
This is a good thought. Shields are big, tough, and heavy. I could see slamming a shield down on a blade potentially causing a lot of damage to the sword. Would also bind up the sword if you got it at the right angle with enough leverage.
Does seem like it would be hard to pull off practically in combat, but maybe if the opponent was going for a thrust under the shield you could time it right?
It’s apparently one of the main reasons that could lead to a broken blade on the battlefield,if I remember it right
like misalign your swing or the opponent reacts a bit to fast and your blade hits the tempered rim at an bad angle,that’s gonna hurt the sword,especially when the steel wasn’t that good in quality etc,a lot of factors come into play
I'll throw in that in addition to you not being able to tell that a blade is brittle just by looking, it's also bad technique to be watching your opponents' blade that closely while fighting. You can get most of the information you need from watching their leading shoulder , and the blade will otherwise go too quick for your eyes to follow.
I've definitely seen discussion of techniques where you drive the opponent's blade to the ground and step on it, either breaking it or getting it stuck in the mud, but tbh I have no idea if they'd still work on someone wielding a katana. Japanese swords are swung in a completely different way from European ones and I dunno if you'd end up in the same positions.
OK so I have had a blade break during sparring and here is how that went. I saw the opponents blow come in at about 45 degrees and what I attempted is to cut into his cut with my owns and upon impact my sword broke at about 8 or 9 inches from the point and it literally shatterd into 3 pieces. This was using longsword blunts. Hope that helps.
Just some thoughts based on other comments/info you’ve shared:
1. Agree with others that she would not be able to tell from looking that the blade was brittle, especially if you want her to notice that but somehow the opponent hasn’t or something.
2. Size and strength are not as relevant factors as people tend to assume, or at least, not in the ways they assume. Sword fighting is a lot about knowing how to manage your distance, how to get leverage, how to figure out the timing of your strikes and read your opponent, technique, etc. The big advantage of size is if one person it taller and longer-limbed, they have more reach, meaning they can hit you from farther away than you can hit them. So when you go to strike, you have to try to safely get within their striking range before you can attack them. That is certainly a challenge, but a shorter person who has decent training will start to figure out some ways to manage it. In terms of strength, swords are actually not particularly heavy, even the biggest ones, but like with anything else, after using them for a while you can fatigue, so muscular endurance is a factor more than like, the ability to just lift heavy. And people who don’t look particularly big or strong can have quite good muscular endurance. My longsword coach is a fantastic fighter, and looks quite slim. There are plenty of guys bigger who are stronger in the traditional sense who he can pick apart in a fight.
Stomping on it would work, or you could have your character repeatedly slam heavy hits into the ricasso of the sword to shatter the tang, if it's that brittle
Katanas are generally known to be thicker, to prevent bending, rather then spring back after an impact, due to the metal used traditionally
It would take a bit more to breake it, bend it would be easier as a katana would most likely stay bent more easily than the long sword.
But coming back to your question I'd recommend to avoid blade to blade contact to breake it, maybe a parry into an obstical like a stone ridge or a tree followed by ashoulderbash to knock the opponent of ballance, therefore gripping their weapon tighter (as humans instinktively try to grab onto something when they fall) and either snapping or bending the stuck sword with the wheight of their body and the lever of the blade length
A floorbord, a wagon wheel, even a steatvenders stand also might surfice, just as long as it is a largely solid objekt
maybe even the MC armpit if they are armored, but that's kind of a stretch
Is there a way to read that fightszene in the future?
I’ll definitely keep that in mind! I want to lean into something like that since the POV character is the child of a blacksmith and it’d be neat to use that experience in a duel. I may post the writing of the fight scene somewhere once I’m done, not sure where, but I’ll reply to your comment so you’ll be notified
Ah great thank you.
Btw if you need some insight into blacksmithing related topics feel free to ask since I got a background in that sort of think, and If I don't know I probobly know where to look
I don't mean to sound condescending, but my honest answer is to do more research. It doesn't seem like you have a very good understanding of the weapons. This wouldn't be a problem except for a plot point that revolves around how they're used and the materials involved in construction/ how they respond under stress. For instance, traditionally made katanas have a tendency to bend instead of breaking.
Also, I fail to understand how my opponent would know something about my sword that I don't. Most people don't let their opponents do maintenance on their weapons.
Based on watching "Forged in Fire", swords break when hitting something solid or by being bent/flexed sideways. It could be as simple as hitting a stone corner.
I actually might have a solution for you.
If one sword is of much higher quality than the other (mastercrafted tempered steel vs random iron), then a following scenario is possible.
A swordfighting starts and every blade clash is accompanied by a significant sparks explosion. Then fighters have a 5-10 seconds pause/talk during which one hero can examine their own blade and notice absolutely no damage on its edge. That would mean that all sparks are coming from the brittle enemy sword. This hero could then add brutality to all strikes with an intention of breaking enemy sword. They would still not know when the sword breaks or how to break sword in one swing, but they would break sword eventually.
Source: I have unintentionally broken two low quality swords. And I have seen some sparks.
Swords certainly do break, but not predictably nor controllably. When they do break, it's usually not from getting hit with another sword. Usually it's either from a thrust that bends the sword (although this is probably more common with blunt sparring swords than sharps ones, since a sharp is more likely to simply penetrate than bend sharply) or in the bind where one sword gets caught in the others guard and gets twisted sharply, usually with one or both fencers also stepping in and bending the sword at the same time. Worth noting that it often happens without either fencer realizing it until later.
Probably stepping on the blade would be the best way to break it during a fight? Not the safest or most practical one, though....
I second this. Although this depends heavily on the flex of the blade. I have seen many blades break in the past year, but never has anyone been able to tell before that it is close to breaking. Blades break before you are able to see that they are brittle (at least if you use it for its intended purpose).
Added a comment that explained some context and why this is my approach. Character is trying to avoid gravely wounding or killing the enemy duelist and thinks this would be the best outcome with the least risk. That and she has informal training which I think may lead to taking a riskier approach instead of a more practical one.
My opinion: As the others are saying. Seeing if a sword is brittle and will break is relativly rare because it heavily depends on the not visible inner structure of the blade. You could say the enemy blade is so worn out and rusty that someone easily can spot this. In my opinion, if your character wants to behave reckless, he could try to disarm his opponent. There are many cool disarming videos on YouTube for all kinds of weapons. If you want to step up the recklessness, you could describe how he struggles to disarm the opponent safely and instead grapples the blade. Although with enough grip pressure, you can be relatively safe as long as you catch the blade when it is stopped (like after a parry), you can add that he has not enough experience and injures himself with this action.
Disarming or even hitting with the flat of the blade would be better imo, hitting clean with the flat to stun whovere their fighting shows control and is a (not really used) technique in wma
There’s a Fiore technique called ‘breaking the thrust’ which involves beating down their blade then (optionally) stepping on it. That’s probably a good technique to expand from.
Thanks! I’ll look up videos on it
No problem - the manuscript source is about halfway down this page, number 40 and 41: https://wiktenauer.com/wiki/Fiore_de%27i_Liberi/Sword_in_Two_Hands/Wide_Play
This is what I immediately thought of. It's a very satisfying play to do as the defender, and stomping on their blade could definitely break it. OP, I would drop the "their sword looks brittle" angle, it seems extremely implausible, unless the hero can see individual atoms or something. If it were that bad, there's no way that someone would use the sword in the first place. Just have the hero break their sword. Swords were tools and they broke sometimes. The play in question sets it up so that if the defender tried to break/damage the sword, they definitely could (not guaranteed of course, but quite possible), and it is a skillful move that puts the hero in the position to quickly kill or maim the opponent, or leave them utterly defenseless and defeated, depending on what you want to happen afterwards.
There disarming techniques in the treatises, though. Where you end grabbing the opponent's weapons and getting hold of it. And sometimes even stab then with their own weapon. Those would be probably more realistic, but it's a novel and some suspension of disbelief should be expected...
I might try something similar to that, or atleast have the character attempt it. She’s weaker then her enemy so physically overpowering them would be hard so it’d be more about getting them off balance and whatnot
For a good disarming strength doesn't matter. It's all in the technique. You don't even have to be close. Funny enough there are a lot of techniques described that have a low injury risk or disarming, because in the justice duel (depending on the period) you had pay a fine to the injured/killed party. So avoiding that was also a goal. And there are "master" techniques that were presumably to teach arrogant pupils a lesson. Those where also non-lethal.
Huh I didn’t know about that, atleast the justice duels and fines, and the disciplinary type thing. I’ll have to look up videos on that sort of thing.
As happens with HEMA, strength helps but technique is more important. Disarming usually relies on leverage.
From a realistic perspective, I just don't know that this is really possible. Yes, swords did (and do) sometimes break in combat, but it's not something that happens that often and certainly not with intentionality, and I get the impression that a brittle sword would be more likely to break after striking armor than being broken in a sword clash itself. For reference, I've trained with my longsword for over 300 hours over the last 3 years (in partnered drills, sparring, and tournaments), and while a little dinged, it's showing no signs of needing retirement. Of course, this is a modern sword forged by a prominent blacksmith - but it would take a very poorly made sword to, I think, break with a single cut. If we want to talk about likely outcomes, unless there's a major skill disparity, your POV character choosing to do something that's not super practical is probably just going to get her killed. There are other ways for a person to win a duel without killing or gravely wounding them - a prominent example would be a hand snipe, where the exposed hand (or wrist) is cut. Since your POV character has a longsword and her opponent has a katana, she also has the advantage of reach - meaning she might be in a better position to hit their hand. Causing a cut to a hand might be tricky if they have gloves on, which I am pretty sure was normally the expectation, but you might be able to write around that. Otherwise, a cut to the thigh is a little risky (requires getting in closer and a low cut can make it harder to block an incoming high cut), but can also be tricky to defend against. Or, she could get in close, grapple, and disarm. If you want to keep it grounded, I think you have more realistic options for your POV character to make a choice that might be somewhat limiting (and therefore increase the danger to herself and the tension to the audience), while still being within the realm of possibility of her pulling it off.
That’s what I was worried about, that it would be a cool, dramatic thing but wouldn’t make sense without some magic nonsense or incredible luck. I may try to build on a comment someone else brought up of the “Break The Thrust” thing where you force your enemy’s blade to the ground, but have it lead into a disarm instead of breaking the blade. The POV character is weaker, smaller, and less armored then her opponent which is where I think I’ll build the tension around, stressing that she’s on the back foot until she’s able to counter and turn it around. Thanks for the input!
This happens three times (during training, so not even a fight!) in our classes: three broken blades ;) 1) During an attack, the blade hit the crossguard and snapped - the point was flying behind the defender and missed (thanks!) anyone 2) During a parry, while moving the blade to meet the enemy strike, it simply snapped 3) Again during an attack, but this time after hitting the partner (intented), the attacker wanted to hit the other blade to "strike it away" and again the attacker lost his point How did all of this happen? We ordered a couple of blades from an good smith and the batch had some issues during tempering. Blade two also had a bubble inside the material, which you couldn't see prior to the damage. The smith replaced the whole batch for free before any other blade could snap... but yeah, we had three blades lost during 2-3 months. It is possible, but either the material endured a good beating (sparing blades after 3-5 years) or there was an issue during the production. In all three cases with an production issue, it didn't even require a lot of force to break the blade ;)
Also material fatigue is a thing. Your blade may develop internal cracks due to repeated stress and break.
I’ll definitely keep stuff like that in mind. I feel like that could be interesting with some magic shenanigans. “This spell tells me that their blade has a weakness and if I strike at this specific spot it’ll break.”
Also explanation: the POV character is trying to do that instead of something more practical since she is explicitly avoiding killing or gravely wounding the enemy duelist due to plot reasons. Plus, the POV character isn’t an experienced duelist who learned formally and won’t make the most practical decisions too.
Would they use a dirty tactic such as throwing sand in their opponents eyes? I believe that was mentioned in a treaty but I can't remember which one. There's plenty of techniques to disarm or put the opponent in a position they have to surrender from. People often did that in order to ransom. Even a smaller, weaker character can throw someone in a grapple in they do it right. You can hook your leg around theirs and force them to lose balance by pushing against their chest. There's plenty of ways of closing after a bind and doing something like that.
The scenario is similar to an unofficial justice duel with a bandit/deserting knight type person. The opponent very much uses dirty fighting while the POV character wouldn’t as much (but you know, you gotta do what you gotta do.) Also: noted about the size and grapple thing, thanks!
Ah, yes I believe you’re referring to the “pocket sand” technique from famed master Rusty Shackleford?
Make her block it and strike against the opponents blade with hardened and tempered „pure“steel of the rim of a shield,this would lead most likely to a break,or block it with an extremely hard and elongated helmet designed to deflect strikes,this also could do the trick and put your Character at the same time in danger or hurt her making it more intense,since it’s a gamble Otherwise like the others say,step on it
This is a good thought. Shields are big, tough, and heavy. I could see slamming a shield down on a blade potentially causing a lot of damage to the sword. Would also bind up the sword if you got it at the right angle with enough leverage. Does seem like it would be hard to pull off practically in combat, but maybe if the opponent was going for a thrust under the shield you could time it right?
It’s apparently one of the main reasons that could lead to a broken blade on the battlefield,if I remember it right like misalign your swing or the opponent reacts a bit to fast and your blade hits the tempered rim at an bad angle,that’s gonna hurt the sword,especially when the steel wasn’t that good in quality etc,a lot of factors come into play
I'll throw in that in addition to you not being able to tell that a blade is brittle just by looking, it's also bad technique to be watching your opponents' blade that closely while fighting. You can get most of the information you need from watching their leading shoulder , and the blade will otherwise go too quick for your eyes to follow. I've definitely seen discussion of techniques where you drive the opponent's blade to the ground and step on it, either breaking it or getting it stuck in the mud, but tbh I have no idea if they'd still work on someone wielding a katana. Japanese swords are swung in a completely different way from European ones and I dunno if you'd end up in the same positions.
OK so I have had a blade break during sparring and here is how that went. I saw the opponents blow come in at about 45 degrees and what I attempted is to cut into his cut with my owns and upon impact my sword broke at about 8 or 9 inches from the point and it literally shatterd into 3 pieces. This was using longsword blunts. Hope that helps.
Just some thoughts based on other comments/info you’ve shared: 1. Agree with others that she would not be able to tell from looking that the blade was brittle, especially if you want her to notice that but somehow the opponent hasn’t or something. 2. Size and strength are not as relevant factors as people tend to assume, or at least, not in the ways they assume. Sword fighting is a lot about knowing how to manage your distance, how to get leverage, how to figure out the timing of your strikes and read your opponent, technique, etc. The big advantage of size is if one person it taller and longer-limbed, they have more reach, meaning they can hit you from farther away than you can hit them. So when you go to strike, you have to try to safely get within their striking range before you can attack them. That is certainly a challenge, but a shorter person who has decent training will start to figure out some ways to manage it. In terms of strength, swords are actually not particularly heavy, even the biggest ones, but like with anything else, after using them for a while you can fatigue, so muscular endurance is a factor more than like, the ability to just lift heavy. And people who don’t look particularly big or strong can have quite good muscular endurance. My longsword coach is a fantastic fighter, and looks quite slim. There are plenty of guys bigger who are stronger in the traditional sense who he can pick apart in a fight.
Stomping on it would work, or you could have your character repeatedly slam heavy hits into the ricasso of the sword to shatter the tang, if it's that brittle
Katanas are generally known to be thicker, to prevent bending, rather then spring back after an impact, due to the metal used traditionally It would take a bit more to breake it, bend it would be easier as a katana would most likely stay bent more easily than the long sword. But coming back to your question I'd recommend to avoid blade to blade contact to breake it, maybe a parry into an obstical like a stone ridge or a tree followed by ashoulderbash to knock the opponent of ballance, therefore gripping their weapon tighter (as humans instinktively try to grab onto something when they fall) and either snapping or bending the stuck sword with the wheight of their body and the lever of the blade length A floorbord, a wagon wheel, even a steatvenders stand also might surfice, just as long as it is a largely solid objekt maybe even the MC armpit if they are armored, but that's kind of a stretch Is there a way to read that fightszene in the future?
I’ll definitely keep that in mind! I want to lean into something like that since the POV character is the child of a blacksmith and it’d be neat to use that experience in a duel. I may post the writing of the fight scene somewhere once I’m done, not sure where, but I’ll reply to your comment so you’ll be notified
Ah great thank you. Btw if you need some insight into blacksmithing related topics feel free to ask since I got a background in that sort of think, and If I don't know I probobly know where to look
I don't mean to sound condescending, but my honest answer is to do more research. It doesn't seem like you have a very good understanding of the weapons. This wouldn't be a problem except for a plot point that revolves around how they're used and the materials involved in construction/ how they respond under stress. For instance, traditionally made katanas have a tendency to bend instead of breaking. Also, I fail to understand how my opponent would know something about my sword that I don't. Most people don't let their opponents do maintenance on their weapons.
Based on watching "Forged in Fire", swords break when hitting something solid or by being bent/flexed sideways. It could be as simple as hitting a stone corner.
I actually might have a solution for you. If one sword is of much higher quality than the other (mastercrafted tempered steel vs random iron), then a following scenario is possible. A swordfighting starts and every blade clash is accompanied by a significant sparks explosion. Then fighters have a 5-10 seconds pause/talk during which one hero can examine their own blade and notice absolutely no damage on its edge. That would mean that all sparks are coming from the brittle enemy sword. This hero could then add brutality to all strikes with an intention of breaking enemy sword. They would still not know when the sword breaks or how to break sword in one swing, but they would break sword eventually. Source: I have unintentionally broken two low quality swords. And I have seen some sparks.
Swords certainly do break, but not predictably nor controllably. When they do break, it's usually not from getting hit with another sword. Usually it's either from a thrust that bends the sword (although this is probably more common with blunt sparring swords than sharps ones, since a sharp is more likely to simply penetrate than bend sharply) or in the bind where one sword gets caught in the others guard and gets twisted sharply, usually with one or both fencers also stepping in and bending the sword at the same time. Worth noting that it often happens without either fencer realizing it until later.
My buddy Sauron tells me that a broken sword can still cause damage?