The Abandonment of the Gladius for the Spatha - Why?

[petrinus]

the blade might look rigid but if it was a period piece of any decent construction you should be able to bend that sucker far from true and have it return without incident, the blade needs to have some play in it while retaining its integrity, mind you these things werent intended to be bantered back and forth in typical holywood fashion, they can take the abuse though, blows were deflected but not edge to edge, there is a lot of subtle control and wrist technique to avoid this, ideally you want to preserve the cutting edge or "ha". and yes held correctly, something many adherents still dont do, especially schools that dont actually "cut" with the sword, the weapon is almost weightless and can be used very gracefully flowing from one cut to the next, this takes time though, i myself have given 13 years over to the pursuit of perfection, it still elludes me, and it should, they say the master should always seek to be the student and in being a student seek to be the master. and i dont know about your friends blade, but mine is quite sharp, moreover a dull sword can deliver if the angle and execution is right, though with noticibly diminished results. drop a piece of paper or more appropriately silk on the edge, it should fall cleanly away in two