Using Your Martel de Fer

 

Interesting vid.

Finally!

Sarco has been out of stock of their repop trench knife scabbards for... as long as I've known about them.

Aesop is the one who gets credit for finding that Sarco had them.

The other day I was searching for something else and got reminded they existed, so I checked the web page.  They were in stock and I ordered one!

With laser engraved markings, it's not going to be confused for the real thing.

Seeing how it's made and how it attached to a web belt, I can see why so few of them survived.

M7-B Bayonet

With the adoption of the M9, development of the M7 did not stop.

Ontario knife company reworked the handle and gave us the M7-B.  I don't believe my example is an OKC made knife, though.  Hecho en China.

The bayonet weighs 10.7 oz. and the scabbard 3.3 oz. (with shoelace). 

There are no markings on the cross guard, unlike other M7's. 

 But you do get 'UAE' and the United Arab Emirates seal on the grip.  An OKC made M7-B will have "US ARMY" and the Army seal in these locations.  I have what is known as a "representative sample."

 Along with the radical change in grip shape and materials, you also get a new way of attaching the grip to the hilt.  It's the same method as the M9.  The parts don't swap, though.

 My example came with a VERY cheap version of the M10 scabbard.  The cage code (9A148) claims it's made by Norcatec LLC.

 Compare the webbing and snaps to this General Cutlery M10 scabbard.

It fits just fine.  A perfectly cromulent bayonet for an AR/M16.

Cheap

The video in the previous post alludes to something about weapon quality.

It's even mentioned in the Basic Set on p. 274 under Melee Weapon Quality.

"The mass-produced swords issued to ordinary soldiers are often of cheap quality."

This is going to be most of the swords we encounter made in a certain range of dates. 

I Still Haven't Come Up With A Solution (Updated)

Back when I was talking about "tailor's swords" I was referencing this video:

Lots of swords are less than ideal for fighting, and many serve social functions or as badges of rank.

The thing about several examples in this video is they are not poorly made with regards to strength or durability.  They are poorly made in that they are difficult to put to work.

They should get a skill penalty.

There's no methodology for that in the rules as written. 

Update: 

Daosus in the comments reminded me of the Poorly Balanced option on page 59 of Low Tech in the Weapons of Quality box.

But it's just a -1 to skill for a 60% price cut...  Actually a -0.6 cost factor, which is it's own little trial of remembering simple math.  You multiply the base cost of the weapon by 1+(add up all the cost factors) as explained on page 14 of Low Tech.

So a poorly balanced and elaborately decorated rapier with an open basket hilt...

$500 for the base rapier.
CF -0.6 for poorly balanced.
CF +4 for "presentation quality" decoration.
CF +0.25 for the basket hilt.

$500 x 1+(-0.6+4+0.25)
$500 x 1+(3.65)
$500 x 4.65
$2,325

This is surely a weapon that you wear to impress people and not one you use to impress an opponent in a fight.

The tailor's sword, I think, can be made with going poorly balanced (-0.6), cheap (-0.6), open frame basket hilt (0.25).  It's basically a short sword ($400) to start with...

Since the modifiers drop the price below 20% of the original price, it's 20%, or $80 for our tailor's sword.  If the tailor is being honest, and I get the impression that they weren't.  The tailor probably would have sold it for the full $500 that an open frame, good quality, short sword should cost.  Caveat Emptor, Bitches!

Opening Beer With A Knife

Harvey found a vid where someone, effortlessly, opens a beer with a butter knife.

They tap the neck twice, then the body twice then sweep off the cap.

Sensing bullshit, we gave it the ol' college try.

The taps do nothing.

Any motion that brushes the cap will just knock the bottle over.

HOWEVER!

I remembered how to open champagne bottle with a saber and the same technique works with a beer and a butter knife.

It is also, like a saber with champagne, impervious to being filmed.

I opened three bottles of champagne with a saber at a wedding, with a wedding photographer trying to capture it, and he didn't manage to catch the moment even once!

The same thing happened with Harvey trying to video it.  As soon as she hit stop, with me flailing away, I hit the sweet spot and off the top of the bottle flew!

Why? Are They Broken?

A paean to the silliness of bayonets:

It's an interesting rant and I don't have a real objection to what he's saying.

I have bayonets for two reasons.

First is because of historical accuracy and having a complete set of kit for the gun.

Second is because they banned bayonet lugs from 1994 to 2004.

I have bayonet lugs on guns that cannot mount a bayonet!

'Tain't enough barrel there for a conventional M16 series bayonet. 

The title refers to the order, "Fix bayonets!" 

Tailor's Sword

A new term for me!

British officers were responsible for their own kit, so they'd head down to the tailor's for a uniform and while they were there, they'd buy the sword that goes with.

The tailor, quite often, did not sell swords that were a good idea to take into a fight.

But they met the size-shape regulations.

There's also a lot of fashion involved in a lot of swords.

Many surviving examples of blades that are intended to look good, but are compromised by how they were made.

There's even a couple of examples where the design is compromised to make it more comfortable to lug around!

How does one GURPS this?

The idea of a cheap quality sword with fine (decorated) has a lot of appeal to represent these, but even a cheap sword is considered to be correctly designed, just cheaper materials.  I think I need something like cheap (poorly balanced)... 

Gasparilla Lacking

Tampa has an annual festival honoring a pirate.

I realized that I don't even own a cutlass.

Then, thinking of pirates, I realized that I also don't own a rapier.

I tended to take a point and edge rapier for my pirate characters because fencing weapons got bonuses in GURPS 3e that were worth having.  They're not as unbalancing in 4e.

Not that I even have the first clue about how to wield either properly.

Well, maybe the first clue.

I was a fair hand with an epee once.

Once.  Long ago.  When I was very young.

I've never used a short sword past a wakizashi.  Prolly similar enough to a cutlass, but I'd never claim to have been proficient.

Come to think on it, I don't have a proper piratical flint-lock either!

Probably not fill any of these empty slots, I don't cosplay any more.

Odd Solution

I wanted to post a picture to Facebook, but my phone doesn't have the login.

How do I get it to my laptop? 

The phone, which took the picture, does have my Google Chat login.

So send the picture to Marv, copy it from the message, paste to Facebook.

Voila!

The thread on Facebook was about a man over 50 being required to carry a knife in their pocket and getting bonus points if you can use it to open a can or bottle.

I have used that can opener to open cans and it mystifies some people. 

Sidearm

A thread about swords on Arfcom got me thinking...

Swords are sidearms, not primary weapons most of the time.  It's the weapon you pull when your main weapon goes tits up.

It's a weapon to show your status.

That's not how most of us gamers did it most of the time...

When we did, however, we hardly ever had cause to use them.

I've got so many character sheets that have secondary weapons that I never used.

Not a sword when I had a polearm.

Not a pistol when I had a rifle.

But...  You never knew when the GM would decide to break your main weapon and better to have it and not need it that to need it and not have it.

Where have I heard that before?

I Did Not Previously Know This

Your Swiss Army Knife might have a place to stow a straight pin!

Look for this little hole under your corkscrew:

 I had some buttoneer pins handy:

 Update: 1-3/4" is the maximum pin length!  The 2" pin pictured will poke out from under the scale at the far end and snag on your pocket lining.

Slides right in and is retained by the closed corkscrew!

My older knives don't have the little hole, but it's very neat to have learned this.

From a YouTube short, no less.

 

They Already Have Severely Curtailed Gun "Rights" There

 

While they're looking at their government banning machetes, they seem to have forgotten about how they lost their guns.

And it seems that once you lose the guns, everything else eventually gets banned as well.

From the wikipedia page on Australia's gun laws, they don't seem too much worse off than much of Europe, but still need to "mother may I?" owning pretty much anything with extra steps to get "better" stuff. 

Fashion Accessories

Rapiers, by the way, come from a Spanish sword called 'espada ropera,' or dress sword.

They come from side swords, Italian for rapier, 'spada de lato de striscia' is "strip side sword."  Strip referring to the width of the blade. 

It becomes a rapier instead of a side sword when the blade narrows enough.

Generally, the hilt needs to get fancied up too to be considered a "real" rapier, but there are side-swords and back-swords with equally elaborate hilts.

Wikipedia has a little snippet about where the word rapier comes from. 

The narrowing of the blade made them lighter for the same length, thus easier to lug around in social situations.

Some people noticed that you could get more length for the same weight as the old side swords and became tripping hazards at parties.

Eventually the "same length but lighter" school prevailed and the small-sword was invented. 

Appreciation

 My blade of Slavic might has gone up in value a bit since 2017.

$39 then, $100 now.  Even the ones with mismatched serials are $80.

Instantly out of stock, as is typical of emailings from Atlantic.

Now That Gun Control Is Solved Eh?

Canada has stupid knife laws too!

Arthritis

Did some saber drills today.

My wrist hurts.

No surprise.  I'm old and arthritic.

A familiar burn is in my forearm.  Exercise is good, right?

Questionably Legality

Solid brass turtle defense tool.  The spike is to crack their shell.

For a change, it's heavier than the Basic Set thinks they should be.  0.8 lb. measured against 0.25 lb. in the book.

This gives your punch with Brawling a +1 to damage.

The legality of brass knuckles is, typically, silly in Florida.

You can have them.

You cannot make them or sell them.

You cannot conceal carry them.

They are subject to local ordinances because they are not part of the state preemption on weapons.

They do count as concealed dangerous weapons.

They are not mentioned at all with regards to use as paper weights or meat tenderizers.

The combination weapon that's the M1918 trench knife is more legal for carry.  We're not talking about making sense, we're talking about the law here.

Fine

Medieval hand weapons made after TL7 are automatically upgraded to fine quality at no extra cost in GURPS.

 Everything here is from Cold Steel.

The cavalry saber is, in GURPS terms simply a broadsword with an open frame basket hilt.

It's too light.  2.1 lb. with scabbard instead of 3 lb.  But Damage should be sw +2 cut and thr +2 imp, Reach of 1, Parry 0, ST 10.

The martel de fer is far too light; 2.2 lb. when a combination pick/hammer should be coming in at 3.5 lb.  It's also a bit long, it can readily be wielded two handed.  So I compromised by using the pick stats and reducing damage by 1.

Damage one-handed is sw imp and sw +1 cr, Reach of 1, Parry 0U, ST 10.  Two-handed is sw +1 imp and sw +2 cr, Reach of 1, Parry 0U, ST 9†.

The tomahawk is, again, too light at 1.3 lb.  It's closest to the hatchet's 2 lb.

Damage is sw cut, Reach of 1, Parry 0, ST 8.  Can be thrown!  Damage sw cut, Acc 1, Range x1.5/x2.5, RoF 1, Shots T(1), ST 8, Bulk -2.

You DO have silly larp weapons of your own, don't you?

PS: If you happen to have an M1917 Cutlass sitting on your shelf:

Damage is sw+1 cut and thr +2 imp, Reach 1, Parry 0, ST 8.  It should be about 2 lb. with scabbard, but real world weights are missing the Low Tech stats consistently.

Upside Yah Head

"Sarge, I forgot my helmet!"

2d+2 cr against an unarmored skull still gets DR 2 from the bone, like a small mace or the hammer side of a martel de fer.

An average two-handed hit from a ST 14 dude will, on average, deliver 9 points of raw damage.

Minus 2 for the bones.

Times 4 for hitting the brain.

28 points of damage.

Two death rolls for a HT 10 mook and almost halfway to auto death.

A max damage roll would get 12 past the skill for 48 points of damage and 4 death rolls.

The typical 12 HP PC would fare a bit better.

The average roll will just barely get a death roll.

Max will get three death rolls.

In both cases they're major wounds to the head and bonuses to being knocked over and penalties to not losing consciousness apply.

Kids, remember, wear your helmet! 

Update:

If my much smaller, and weaker, ass swung it one handed at an unprotected noggin...

1d+2 cr will do 3-8 points of raw damage with an average of 5  This will get 4-24, average 12, points against the HP of the target.  On average the victim is looking to roll for consciousness, but not in danger of dying unless they fail that roll.  Getting a death roll is possible, but I'd have to roll well.

Two handed changes the raw damage by just a point, delivering 8-28, average 16.