They only tested it with the facing edge it looks like…if they would have tested it by firing at the side of the sword..it probably would have failed.

Old, I know, but not everybody has been reading this blog from day 1. My first thought was whether this was a properly made sword or just a shin gunto or other machined sword, but while my Japanese is beyond rusty, it does appear in context that it is a modern, traditionally produced sword.

It comes as no surprise that a round designed to penetrate to 3/4-7/8 inches (19-22mm) of “modern” (1930s) hardened steel plate (and ends up spalling thicker plate) will crack the hard edge and bend the soft rear of around 1 inch (25mm) of steel to the breaking point. There’s a reason you aren’t supposed to parry edge-on, especially with hardened swords, which the direct and glancing hits show very nicely: It isn’t just a loss of edge, but the hardened cutting edge will crack and break. Hard=brittle.

It’s almost surprising that they got any hits at all, I’d love to see how many rounds it took in total. Very difficult to peg such a narrow target edge-on, isn’t it? (The camera was at 3/4 angle, but the gun doesn’t seem to be, especially considering how that would have biased the test against the sword.)

Very nice find.