Hi guys
Check out my website on classical Chinese swords:
http://thomaschen.freewebspace.com/
My essay on Chinese swords vs Japanese swords…
http://thomaschen.freewebspace.com/favorite_links.html
Sorry about the pop-ups… They are quite a nuisance from my free webhost provider… Installing pop-up blocker software does solve the problem though…
For any of you newbies or people with short memories claiming that Japanese blade technology was superior to Chinese… we’ve already been schooled on that one http://martial.best.vwh.net/forum/showthread.php?t=37402.
I’m with Ben Gash, which is why I always carry around a box of wet ground 
Although the only reason any Japanese people (who had in fact already been abolished as a class before the period you mention Ben) carried around Western swords was to show they had embraced Westernised economics and to some degree social norms, not as any acknowledgement of any superiority of Western blades.
The presence of ‘pattern welding’ or folds does not indicate the superiority of one blade over the other though.
The Japanese did that kind of folding because of the low quality iron available to the, pounding the blades over and over against removes impurities in steel (also removes carbon if done too much).
I don’t know why the Chinese swords would have it other than for aesthetics, there is plenty of good iron available to make steel in China. Same folding process, very different reasons for doing it I suspect.
as far as who would win, I can’t say, the more skilled I guess. However as far as the brittleness of a katana, your forgetting their method of creating swords. They take Iron ore (same as every other sword maker) then fold it and fold it and fold it and fold it at least a dozen times, (the brittle part). Then they take a nother piece of Iron ore and heat and work it until it soft and malable. Then they fold the brittle steel over the soft steel, re-heat it, then quench it. The curve is actually formed by the 2 grades of steel cooling at different rates wile being quenched. This forging creates a very rigid exterior with a very soft interior. In short it created an insanely sharp blade, but also has some give as well. There are reports during WWII of sheathed katanas being struck by shot gun blasts to the point the decorative sheath was destroyed but the blade was still in fairly good shape (The shot gun example was on History Channels Mail Call). By the way Inyasha’s a pretty good show.
as I love the katana. I have a short note to make.
I held a matsuyama katana in my hands was was asked to cut a piece of bamboo with it. when I did I was told I did not attack the swing or the cut correctly.
the man whom told me this said that the katnana cut is unlike other swords. it’s cut comes from the technique when you come in contact with the object then twist and thrust through it. not the other way around. l realized this when he could slice the bamboo like butter and I could not forcebly cut only a into it.
has anyone ever felt a real katana? ever tried to cut with it?
Held: yes.
Cut with: no.
But I have cut with a real Dao. That is always a wonderfully visceral experience.
I have held a real katana. It was incredibly balanced, and I swear i could have carve my name in someone’s cheak it was so controllable. I have never held a more precision balanced sword.
It was actually heavier than my Katana, but felt lighter. I think the handle had most of the wieght or something, because it felt feather light when manuvered.