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From: hutch@shark.UUCP (Stephen Hutchison)
Newsgroups: net.games.frp
Subject: Re: Blunt Weapons
Message-ID: <1408@shark.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 24-May-85 14:54:16 EDT
Article-I.D.: shark.1408
Posted: Fri May 24 14:54:16 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 1-Jun-85 02:19:40 EDT
References: <5128@ukc.UUCP> <1974@sdcrdcf.UUCP> <424@ttidcc.UUCP> <2005@sdcrdcf.UUCP>
Reply-To: hutch@shark.UUCP (Stephen Hutchison)
Organization: Tektronix, Wilsonville OR
Lines: 41
Keywords: banana  pointed-stick raspberry 16-ton-weight tiger
Summary: 

In article <2005@sdcrdcf.UUCP> barryg@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Lee Gold) writes:
>This originally started out as Blunt Weaopns vs Edged Weapons, e.g.
>Mace vs Sword.  Bringing in nunchaku and morningstar as typical (?)
>blunt weapons is only going to confuse things.  Sounds good, let's confuse
>them some more.
>
>The proper comparison is nunchaku/morningstar vs something edged at the
>end of a chain.  So far as I know there's never been a chained-knife, for
>the simple reason that the thing would be too damn hard to use.  ALL
>chain weapons I've ever heard of have had simple or spiked weights at
>the end, nothing more comlciated.
>
>--Lee Gold

Well, at the risk of adding further confusion...

There is an option to the manriki-gusari (japanese spiked ball on end
of 20-40 ft chain, club on other end)  which has a sort of flat, bladed
half-moon shaped thing instead of the spiked ball.  Nasty horrid thing.

However, for REALLY nasty horrid things, there is a weapon developed in
China many years back, at the behest of a particularly odious emperor,
which consisted of a sort of brass dome, with a chain in the centre,
internally wound, somewhat a variation on a yo-yo crossed with a frisbee.

The outer rim of this thing was smooth, so it could be thrown.  The user
could snap the chain, causing a set of jagged, razor-sharp teeth to spring
out of the rim, making it into the "edged frisbee" that everyone likes
to fantasize about.  However, the really gruesome part is that this thing
was designed to be landed on someone's head, at which point, an internal
spring dropped a reinforced sack thing down, making a sort of "hood" which
the victim couldn't get off because of the sharp pointy things at the
rim.  Once it dropped, the wielder could give a sharp tug, and the sharp nasty
teeth turned inwards, quickly decapitating the victim, and returning the
head to the wielder, who could then take it back to the Emperor.

This charming device is called the "flying guillotine" in western parlance.
There's a really messy kung-fu film about it.
"Masters of the Flying Guillotine"

Hutch  (Now you know why the wide-brim, conical hat became really popular!)