Must see Doc.

A friend and I took a vacation in the UK around 30 years ago.  While waiting for some ruin of a small castle to open (it was open 4 hours a day, two days a week from May through September), an elderly gentleman approached and we struck up a conversation about castles, which of course eventually encompassed weaponry.  For some strange reason, we were discussing the relative merits of Japanese vs. European blades.  I was lamenting the difficulty in finding hands on comparisons, along with the difficulty in obtaining true metallurgical samples.  

He invited us to his house to see his "wee collection."  I told him we really wanted to see this fortification and he said don't worry - he was the curator.  WAIT - it gets better.  Scott and I walk to his house (an interesting escapade in itself) and there is one room full of weapons (admittedly it was a modest room, but things were well organized).  Numberous Katanas, wakazashis and naganatias opposite a few ax heads, long swords, a broad sword and a large number of daggers.  There were even pieces of chain and a very small piece of armor that would have protected the knee of someone.

Many of the Japanese weapons were sets of katana-wakazashi.  Seems his "unit" saw a lot of action and the "boys" decided to let him house their  collection as all they were using the weapons for was to trim shrubs and such.  The swords of European origin were superbly balanced though heavier than the katanas.  .  He had made his own chain and placed it on an arming dummy over a gambescon.  He had done striking tests and it was his opinion that the katana would not seriously harm a mail encased foe, whereas the longsword had a decent chance of breaking something if it hit.  Neither would penetrate by the point.  

He gave me a few rings from different pieces of his collection and I had a chemical analysis performed on them.  They were all low carbon, .08-.24.  

My vacations have a knack of my running into people like him.