« Note to Self: Don't Get Onstar | Main | Ben Jones obviously hasn't played GRAW... »

November 07, 2009

Comments

Matthew

You're scaring me.

twitter.com/NuAngel

While I agree with the first part of your post, I am still a proponent of the machete. I believe the idea is to sever the head from the torso, not so much as to use the machete as a "melon cracker."

I am a firm believer in a Serrated Machete (see: http://www.usknife.com/index.php?view=details&id=15) as an extremely valuable tool to keep on your person. Is there a school of thought that thinks decapitation is not a viable way to stop a Zombie? I am a firm believer that the head cannot live without the body, and vice-versa. As such, a tool to pare the two seems effective.

I look forward to reading your response.

-NuAngel

Christian Allen

Decapitation will stop a zombie, although the head will still be a threat (as the head will still be active and capable of biting).

Again with a machete, while the idea of severing heads is a nice one, it isn't practical. There is a reason the guillotine was invented; even trained executioners with heavy axes often had difficult times cleanly separating the heads of their victims, often taking several strikes to kill.

If machetes were such effective close combat weapons, then they would have been popular in the past. An effective slicing weapon either needs weight, as with a sabre or cutlass, or extreme sharpness, such as a katana. To test this, find a small sapling tree, like an alder, 2-3 inches thick, and try to hack it down with one swing from a machete. It's tough!

If you DID choose a machete, I would choose something like the Woodsman's Pal. http://www.protoolindustries.net/store/index.php?page=shop.browse&category_id=36&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=53&vmcchk=1&Itemid=53 It has weight and mass behind it. Another option would be a good khukri http://www.m4040.com/Survival/Ghurka/History%20of%20the%20Ghurka%20Kukri.htm

I think I would still prefer a good mace or war hammer if I needed to engage zombies in hand-to-hand combat. But a gun is still preferable to having to get withing grabbing reach of a shambler.

Me ;)

So I guess this means mossy won't be coming out to play?

FeistierErmine

My personal preference is the shingle hatchet. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000NPT61G

You just can't beat the effectiveness and practicality of a hatchet and a hammer combined into a single hand tool.

J-Put

I agree with this post. The only complaint I would have is saying that a hatchet is better than a machete. Like you said, the machete may not have the ability to get through the skull or sever the head consistently, but it can still disable a zombie much easier than a hatchet. By going for tendons and muscles you can render a Z relatively motionless and leave it for later. While with the hatchet your only viable option is to get through the skull. You would need much greater accuracy to disable the target any other way. And cracking the skull takes a hell of a swing from well within grabbing range putting you at serious risk. A mace wouldn't be terrible for the actual battle, it would just be terrible to carry around the rest of the time. A katana is really the overall winner in this situation.

The comments to this entry are closed.

My Photo

Clint Hocking's Blog