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The article was hosted on hurstwic.org, which is a website dedicated to teaching Viking martial arts. It does not claim that riving is purely a Viking technique
by vinceguidry 8y ago
The article was hosted on hurstwic.org, which is a website dedicated to teaching Viking martial arts. It does not claim that riving is purely a Viking technique. I suppose it could have mentioned that, but I doubt the author ever considered their article making it to the front page of HN.
- metaphor 8y agoAhh, makes sense why the author would make such a sadistic comparison: Making a few cuts with the axe into some of the oak logs on the site made me realize that a leg bone would be no match for this axe.
- TimTheTinker 8y agoSadistic? Ancient armies regularly hacked at each other with these battle axes, along with swords, spears, and other sharp weapons. It was as normal as guns are today.
- geoffpado 8y agoI think he meant sadistic purely in the context of woodworking, not in the context of military.
- evilduck 8y agoI'm not even sure it's about battle, I think it's just being aware of where misplaced a axe blow will end up (missing your target when chopping wood and hitting yourself in the shin or foot is a common injury).
- parsthis 8y agoOh and boy has that happened to me. Not an axe specifically but a machete!
- TimTheTinker 8y agoI thought he or she was calling severing a leg with a battle axe sadistic (which I disagree with, depending on the context).
- metaphor 8y agoGiven what I believed to be strict woodworking context and before GP shined light on the combat training mission of the host organization, that's exactly what I was thinking. I hadn't realized that the intent of the photojournal was to demonstrate manual riving as a means of fabricating a weapon handle.
- metaphor 8y agoCorrect. I own a table saw and have been working with wood as a matter of practical necessity for the past several months while renovating a home; this article wouldn't be the first time I've stumbled upon the term riving in the context of woodworking. So when a 17-image photojournal describing a manual woodworking procedure concludes with a battle axe pose remarking on its ability to chop through a leg bone, the prose struck me as aggressively misplaced. I mean table saw and chain saw accidents are relatively commonplace and surely claim a fair number of limbs every year, but the efficiency of a woodworking tool in its misuse case isn't typically paraded as a metric of merit...unless you're an organization dedicated to combat training...then the prose makes complete sense.
- TimTheTinker 8y agoThanks for explaining. I appreciate the reply and respect your position, though I still don’t quite agree.