Hi folks, I'm glad I managed to hop on this super-fascinating thread. Weird enough, only last week I had given a small presentation regarding that book,
Kombination Waffen and someone in the crowd talked about those so-called Sword Breakers that "could snap an opponent's blade with a flick of the wrist". I told him that this is impossible due the facts mentioned here earlier by Paul Macdonald.
I'm always for "experimental archaeology", for this I have a small educational collection. Among other things a trident-style Main Gauche. I tried to break (each in several places along the blade) the blades of a large rapier, smallsword, old style epee and a foil. Now, I'm a kind of a physical person and it is just impossible. The only thing came close to snapping was the foil, while was being bent at its last third by a tremendous effort.
For your amusement I found this link - check it from 3.30!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9xmM...eature=related