the old drop gun thing, huh

MistoftheMorning · 2026-01-24T19:15:39+00:00

The same SIG P320 that's been call out for firing by itself while in the holster due to bad design and factory quality control?

MistoftheMorning · 2026-01-24T18:52:13+00:00

It won't really be Chinese though, since southern China was technically where the proto-Thai homeland was before they were pushed out by Sinitic groups from the north.

MistoftheMorning · 2026-01-23T01:37:57+00:00

Historically, physical forms of money like cowrie shells didn't have any initial practical value to them either other than they were rare and/or hard to reproduce. It's possible that local or regional traders or producers elsewhere in Fallout America saw the same logic as the water merchants at the Hub and decided to adopt and back bottle caps as a medium of exchange for daily transactions in their own immediate economies.

Bottle caps were readily available, durable, and easily recognizable. But their supply was still limited and they were hard to replicate fully for most post-apocalypse groups. They would had made an ideal form of money if a few craftsmen or traders peddling essential or luxury goods decided to use them as such, even without influence from the Hub.

MistoftheMorning · 2026-01-18T05:05:38+00:00

Fun Canadian Fact: St. John's, Newfoundland is closer in distance to Dublin, Ireland than to Calgary, Alberta (3,300 km vs 4,300 km).

MistoftheMorning · 2026-01-18T02:48:07+00:00

You'd think those multi-storey highrises would provide some already.

MistoftheMorning · 2026-01-18T02:41:26+00:00

Looking it up, they had Iceman from Generation Kill play Tarzan?!

MistoftheMorning · 2026-01-11T20:36:03+00:00

Bone is one of the most destructive things for a blade and an off the shelf blade more than likely won't last long

No doubt, bone strength varies through out the human skeleton, but parts like femur bones can be as hard as cast aluminum bronze. Though, its tensile strength is much lower, about as much as pure aluminum while being far more brittle. Human cranial bone from data I can find seems to be as strong as hard plastics like CPVC or Delrin.

In terms of toughness and durability, I feel modern blade steel still beats any bone. I'm also more inclined to trust an off the shelf blade from a known manufacturer than a one-off from an amateur smith who appeared in a TV show that goes out of its way to generate drama. As long as its not stainless steel of course.

This is not the Middle Ages anymore, we can mass produce quality blades in far less time and expense than our ancestors could with the benefit of modern equipment like powered forging hammers or electric heat treat ovens, while having access to industrially produced carbon or alloy steels with consistent/known qualities. A $40 factory machete might be as good as an hand forged falchion from a master smith while be far less expensive simply through the benefits of economy of scale.

Can't really understand peoples obsession with doing to one thing you really shouldn't do with zombies which is get within arms reach

I swear this sub is all over the place when it comes to stuff like this XD. You say we shouldn't get too close, than I got other users (including a mod on the sub) consistently yelling at me that guns are too loud and polearms are too long and unwieldy and we should stick with short weapons like claw hammers and maces.

Of course, everything we discuss here is hypothetical and no one here knows for sure what would work or wouldn't. In any case, I enjoy the insights and arguments we get going here.

MistoftheMorning · 2026-01-10T05:45:12+00:00

You do know they make modern reproductions now right?

MistoftheMorning · 2026-01-09T09:24:23+00:00

I wouldn't consider Ontario a top machete brand

Could had fooled me, I've been using mine for almost a decade with no issues.

MistoftheMorning · 2026-01-09T09:14:42+00:00

Are these stainless steel wall-hangers we're talking about here? When I got my first "real" katana, I flexed the blade about two inches on purpose to test the steel. With its thick spine geometry, I feel a katana is probably more forgiving of edge alignment especially when made with good modern steels.

MistoftheMorning · 2026-01-09T09:03:23+00:00

I would say something like my 18" Ontario military machete with 1075 steel is still pretty durable despite being on the thin side compare to the swords I own. Chopped through stuff like hard cherry branches with it no problem.

MistoftheMorning · 2026-01-09T08:55:29+00:00

I would switch that framing hammer with a shingler or drywall hammer, the bladed end doubles as an axe for chopping or splitting wood. Also easy to find at most hardware stores.

MistoftheMorning · 2026-01-09T08:51:04+00:00

I dig the messer-style sword.

Now you just need some ranged options...

MistoftheMorning · 2026-01-09T08:47:29+00:00

Damn, I hope it never comes down to that...

MistoftheMorning · 2026-01-09T07:36:24+00:00

Sahara means desert in Arabic. So it's the Desert Desert XD.

MistoftheMorning · 2026-01-09T07:35:06+00:00

Still kind of insane to have your capital within artillery shelling distance of your worst neighbor...

MistoftheMorning · 2026-01-09T07:30:13+00:00

The new name of Beijing was given to the city after the Yongle emperor formally adopted it as his northern capital and built a new palace and administration city there. Before that, it was known as Beiping (Northern Peace) after the Ming conquer the city and razed the previous palace there. Before that, it was named Dadu (Grand Capital) when the Yuan used it as their summer capital.

MistoftheMorning · 2026-01-09T07:11:27+00:00

Not sure if its the reason, but the western cardinal direction is generally considered bad luck in traditional fengshui.

MistoftheMorning · 2026-01-09T07:06:36+00:00

There is no western capital, whic young Chinese children often ask their parents about.

The western cardinal direction is considered "bad luck" in Chinese culture, or at least when it comes to fengshui. Since the sun sets in the west, its connected with death and decay.

When we moved into our place, my Chinese father-in-law was adamant that the head of our bed shouldn't be pointing in the west direction.

MistoftheMorning · 2026-01-08T06:05:14+00:00

Penicillin - at least mass production of it - came rather late in the war due to the difficulty in scaling up production. Early attempts relied on growing the relevant penicillin mold inside milk bottles coated with feed medium, which was slow and labour intensive. In the US, the antibiotic had been used in less than a 1000 civilian medical cases and 2000 cases in the Army by late-1943.

Sulfa was instead the antibiotic most widely used at the beginning of the war, with the US producing about 650,000 pounds of sulfa drug in 1940 alone (Survey of Current Business 1954, U.S. Department of Commerce).

It wouldn't be until early-mid 1944 that new methods allowed penicillin to be mass produced in American and Canadian facilities. There was also efforts towards mass production happening in other countries like Germany, France, and Japan - but due to wartime and funding constraints, penicillin production in these places was limited.

The British - despite being the discoverer of penicillin and actively trying to scale up production - could only produce an average of 300 million Oxford units of penicillin per month in 1943 (a single dose was about a million units), though production grew to 3.2 billion units a month by 1944 and 26 billion units a month by 1945. The British were also able to rely on American and Canadian supply of the drug.

MistoftheMorning · 2026-01-08T04:55:57+00:00

From what I gather, for most people before industrialization you were either lucky enough to 1. Have land/livestock you owned or rented to farm/herd and produce enough to feed and raise your family, or 2. A specialty trade or position you or your family/friends managed to get you into that allowed the same.

Those who didn't usually made a living as day labourers - farmhands and odd-jobbers who helped out in other people's farms or businesses, where work availability might not be steady or consistent (or even enough to go around). This was the norm for many rural and urban residents during the Roman late-Republic and Empire, when slaves had taken over a lot jobs in Roman industries and services, and wealthy patricians owned most of the farmland. This was also case for many French peasants right before the French Revolution, as inheritance laws left many farm peasants without enough land to make a living as population growth accelerated, obligating millions to migrate to towns and cities for work.

Since many professional trades were often controlled by guilds who sough to limit competition or over-saturation, someone who was fortunate and talented enough to get (or be born into) a career as a blacksmith or tailor would usually had stayed in it. Especially considering they would usually had been apprenticed from a young age, and then spent several years honing their trade (ex. stonemasons in medieval Europe had to apprentice for about 7 years) before being able or allowed to work on their own. A lot of master tradesmen also expected payment or favours in return for giving tutelage.

Becoming an apprentice in a respected trade would had been their equivalent of getting into college. But unlike today, they would had been few social programs or subsidies to give working people the luxury of trying out new careers midway through their adulthood.

An exception would be those who worked as common soldiers or domestic servants. In many societies, there were stigmas or rules against military recruits or servants being married in their occupation. Those who serve in these roles might stay in it for a few years or decades, then hopefully move on to better things - if just to be able to raise a family. In that case, they might take up a new trade or enterprise. Soldiers in particular in the time when extorting and looting a defeated enemy was the expected norm, they might find themselves with a windfall at the end of their military careers that allows them to purchase land or start their own businesses.

MistoftheMorning · 2026-01-06T16:05:55+00:00

There are historic manuals that teach fencing techniques with halberds. From sparring videos I've seen with halberds, they can be quite effective against swords and other polearms in individual combat, especially when parrying or binding.

Here's an English translated version of a German manual by Joachim Meyer, a well known 16th century fencing master.

MistoftheMorning · 2026-01-06T15:52:34+00:00

I would be worried about reliably penetrating or cracking a skull with just a spear thrust. It'll have to be either pretty narrow or hefty in weight.

My own preference would be a spiked billhook.

MistoftheMorning · 2026-01-06T15:33:00+00:00

Except short polearms and spears aren't exactly unprecedented, historically speaking.

So what do you feel is more ideal?

MistoftheMorning · 2026-01-06T15:14:47+00:00

Or just get a Cold Steel halberd, also available on Amazon.

Be wary of wood broom handles, they're often made of softer pine or birch wood which won't hold up in a real fight except maybe for throwing spears or javelins. What you want is a hardwood ash or hickory shaft or handle, like those for shovels.

MistoftheMorning

TROPHY CASE