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[Loud Whispers]

So...

Katanas suck, Japanese iron sucks, and the Japanese themselves suck? I've read all three of them now

Nah, the Japanese are terrifying whenever they quit their hikkomori ways.

[Reverie]

The mass produced shit came about in WW II. Before that it was mass produced shit that couldn't be made any better.

So it was mass-produced before mass-production was cool? :p

[hops]

Computers aren't designed for use against unarmored peasants, though.

[TamerVirus]

B-b-but the sharp corners and electrical output suggest otherwise!

[Frumple]

Lies. Lies, I say! Plenty of ranged weapons have computers in them! Drones, missiles, pretty sure they're aiming artillery via computer these days, so on, so forth. Hell, with drones, that's specifically computers that have several models designed for use against unarmored protesters peasants. They're just computers with guns attached to them or whatever. Think the rest of it have similar stuff.

[Loud Whispers]

They were prone to shattering until they worked out how to remove the impurities.
The mass produced shit came about in WW II. Before that it was mass produced shit that couldn't be made any better.
Once they removed the impurities, IIRC, they stopped being a last-resort weapon. Still, not as good as other weapons.

The only time in history that the katana has been the primary weapon was during WWII when the Japanese government deliberately romanticized the police class as much as possible, hence the katanas use by officers. They learned how to remove the impurities at around 700-900 A.D. and from then onwards it was the tertiary arm, so you'd have to have had your spear broken and your bow rendered useless until you had to draw the sword, and this pretty much continues through all the Japanese dark ages and happy days during which the constant turmoil and conflict necessitated returns to cheap production-line techniques which produced disposable swords or was marked by peaceful times in which katanas were lavished upon as symbols, but not worked on as tools of war. By the time the samurai start becoming the police force, katanas once again start having more decorations, wider temper lines and other frivolities to make them look nicer which made them especially prone to shattering. The mass production you're referring to happened after yet another dark age for swordsmithing [tons of times the blacksmiths who made the swords forgot how to make the swords for various reasons] and they were shit mass produced quenched in oil [preferably you want to quench it in water, as quenching it in oil makes the blade softer than in water, but if your sword is prone to cracking and eventually shearing/shattering it's worth the loss], they were pretty much just western sabres reskinned and with less thought, effort and stronk yuropenan engineering put into them.

Tl;dr
YOU RECALLED WRONG
YOUR SWORD A SHIT

[penguinofhonor]

Can someone point me to some information on this event where all the Japanese swordsmiths simultaneously forgot how to make katanas? It sounds entertaining.

[Loud Whispers]

I said 'stopped being a last-resort weapon', not 'started being a primary weapon'
IIRC, they tended to carry smaller blades, too, but due to how small they were, they were even less useful than katanas.
Obviously I'm on about the samurai. Ashigaru weren't particularly well equipped.

Dood
They were always last resort weapons. The only people who used them as primary weapons were the police Samurai and Ronin who were too poor to afford other weapons.

Can someone point me to some information on this event where all the Japanese swordsmiths simultaneously forgot how to make katanas? It sounds entertaining.

The most dramatic moments has to have been during the 1500's where most of the swordsmiths became gunsmiths and so they started losing the swordmaking skills, then in the 19th-20th century where it became illegal for civilians and samurai to carry swords and this pretty much made swordsmiths redundant so they lost the skills again.
So unfortunately it isn't as exciting as all the swordsmiths getting so hammered on sake that they forgot how to make them, it was more like several slow periods of decline.

[Mech#4]

I think during their feudal period there was a lot of katanas made for arming basic troops (ashigaru), all of rather low quality, and better ones were only owned by those who could afford them or who inherited them. I seem to remember there were periods of disarming of the peasants, one around Tokugawa Ieyasu becoming shogun, where they gathered up these cheaper katanas to melt down or dispose of, probably with the intent of de-fanging any potential uprisings.

[Reverie]

You guys have a lot of offhand knowledge on feudal Japan >.>

[Akura]

...Yeah, the only thing I really know about katanas is that they're slightly curved longswords, which gives them a larger cutting edge but makes thrusting less effective.

[Reverie]

If I'm not mistaken, they are also only sharpened on the forward edge.

[Mech#4]

There's a lot of media about, and from, Japan, especially at this time. "Shogun: Total War" 1 and 2 especially which includes small write ups of history on unit cards. Summarised of course, but it encourages me to read up further using Wikipedia.

[mastahcheese]

If I'm not mistaken, they are also only sharpened on the forward edge.

Yeah, I've never seen a double edged katana/wakazashi/what-have-you before.

[miauw62]

You guys have a lot of offhand knowledge on feudal Japan >.>

Anime does that to you.