Will It Kill A Zombie?
Zombie movies… are they full of it, or will your average handheld weapon really crack open a human skull?
Well, we don’t have the money to buy human skulls, so we decided to test out a bunch of tools and household items on the next best thing, coconuts! Take a look at our video and see what weapons will and won’t… kill a zombie.
These are the sorts of test we need to do more of here at Zombie Command. Tell us what weapons you want us to test and we’ll do it :)
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Can you please test a katana?
Thanks.
In theory. I don’t have a katana though and getting hold of one that’s actually a decent enough grade and sharpness will be difficult.
With the katana though you’re really looking for decapitations rather than destroying the brain and it’s only really good for a half dozen of those before the blade becomes dull.
Katanas are actually very delicate swords and must be treated with a lot of care during storage and handling. While it’s cool to think having a katana during the zombocalypse would be awesome, in reality, it would suck. Coupled with the fact that without practice you’re only going to get yourself killed by getting that close to the zombies.
this is pretty good, but you are kinda overestimating the density of a human skull. not much, but you are. a coconut is harder than a skull. plus, thats not the only way to kill a zombie. destroy the heart, or cut off circulation to the important body parts. like the head, legs, and arms. it might not kill them at first, but if they loose enough blood, or cant move, they will die from lack of blood or they starve. im not an expert, but thats what i know. and a katana isnt as delicate as you think. if you have a special sheathe, it will sharpen itself every time you put it away. and unless the zombies have swords as well, you dont have to worry about it getting hurt that much.
Too much 28 Days Later for you I’m afraid Jacob :)
As a member of the walking dead, as opposed to the infected you no longer rely on blood pumping round the body to activate muscles and while the means of this re-activation is currently unknown, it is unlikely that blood loss or starvation will be a determining factor in stopping a zombie.
The lowest force required to fracture a human skull is about 15 pounds of pressure but it can take up to almost 200 lbs, I’m not sure why you think a coconut is harder than a human skull, but unless you want to break out the pigs heads it’s a decent enough substitute. Can you tell me how much pressure is required to open a coconut or is your statement conjecture?
Lastly I’m going to assume that you’ve never had any experience with a katana (feel free to correct me) and while these special sayas (‘sheathes’) may exist, I’ve never heard of them. Even without swords zombies are dangerous in close contact combat and swords are hard to use; you can’t just jump in and expect to be decapitating zombies left and right.
Mis-information will be the zombies greatest weapon when it happens. Never speculate, always learn as much as you can and hypothesize based on the information. Armchair zombie fighters will be food just as quickly as those that haven’t prepared.
I was touched by this post, I’m sick of people discussing zombies as though they were just angry people, thus baring the weaknesses of people. They are dead already! You can’t destroy them the way you would take a life from a living breathing creature. They are already dead! Besides their blood would already be coagulated! Depending how Romero you get with them. I don’t want anything to do with that Danny Boyle nonsense. God bless you zombie command.
Now my question, how well would a Black Jack work? Those concealable police batons. I know you mentioned your testing house hold weapons, but a kukri knife isn’t terribly common in house holds atleast around here. So please let me watch ! =D.
Thank you
I’m having a debate with my Mrs currently on whether a (ice) hockey stick would be a good weapon for dealing with the undead. I say yes, she says no.
I reckon it’d have no trouble whipping through a zombie’s rotting flesh and decap that mo-fo.
Will you guys be testing other methods of killing a zombie? Cutting through the zombie’s head seems to be the goal for these tests. What about smashing through it with something like a shovel or a metal baseball bat? I feel as though these, more specifically the second one, would prove decently effective against a zombie in a one-on-one encounter.
Will future tests concentrate solely on breaking through the skull or will the effectiveness of disarming a zombie, then killing it, be tested as well?
I’m guessing a living human has stronger, thicker skin, muscle tissue and bone then the living dead. However, dont rely on movies to educate you on the oncoming apocolypse. The most realistic zombie scenario took place in the book “World War Z” by Max Brooks. These ones were full on blow their freakin heads off zombies. Howeveri disagree with you on the durability of a functional handmade katana. If they could cut a man in two down the middle back in the Samurai days, they can do it to a zombie too. You just need to know how to use it. Of course, most katanas around are machine made display swords, ideal for-you guessed it-display! I’ve destoryed many of them to test their durability for refernece to a zombie (because im crazy and i think they will take over the world) and i was surprised but not impressed by the fake display swords strenght. I hacked at a solid wood tree trunk for about 5 swings and the blade started loosing its shape at the tsuba (the thing that seperates the blade form the handle) because the tang on the inside of the handle was about a quarter inch in diameter. So i guess if you wanna spend 10$ on ebay and use it as a weapon for a few zombies untill you can get something better, go for it. But it will fail you after repeated use, guaranteed. spend 300$+ on a katana from an array of websites, handmade functionals and you will have yourself (with proper use and training) the best melee weapon for the undead. If you swing correctly the blade will not fatigue or lose its edge and you will have your self a wall of dead rotting, healess corpses all around you.
Swung correctly (or incorrectly) a katana will lose it’s edge very quickly, making each decapitation harder/impossible. Saying it won’t lose it’s edge is just a wild statement.
The amount of practise required to be any good with the blade means that you’re more likely to get yourself killed with your sword stuck in a zombie anyway.
Basically, don’t get a katana.
okay, you guys have no experience of swordplay – fine, not everyone has. As a practising user (in a karate club, before you get the worng idea), i can tell you two things; to use any kind of edged weapon effectively you have to practise, practise, practise; and that it is fine when you are fighting one-on-one, but they simply won’t work for more than one person in practical terms because they are unwieldy and cumbersome. It looks great in the movies when our hero or heroine are using a katana, samurai sword or similar to decapitate groups but try it in real life aginst the undead and A you’ll be knackered in about 3 mins max, and B there are more of them than you so you’ll be overwhelmed in a couple of mins. You’re better of using an automatic rifle or flame-thrower if you can get one.
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If you guys like this, you gotta check out http://www.youtube.com/zombiegoboomtv They even have a Katana episode. It is SWEET!!!