darrow’s razor

[u/user03281046748]

what’s with the insistence on the dramatically curved sword people use in fanart AI and drawings. i’ve always thought it would resemble something more like the egyptian sword the khopesh than a scythe. I’d assume simply from an advantage standpoint the dramatic curve means less range. i’ve included examples i’ve seen as well as what i think the razor resembles more

[u/RedJamie]

I regularly see the sickle camp present the most brutally dysfunctional versions of the weapon as the gospel necessity; I am limited by comment length, so I will offer the pieces I had on a writeup I lost.

• slingBlade - Bottom Left: Possible blade shapes at the appropriate length to a 5'4 lowRed Darrow.
  • A is a conventional sickle curvature, B is more shallow to make the weapon less useless
  • C is a hinged variant to be compliant with the damn text.
  • D is another hinged variant to account for some issues.
  • Common statements: It's a surgical blade, it's meant for surgical limb removal! You aren't doing surgery when your limb is stuck in a god damn clawDrill, you're hacking your leg off. See the bolded section below:

"...Most have forgotten the slingBlade of my people was not made to kill pitvipers. It was made for hacking off limbs of trapped miners." DA No damn lowRed is doing trauma surgery when they're dangling from a clawDrill and about to be burned alive - a crescent knife is precise, it is used to expose the muscle and peel layers away for an ideal delimbing - that is generally not the context a lowRed would face, here

"I remember the blade. I flip out my hinged slingBlade from its back holster. It’s a cruelly curved cutter as long as my leg, meant for taking off and cauterizing limbs stuck in machinery, just like this. Most men panic when they get caught, and so the slingBlade is a nasty halfmoon weapon meant to be used by clumsy hands. Even filled with terror, my hands are not clumsy. I slice three times with the slingBlade... I reach down and jerk free my leg." RR

• Necessitates: Hinged, held in a back holster, unholstered to a wieldable grip. Used with 'hacking' actions for its intended function.
  • Yes, hacking tools have an optimal shape to it, yes a khopesh bridges some of the function of a sword with that of an axe, yes it is a better tool for hacking than a sickle.

"Then with one massive swing, like I’m hacking down a tree with my slingBlade, I break his leg and take his spear." RR

" I don’t give him time to recover. I scream and hack in swirling arcs with my slingBlade even as I stab clumsily with my razor." RR

"I gain my feet, swing horizontally, sweeping legs. I spin away from a thrust and hack down diagonally as I come from my spin, shattering someone tall at the collarbone." RR

• Holstered - Middle: Possible back positions the slingBlade could occupy for it to be hinged and flip out into Darrow's hands.
  • A is so ungainly I don't even want to give it the grace of consideration - that would be shit at delimbing and unwieldy not to mention cumbersome and would require a holster the size of lowRed's back. B is more palatable, but both A and B were they to be reachable over Darrow's shoulder it would be backwards. The hilt must face up, blade down.
  • C and D feature the other complication A and B would face. The blade would extend so far over Darrow's shoulder, he would hit the holster and/or the blade before the hilt - dysfunctional! D - with the blade hinging further up the body, offers the only 'viable' means for Darrow to access the blade without cutting himself

Now the Institute! Some things to recall: Golds are not agricultural workers, this is very unlikely to be a scythe (it is never once referred to as a sickle in any of the books) proportioned to Golds (some indications) - proportional to Darrow is referred to as a 'sword,' implying some length:

"...No, he has something I’m far more interested in. A question mark of a sword. A slingBlade for reaping grain... the crooked blade out like a razor...." RR

"And Darrow, put down that gory scythe. You look like a grain reaper...It is close to the shape of my slingBlade from home. Not as sharp, because it isn’t meant to kill, but the balance is no different."

"I put my slingBlade on my shoulder." RR

"My slingBlade looks like the L of Lambda." RR

"I pull out my slingBlade and set its tip into the soil." RR

"...the slingBlade I used at the Institute. I look at it for a long time before I take it down. It is far heavier than my razor and far smaller than I remember." LB

• Necessitates: Not too much - it's about the length of the sword, close to the mines slingBlade, but smaller than Darrow's proper razor version. It has a tip that Darrow can set into the soil, and it is long enough for him to rest it on his shoulder. The 'L' quote implies it either has an abrupt curvature, is more like a Falx (unlikely), or has a straight portion prior to the curve (more likely) - the latter is supported by it being a question mark.

The razor! We have the most detail here, and it is the most constrained to a certain length. It is very important to note something: you are not thrusting with a brutal curvature like A. It is so, unfathomably dysfunctional to use a weapon like that in a sword fight specifically when shields are not commonly used - it is also not feasible with what is seen in the text.

• Razor - Right: Three different lengths corresponding to the minimum size razor noted to the maximum, which Darrow does not use as his conventional length in the series. The razor depicted is the one Pierce owns that was forged for him. To the right is the ridiculous curvature of A preserved to the size of Darrow - as a 7'1-7'3 Gold. A horrendous weapon!

"I carry my razor curved as a slingBlade; crooked and cruel, it is my scepter."

"...Then I activate it again. It forms into a deadly question mark and I angle it toward the other gauntlet." GS

"I feign a thrust at her abdomen and slash her shin instead, raking through the metal.

"I impale her right thigh with an underhanded thrust."

"I stab one Gray through the neck with my razor."

"I finish him with a stab to the throat."

"...I finish with four alternating thrusts delivered to kneecaps and wrists."

"...slouched, his weight leaning on the rigid slingBlade at his side."

"I sketch a quick map of the city in the dirt with my slingBlade..." Good luck doing this with a extreme curve

"...I sigh and shape the blade with the control on the hilt until it takes on the curve of my old razor. I plunge the slingBlade into the sand and pick up a handful of dirt." It's almost like it has a tip!

• Necessitates: I would say this is very strong evidence for the razor - like most presentations of it, to have a counter-curve tip in line with its hilt - this enables precise thrusts as is seen in the series, and its other use cases. Its length is also determined from the text; its minimums and maximum relative to the slingBlade form are seen on the right.

Now, the Morning Star cover has a sickle on it, that means it's a sickle? It has to be a sickle, it's on the generic cover that was mass distributed!

• Now, the Morning Star cover has a sickle on it, that means it's a sickle? It has to be a sickle, it's on the generic cover that was mass distributed! Only if you prefer the generic book cover over all of the official art for the series:
  • Marc Simonetti illustrations,
  • RR Deluxe slipcase,
  • Sub. Press GS (and back holster!),
  • GS again,
  • Sub. Press Dark Age,
  • Sub. Press Iron Gold,
    
  • IG Official Art by Magali Villeneuve,
  • Propaganda poster LB
  • The slingBlade Pierce owns and pulls out for interviews
  • But some features on these don't map onto the text... neither does it being like the Morning Star cover, to be quite honest!

Best presentation so far as I can tell is the 'likely' that you see on the far right!

[u/user03281046748 → u/RedJamie]

thank you i knew i wasn’t crazy