What would be the ideal blade for puncturing pressure armor?

Question

Blades, sometimes, pose an advantage to firearms. In my case that advantage is relative silence. Additionally, there's far less risk of depressurization if you're inside a pressurized vessel—a great way to make sure the guy whose space suit just got nailed with your sword can't make it out without converting him and everyone else into a fine pink mist. Assuming pressure gear (i.e., space suits) in this universe is somewhat more advanced than what we have here on Earth, made of carbon-fiber plating and Kevlar or similar materials and relatively non-bulky (a little like the recent Space-X designs in shape and thickness), how could one design a blade that could puncture the seal between the astronaut and the great black void—would serration be optimal, and what material would provide the greatest chance of tearing through?

Answer 1

A War Hammer or Bec de Corbin.

Image from https://www.antiqueweaponstore.com/product/saxon-warhammer-2nd-half-16th-c/

Image from https://www.facebook.com/historicalweaponology/posts/bec-de-corbin-hungary-ca-1530-bec_de_corbin-lucerne_hammer%D0%BA%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%B5%D1%86-%D1%87%D0%B5%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%BD-%D0%B2%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B3%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%8F-%D0%BE/1517749445190715/

These weapons were invented in the medieval era to do the same job as the OP desires, only against steel plate armour, not modern composites.

A war hammer is a one-handed weapon similar in appearance to a common pick, with a flat-headed hammer-like head on one side, and a pointed, slightly curved, long head like that of a gardening pick on the other side.

Unlike a gardening pick, a war hammer designed to puncture pressure armour would be made from hardened steel, and the pick-head might have a cross-section rather more like an X than a square, so that the edges of the X could be sharpened so that it would be more likely to cut through fibrous polymers and composites.

War hammers have been shown to have impact forces of several hundred kilograms per square millimetre, similar to that of a rifle bullet.

The edges of a space-age war hammer would be unlikely to be visibly serrated, since large serrations would make the weapon more likely to hang up in an enemy's suit. I would expect that the initial X cross-section would gradually change to an oval O cross-section as the pick head approached its maximum width, so that it could be loosened from its embedment in the enemy's armour by twisting the handle so that the pick head rotated along its long axis, pushing aside the material of the enemy's armour.

So, I would expect that a modernised war pick would be just as effective against space-age armour as it was against historical armour.

Answer 2

You would probably want something more like a long stiletto dagger

(and one that was piston or magnetically driven at that.)

Basically it would be an attachment to one (or both) arms of your pace suit with the blades recessed inside a housing. When going into hand to hand combat the operator activates the device/s which include an impact operated trigger. Whenever a strike at your opponent hits? The trigger activates and the blade is 'punched' out of its module at extremely high speed - hopefully penetrating your foes armor. The suit then automatically retracts and resets the blade/s for another strike unless the command to do so is overridden by the user. Alternately the operator can switch off the 'impact' trigger (for example by using a simple HUD icon) and set it so that the blades can be deployed when grappling an opponent as opposed to just when striking with the option of ordering them to retract and/or strike on command.

This would be way less bulky than a sword or axe and much more easy to use in confined spaces like inside a breached space ship or station.

Answer 3

Modernized plate armor in zero gravity could counter normal melee weapons

The thing is, metallurgy and armor technology have gotten a lot better since medieval times. Plus the combatants are weightless in space, which makes it possible to wear thicker armor than medieval knights did.

Getting through a medieval knight's plate armor was already a very challenging proposition. Double or triple the thickness, eliminate the joint weak points with modern design and manufacturing, and make it out of flawless titanium? Forget about it!

In contrast, muscle-powered melee weapons have not improved much. They can be made out of better materials so they won't break, but it's not like a medieval warhammer was going to break anyway. And then there's the fact that it's much harder to generate force behind a strike when you're in zero-gravity.

So the conclusion is that you simply cannot get through a seriously designed set of zero-gravity plate armor with any melee weapon. Not a sword, hammer, or bec-de-corbin; you can't get through a 3mm plate of modern steel or titanium. Your strike will bounce off and barely leave a dent.

What will work against such armor?

• Bullets. Bullets will go through any wearable thickness of plate armor. Sure, bullets can also accidentally destroy important life support and propulsion systems, but if your side was likely to lose and get killed anyway, you'll be willing to risk using guns. That means the other side also has to risk using guns or they'd be the ones losing.
• Bullets again, but at point-blank range. Does this count as a melee weapon? It would be safer in terms of not destroying essential systems, because the bullet would get stopped by the enemy's body. You could even have an automatic rangefinder that refuses to shoot unless the muzzle is in physical contact with the enemy. Of course, again, the side that chooses not to equip the rangefinder would be at a huge advantage.
• Thermal lance.
• A nonlethal option: Sticky foam. It's not likely to destroy the life support systems!

Answer 4

Probably a relatively thin and fine blade

Doing some reading around Carbon Fibre and Kevlar, it does appear that special coatings are needed to consistently cut it (diamond coated blades).

That said, both these materials derive their strength from the multiple strands and fibres in the weave, so anything that is fine enough to pass through the gaps and cut a few strands as it penetrates is going to be ideal.

I would imagine something like a Rapier or the Fencing Foil type sword, where the method of attack is not to slash at the enemy, but to thrust with the point, passing the blade between a few fibres, cutting them and weakening the structure.

Answer 5

Any sharp needle point dagger

You want a fine point and a sharp edge but othrwise they will go right through kevlar. You don't want serations they will hang up. A hard steel is important as well.

the real issue is the carbon fiber and resin, you really really want to aim between the plates of that, since its not flexible the entire thing can't be made of it. But as long as it is not too thick a blade can still get through it, but you need a lot more force so something like a dagger where you can get a lot of leverage is important. Something like a rondel dagger which is designed to be weilded by bulky gauntlets or gloves will work well.

Answer 6

A fast vibrating diamond string thrown out and recollected by a device to keep a blade shape. The vibration is produced via piezzo electricity. If it breaks, both ends are retracted, a new filament is thrown out. It has no extra weight, it adapts the cutting surface to the surface to cut, its basically the perfect chainsaw minus the weight of the blade.

Answer 7

A mechanical pike

My proposal is a mechanical pike: A pointy knife on top of an extendible telescope arm.
If this does not meet your definition of a blade, then you could make the top a bit longer and give it sharp sides, so it becomes more a halberd than a pike.

Heavy swinging weapons may be difficult to handle in zero gravity and also in closed environments (e.g. inside of a space station), but you probably still want something that can provide a bit of range.

The mechanical pike/halberd is a compromise between a gun and a blade:

• the range is limited (you won't accidentially shoot the window at the other end of a room) but still provides some range to hit
• the mechanical telescope arm may provide enough extra force to make a hole in an armor
• it can be small enough to carry when not needed
• in really close combat it may be used as a short sword or dagger
• the recoil is a straight line instead of a rotation
• you won't run out of ammunition
• it is more or less silent (which should not matter without an atmosphere)

Answer 8

Bangsticks

Modern armor is way too hard to break or bypass with a traditional melee weapon, especially in zero G where you can not brace your attacks. Modern, machine made chainmail similar to a shark bite suit can be designed to be flexible enough to protect every joint on your body, tough enough to stop any stabbing or cutting weapon, and fine enough to prevent even narrow blades from getting between the gaps.

Furthermore, we now have polycarbonates and synthetic sapphire which allow us to make armor grade clear face masks. In short, you can not just get in close with a dagger to get around the armor like you could against a medieval knight or expect to pierce the armor with something low powered like bow or crossbow.

We've also gotten much better at making impact resistant armor. A football helmet is rated to protect against a 2500 Newton impact, most melee weapons only strike with a few hundred newtons of force. Granted, you'd have to replace the plastic shell with a tougher metal shell to keep it from being penetrated, but the only way to get a percussive kill against modern padding might be to use a pole hammer/axe/pick, but in zero g, such weapons would be way to unwieldy to swing, and in the narrow spaces of a ship or space station, you'd not have enough room to swing them properly anyway.

In short, historical melee weapons are a bad choice and modern firearms are too dangerous, but luckily, there is a middle ground called bangsticks. Bangsticks use a gunpowder charge to drive a piston several inches into a victim with all of the force of a point blank shot from a gun, but then it uses a spring or hydraulics to catch and return the piston so that there is no bullet flying off. This way you get all of the killing power of a firearm, with none of the risk of collateral damage.

Since I'm assuming most of your fighting will be done in narrow confines similar to the inside of a naval ship, you will want your weapon to resemble a short spear. Long enough to perform a basic phalanx with, but not so long that you can not maneuver them through doorways and turns or around enemy shields. To make it a military grade weapon, will also want to give them multiple shots and a contact firing mechanism.

This way, you only need to tap an enemy's armor (hopefully while grasping a dead man's safety trigger) to deliver a fatal blow.

Answer 9

Everyone else is wrong!

Ok, that's a bold statement, there are a lot of great points (lol) in the other answers. BUT: A spacesuit that's likely to be worn in combat with people with pointy sticks, will very likely have some sort of self-healing properties (e.g. gunk floating around inside that will find and self-seal and small holes.) A sharp-pointed war hammer, or a stiletto blade etc. will make a small, narrow opening that will be sealed up as soon as the blade is removed.

I think you need to look at vehicular spike strips for inspiration. The point of the blade could be a hollow 'needle' like design, such that a big hole gets punched in the armour, and , importantly, some of the armour material is removed, leaving a large hole, rather than just a tear or a puncture.

You could maybe look at a detachable needle-design, like the stinger of a bee, that leaves a needle inserted into the armour, holding open a hole for the air to escape. This could be coated in hydrophobic material that stops and 'gunk' sticking to it, making it even less likely to be blocked. https://magnumspike.co.uk/ has a good example.