Is it possible to sharpen your arm into a weapon?

Discussion in 'Debate Corner' started by Beucefilous, May 14, 2014.

  1. Beucefilous Kingdom Keeper

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    A debate with a friend prompted me to ask this.

    Can you cut off your hand, and sharpen the bone of your arm to a point where you can use it as a weapon. I'm curious. Through various factors which, regardless of how unlikely it is that they all fall into the same person, i believe it is theoretically possible.
     
    Beucefilous, May 14, 2014
    Beucefilous, May 14, 2014
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  2. Glen Returned from the dead

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    I feel like if there were several physical and mental disorders, you would be able to, though I can't imagine why anybody would want to. The process would be exceptionally disgusting to go through and perhaps watch, but I believe it is possible to an extent. Can't imagine how much trouble you'd put a medical department through though.

    To clarify:
    Yes.
     
    Glen, May 14, 2014
    Glen, May 14, 2014
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  3. Aelin Best Waifu

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    No it is not possible. If you do manage to cut off your arm leaving only the bone without passing out then you wouldn't sharpen into a weapon. Your bone is filled with a softer substance called bone marrow. That is too soft to be sharpened into anything. Once you take the bone marrow away that leaves nothing more then a thin layer of bone. That bone is far to frail and would simply chip or break if you tried. Even if you could get a jagged edge it would break right away. By cutting off your arm you would not be able to sharpen it into a weapon. It would not work out very well.
     
    Aelin, May 14, 2014
    Aelin, May 14, 2014
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  4. Beucefilous Kingdom Keeper

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    Well, if you were careful enough and knew what what you were doing, you could probably shave off just enough around the front to make into a point.
     
    Beucefilous, May 14, 2014
    Beucefilous, May 14, 2014
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  5. Glen Returned from the dead

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    While technically you could, I doubt you could make it into anything particularly dangerous. Yes, it would technically be a weapon, but it would be a fairly useless one at that, and I don't think anybody would really do it. What's the point of putting yourself through all that trouble for something that's going to be like someone trying to cut you in half with a feather?
     
    Glen, May 14, 2014
    Glen, May 14, 2014
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  6. Beucefilous Kingdom Keeper

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    I didn't ask why would you logically do it. You wouldn't want to, nor would it be a practical weapon in any sense. However, you could technically do it.
     
    Beucefilous, May 14, 2014
    Beucefilous, May 14, 2014
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  7. Aelin Best Waifu

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    Even at that it would be a point not a weapon. It is like when you make a candy cane into a sharp point. Yes it is pointy but it isn't really a weapon since it has no structural integrity and would break before you could do anything. It probably wouldn't break skin and barely warren more then a sarcastic ow. It is simply a pointy bone that would break as soon as you tried to do anything at all. An arm bone for a weapon wouldn't do much at all. Besides your bone isn't that thick. You try to file it down and you wouldn't really have anything left. Though the theory is there in the end it isn't possible to do. It is just a wild theory that you came up with. Just because it sounds cool in your mind doesn't mean it will work.
     
    Aelin, May 14, 2014
    Aelin, May 14, 2014
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  8. Beucefilous Kingdom Keeper

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    Well, the definition of a weapon is ]"a thing designed or used for inflicting bodily harm or physical damage."

    So, it doesn't have to be overly effective, but as long as it can inflict the tiniest bit of physical damage, it is still considered a weapon. So, if you strike at particularly weak points such as the eye for example, even if it broke it would still inflict damage onto them. Once again it wouldn't be a very good, nor practical weapon, but you would still have sharpened your arm into a weapon.
     
    Beucefilous, May 14, 2014
    Beucefilous, May 14, 2014
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  9. Aelin Best Waifu

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    Using that logic literally anything could be classified as a weapon because there will be someone somewhere inventive enough to find a way to make it cause someone harm. They will make it work in someway or another. A piece of paper could be called a weapon because it wasn't designed but could be used to inflict bodily harm due to a paper cut. So if this is your logic behind this then why create this thread? If you are going to use the fact that everything that has ever been used or someone could think up and in the future use as a weapon, is therefore a weapon by definition then the thread is pointless. You are simply here to state an opinion. But if you want to argue on a useful or practical or logical, or dependable weapon in any way you can not classify it as a weapon. By the technical definition yes okay, but with that a piece of paper I cut my finger on is a weapon. This should not be classified in the context that you imply by this post as a weapon.

    And I am back to the point that you would have to actually make a point without it chipping or breaking or anything happening to it and then strike someone with it. You would have a harder time controlling it to make sure it hits a person. It is possible you would hit some sort of other object at all around you it will break and then lose any integrity as a weapon and even the designing is ruined so then it is no longer classified as a weapon. It would be a mere idea of a possible bad weapon that failed.
     
    Aelin, May 14, 2014
    Aelin, May 14, 2014
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  10. Glen Returned from the dead

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    Well yes, it would be an absolutely terrible weapon and not one that would be any use whatsoever. BUT it would still be classified as a weapon, so then the answer is still "yes, it is possible to sharpen your arm into a weapon".

    Whether it is damaged after use, can be used again after it, or hell even if it kills the user (unlikely) after it's use, they would have technically sharpened their arm into something that can be classified as a weapon. Regardless of any condition, any other factors that happens after the bony arm is used, or the area around the 'wielder' (your point about hitting the person), so long as they have sharpened their arm into a weapon with the intention of harming somebody, or inflicted some kind of damage, they have successfully turned it into a weapon.
     
    Glen, May 14, 2014
    Glen, May 14, 2014
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  11. Beucefilous Kingdom Keeper

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    Pretty much this.

    A sword is a weapon. If it breaks, is it still a weapon? Yes. As to why i posted this thread, knowing that i was just going to use that logic to justify it, Does it really matter? Fact is i made the thread to start a debate. Did i know i was going to probably win said debate beforehand? yes. Does that make me a bad person? probably. Still though, i made the thread starting a debate.
     
    Beucefilous, May 14, 2014
    Beucefilous, May 14, 2014
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  12. Aelin Best Waifu

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    If you have CIP, somehow able to stop and prevent all bleeding, keep the bone in tact without skin or blood or anything attached to that certain part of your arm, not pass out, and then able to actually inflict some sort of damage on someone. Then yes it could be classified as that, but in reality the likely hood of all those things lining up and the idea to do such a thing is slim to none. It can not be considered a weapon until it has come to life, instead a concept of a weapon. So I will give you that. You have a very... er interesting concept for a weapon. And good luck with making that happen so you can say that an arm can be sharpened into a weapon.
     
    Aelin, May 14, 2014
    Aelin, May 14, 2014
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  13. Ienzo ((̲̅ ̲̅(̲̅C̲̅r̲̅a̲̅y̲̅o̲̅l̲̲̅̅a̲̅( ̲̅̅((>

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    This is a bit on an insane debate to say the least, but I have to agree with ~Phoenix~'s first comment. Most of the bone is not super hard as it's exterior is (this is called cortical bone and it only makes up a thin shell of the actual bone). The interior is mostly "spongey bone" which isn't exactly sponge but it is a lot less dense than cortical bone which makes it far better designed to allow blood vessels to get through and provide Oxygen for the bone cells. Bone as a structure tends to splinter but I suppose it would be theoretically possible to sharpen but you would get a point of spongey bone and marrow (a substance being even more flexible and spongey than spongey bone):

    [​IMG]
    I can imagine that if it was ever done then it would be like trying to stab someone with a rubber point that would then break after use. In reality though, I imagine even if done by someone else in a clean surgery you wouldn't survive long. It will be exposing the inside of your bones to infections and bone marrow is where red blood cells are made so there is a reason it's protected by skin, cortical bone and whatever else let alone knowing how the body will try and heal itself. It would make a weapon but it would be so pointless and absurd that even a pencil would be a better weapon.
     
    Ienzo, May 14, 2014
    Ienzo, May 14, 2014
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