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PofanWasTaken t1_j2dngam wrote

Reply to comment by Pocok5 in ELI5: What makes the rust on a rusty nail different from the rust on shaving razors to where one needs an immediate tetanus shot and the other happens daily by DrySyllabub2563

Then is it false that rusty weapons were used in war to poison enemies? Is it the same correlation?

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Pocok5 t1_j2dplxg wrote

You can stick caltrops in dung so they are more dangerous than "3cm nail in the foot" would ordinarily be. For actual handheld weapons, keeping them in good, sharp condition is kind of a priority, since it's small comfort to know the dude you scratched had a bad time a week after he partitioned your ass like it's Poland. Of course peasant armies often went to war with whatever pokey tool they had, and you can absolutely get tetanus from getting stabbed by a hay fork or a straightened scythe. Against armored opponents, sharp weapons are of little use, so knight vs knight combat would have been maces and hammers mostly, and those don't do deep stab wounds anyway (except war picks and morning stars

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PofanWasTaken t1_j2dqm1j wrote

No cure for blunt force trauma eh?

Thanks for the insight

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Pocok5 t1_j2ds4ts wrote

Turns out there's only so much padding you can fit in a helmet, so competitive in-situ blacksmithing sessions were the go-to method of settling disputes for a good while.

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The_Casual_Scribbler t1_j2dpjzx wrote

The way I understand it is that rust is a good environment for the bacteria so it is more likely to maintain active bacteria better. But I could be wrong lol.

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