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Pocok5 t1_j2dgde8 wrote

Tetanus is not related to rust. Tetanus lives in the soil outside and only infects you if the object you get stabbed by was outside, exposed to contamination by rain splatter and such. Exposure and rain also happens to make metal rusty. Getting tetanus from a rusty nail outside is correlation not causation. You can also get tetanus from a completely rust free garden tool if you stab yourself with it.

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PofanWasTaken t1_j2dngam wrote

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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