

In Attack on Titan, the blades used with the 3D Manuever Gear have notches in
them similar to those found on craft knives:

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/mxDxb.png)

![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/FMjJp.png)

Certain knives like the one above come with snap-off points so that when the
blade dulls, it can be removed and replaced by a fresh and sharp piece.
However, a utility like this seems redundant on the 3DMG blades as a shortened
blade would be extremely ineffective at removing a Titan's neck, not to
mention that the blades seem to be used and discarded as a whole piece.  
Additionally, [The wiki page on the blades
themselves](http://shingekinokyojin.wikia.com/wiki/Super_Hardened_Steel) gives
no mention of the notches.

So is there any reason for the notches to exist aside from looking cool?


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2015-11-04T13:58:33.140
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attack-on-titan
Is there a reason for the notches on the blades?


The blades were very prone to breakage [picture needed]. The vertical maneuver
gear has even a spare blade storage built-in [picture needed], and on at least
one occasion one soldier was left without blades [chapter ref needed] and a
companion had to share blades with him.

The notches make sense since the blades break so often that even a short and
less effective blade had a chance of scoring a kill and you could make the
most out of a blade before it becomes completely useless.

Also, the resources inside the walls are scarce. Making the most out of the
metal available also made sense.

* * *

* _I have no access to Crunchyroll manga at the moment, and cannot search for manga images._


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The artist just thought it looked cool. Let's examine some of the other
potential answers:

  * To prevent the blades from getting stuck. Nope. When the blades get stuck, they eject the blade and load a new one. Struggling to break a stuck blade could easily turn someone into titan chow, so this is sensible.
  * Because the blades break frequently. Nope. If the blades break frequently, it's _because_ of the notches and the generally flimsy construction.
  * To capitalize on scarce resources. Nope. Making the swords less breakable would use less resources.


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2019-04-30T18:58:04.697
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When a section of the ODM blades snaps off, it is still sharp. They would
continue to use these blades until it snaps off again, but they would keep
doing it to the point until the blades are too short, just as stated in
[Mindwin's answer](https://anime.stackexchange.com/a/27087/2516),

> The notches make sense since the blades break so often that even a short and
> less effective blade had a chance of scoring a kill and you could make the
> most out of a blade before it becomes completely useless.


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2019-10-28T14:41:55.047
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It's mostly just to look cool, as many have said. What I don't think anyone
has pointed out though is that the snap-off blade utility knife was invented
in Japan by [Olfa](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olfa) and it's a bit of a
point of national pride (rightfully so, in my opinion, they make the best
blades on the market to this day).


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2022-06-01T07:08:05.620
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Due to the momentum reached as pilots swing around, attacking a Titan could
break a pilots arm if their angle is off. More realistically it would hurt,
cause strain or cause the sword handle to fly out of your hand. It's not
actually a saftey feature to have the blade break instead. It's so that the
attacker doesn't hesitate to hit as hard as they can. Broken blades are
recovered and recycled when possible. Very skilled attackers will snap off a
tip when it's too blunt, as the tip starts the attack (due to the shape of a
neck it's best to lead with the tip of the sword) The loss of a little length
isn't a problem. The swords are plenty long enough. Such a skilled fighter
would become a leader and will be most likely to give a blade to someone lucky
enough to run out.


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