User blog comment:Blackendedsoul/Buggy's Shock!/@comment-4754162-20120313025930/@comment-4783583-20120314031322

first of I was speaking extremely general when I said slashes sting more, while stabs stain more, obviously your result varies per weapon, some are  better for stabbing and some are better for slashing, a sabre has some balance of both but is overal an inferior sword. Now to get to the force aspect, if you stab you need to apply force to the let's take dagger to hold, then you need force to thrust it forward and last you need force to apply pressure and let it enter a body. However when you have a katana or any other decent sword you only have to apply force on holding the sword and have a very fluid motion to slash somthing, you can obviously apply pressure to the sword to slash deeper/ better however you don't necessarily need to use extra force.

Chain mail is something which varies also, some knives and daggers will pierce chain mail (if you are close enough) like many good swords will slash it, however you have to be pretty equipped at using either of  them to be able to force you way through chain mail, in the end body armor is better, however  how much chain mail and body armer you may put on, you will always have several weak points.