Talk:Death by sawing

Some common questions to be answered: - When was 'Sawing' practiced? - Who practiced it? - Recent events...?

Is there any reference at all to homosexuals suffering this punishment? This sounds to me like an urban legend...


 * I agree. Homosexuals have rarely been punished in such ways. It seems to me to be a myth. undcumented and also a VERY unpractical way to kill someone. Most metal saws would take a long time to saw someone up too. And the victim would not survive as long as claimed in the article.

Ravage

...
I've gotta say... Youch! (or "Yowch!") Is there a scale to measure pain? How much pain can one take before turning unconscious? --Shultz 23:09, 7 December 2005 (UTC)

There is an exhibit on the use of sawing as a method of execution in the medieval torture museum in market square, Tallinn, Estonia, alongside an actual instrument which was wielded by two men, each holding an end of the saw. The exhibit also makes mention of keeping the person as conscious as long as possible by turning them upside down, and there is what looks like an illustration of the practice from an old text. Horrific.
 * I've never heard of it before, it's hideous! Wow... cyclosarin 16:09, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

That's just disgusting. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.216.196.36 (talk) 03:10, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

Sections
I created the sections History, Geography and Pop Culture, marking each as a stub. Maybe this is a tad redundant, and geo can be merged into history. In any case, I really don't know much about the subject at hand, but hope that by formatting the article more like a standard Wikipedia template, this will encourage others with knowledge to fill in the blanks. DigitalEnthusiast 21:06, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

Sawing
wouldn't a person feel that their being sawed in 2 that would be kind of creepy if that was me their sawing in 2 i bet could feel the saw cutting through me while being tied up side down i deffently feel goose bumps while while waiting to be split in in half question is how painful is how long would it take for a person to die i probably see two people cutting me splitting me in 2 so if i ever had to face this torture, and execution this is my story. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 147.160.181.8 (talk) 19:52, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

Sawing - Urban Legend?
Only during the reign of Emperor Caligula do we have any verifiable evidence that sawing in half was used as a means of execution, although the story that victims were executed in front of him while he ate is dubious. The image on this page is the only source we have that people were sawn in half while hanging upside down. In fact, the logistics of this execution method show this woodcut to be, in all likelihood, an instrument of propaganda. While sawing through the individual, the condemned would swing with the force of the saw, making the procedure extremely difficult for the executioners. In addition, the cartilage and bone would hamper the downward force of the saw. This, coupled with the swinging victim, would make sawing in half as seen in the woodcut practically impossible. The Chinese method is rather more likely to have taken place, although this would also have been difficult. The skull of the condemned would provide an obvious obstacle. In abattoirs today, large mechanical saws are used to cleave an animal in two so a hand-powered one would need a great deal of strength from the executioners. As with the other instances of sawing in half, the evidence this was done in China is somewhat lacking and because the Chinese employed an array of other torture and execution methods carried out with extreme precision unheard of in Europe at the time, it seems likely that sawing in half is an urban legend.

Nicholas Trott, University of Wales Trinity Saint David — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.142.123.47 (talk) 10:51, 17 August 2011 (UTC)
 * If this method of torture is only legend (I have no view on it) and if the book refs offered don't stack-up, perhaps there needs to be an article name change to reflect the urban myth idea, with of course citations to indicate that it is such. Either way, it does need someone with specific knowledge and sources to assess what is to be done with the article. Acabashi (talk) 12:53, 17 August 2011 (UTC)

"~the Jews licked up the blood of the slain."
This example of the "blood libel" should not be included without the assertion of the fact that it is an antisemitic myth. Blood is regarded as unclean in Jewish Law, and its consumption is so abhorrent that chickens, before cooking, are soaked in salt water in order to extract the blood, and eggs, before being used, are broken individually into a cup so that each one may be inspected for a spot of blood. If a tiny red spot is seen, the egg is discarded, and the cup is thoroughly washed. Too Old (talk) 00:47, 2 July 2013 (UTC)
 * Have changed into that Dio "claims", rather than "states", and added the line "pushing the antisemitic imagery further"Arildnordby (talk) 11:46, 2 July 2013 (UTC)

On Bossu claim of sawed Swiss
I saw one scholarly treatment who generally dismissed Bossu's accounts with including lots of "tall stories". That is why I originally chose NOT to include his tale of the sawed-in-two Swiss. I also contacted an expert on Swiss legal practice who had no idea of this having been a type of Swiss military punishment in the 18th century.

I have been unable to relocate the scholar's dismissal of Bossu's general veracity, and a private e-mail conversation between me and a legal expert cannot be reproduced at Wikipedia. Thus, if somebody are able to hunt down a scholarly evaluation on Jean Bernard Bossu, do include it in the relevant section.Arildnordby (talk) 15:12, 7 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Have added cautionary comment by Morris S. Arnold.Arildnordby (talk) 15:40, 7 October 2013 (UTC)