Lethality of weapons

First, was it discussed already?
My question is, do I get the same results with brawl 5 and fists -and- with melee 5 and katana?

I have never really checked this out, but from my understanding, you might inflict the same amount of damage. But fists (and a tireiron for that matter, too) are a blunt weapon, causing blunt damage, while a katana causes slashing (lethal) damage which is harder to soak.

-

The experience says, use melee. You get the same or higher lethality with fists, but everyone soaks blunt damage, so blades end up being more effective.

Katanas, and a few other melee weapons have more base damage. Fists, knives and fire axes have a base damage of 2, katanas, hammers and gardening tools have more. The way I understand it, maximum damage is something like

base damage * ((feat + lethality) - skill requirement)

I think it's like this, but I don't know for sure. Knives and fists are faster though, and that's more useful againts some nasties imo.

Some people swear by knives, but when I play a Malk and use the slow-@$$ Bush Hook (crazy person, crazy weapon), I can still mow down the flunkies at the Kuei-jin Temple. It's not as fast as fists or knives, but it's still faster than they are, if my kung fu is strong (i.e. if my hand-eye coordination is good).