Michael Hackett

The television show "Mythbusters" investigated and tested the story of catching a live blade between the palms. They used robotic arms and ballistic gel hands for their experiments and with all sort of trick electronic devices and switches, they were unable to do it. They visited a San Francisco area Ninjutsu instructor who demonstrated the catch with one of his students. As I watched the human demonstration it appeared to me (cynic that I am) that the student wasn't delivering a killing blow that would split the body, but rather making a very controlled shomenuchi cut that stopped at the point where the palms would meet the blade. As I recall, they labeled the myth as "plausible", but very unlikely to actually happen. My view is that it was a terrific parlor trick that requires two people to have precise timing and a lot of time on their hands, along with an iaito.