I’m late in replying to another thread, but I feel I must celebrate the connections you’ve shown here with your images Jim! This is all out of my area of expertise, so I don’t know if this evolution of hilts from karabela to nimcha to colonial sword is actually well known, but it’s the first time I’m hearing of it, and I love it! I always found the “finger hook” at the end of nimchas and so-called berber sabers to be rather peculiar, but I never thought of connecting the two, nor that the former could be an evolution of the more subtle protrusion found on karabela pommels. In general I believe most sabers have this kind of “pommel hook” to catch the hand and prevent it from slipping off while the sword is being swung, and as such I always saw it as being a ubiquitous design feature that just kind of exists without external influences. This is the first time I’ve seen any real connection between grips of different swords, however, so hats off to you Jim (or whoever might have first seen this connection)!
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