Tulwar hilt and disc pommel.....the reason for their design

katana · 10th December 2006, 03:25 PM

Hi Jens, I agree that we are talking the 'average' size of hands. I have a Tulwar which has a hilt slightly larger than the average.

It certainly seems to be true that the small hilts are attributed to the smaller (on average) hand size of most Indian fighters.

The form of the Tulwar hilt (the disc pommel especially) seems to suit the 'style' of the sword technique used. Which I suspected from the beginning and which started this thread.

The 'riccasso' question is the 'only fly in the ointment', IMHO risking unprotected fingers to gain more control of the blade seems unlikely. If good sword technique required this technique .....protection would have been 'incorperated' into the design. Afterall if your soldiers were losing 'digits' in battle, assuming they survived the conflict, they would have lost the abillity to 'control' the blade in future fights. If this 'fingering' technique was important to Tulwar use......protection would have evolved.....it didn't.

So it seems almost certain that Tulwar sword technique did not need extra control of the blade (using the ricasso). This sword, I feel, has been 'viewed' with 'Western eyes' with western sword techniques 'imposed' on an Eastern sword. Possibly 'blinding' the likely and obvious truth........after all the simplist answer is quite often the right one ......Occam's Razor seems to have cut through (pun intended) this 'clouded' issue

10th December 2006, 03:25 PM	#34
katana Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Kent Posts: 2,658	Hi Jens, I agree that we are talking the 'average' size of hands. I have a Tulwar which has a hilt slightly larger than the average. It certainly seems to be true that the small hilts are attributed to the smaller (on average) hand size of most Indian fighters. The form of the Tulwar hilt (the disc pommel especially) seems to suit the 'style' of the sword technique used. Which I suspected from the beginning and which started this thread. The 'riccasso' question is the 'only fly in the ointment', IMHO risking unprotected fingers to gain more control of the blade seems unlikely. If good sword technique required this technique .....protection would have been 'incorperated' into the design. Afterall if your soldiers were losing 'digits' in battle, assuming they survived the conflict, they would have lost the abillity to 'control' the blade in future fights. If this 'fingering' technique was important to Tulwar use......protection would have evolved.....it didn't. So it seems almost certain that Tulwar sword technique did not need extra control of the blade (using the ricasso). This sword, I feel, has been 'viewed' with 'Western eyes' with western sword techniques 'imposed' on an Eastern sword. Possibly 'blinding' the likely and obvious truth........after all the simplist answer is quite often the right one ......Occam's Razor seems to have cut through (pun intended) this 'clouded' issue