Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

tom hyle · 2nd January 2005, 02:38 AM

There are basically five types of handle, any one of which might be correct. In original intent this is either a mata tombak (militia spear) or a lembing (pike; used primarily by professional soldiers). The lembing handle is long: over ten feet, as up to almost 20, tapered, with a thick, heavy butt. The militia spear handle is around 5 or 5 1/2 feet in my experience, though there is frequent talk of 7 or 8 feet. It is thickest in the middle, tapering to both ends. The modern house size handle, commonly referred to as a display handle, is shaped like a militia handle, but is much shorter; generally around 18 inches. All these will have a metal fitting at each end to contain splits. They are also traditionally hilted as daggers, with either a non"kingfisher" type k(e)ris hilt or with a symetrical dagger handle with and integral crossguard and sheath tensioner, often somewhat similar in overall outline to a khoumiya hilt, though the tensioner works as a plug, not an overlay, like the dripguard on a khoumiya. Either of these dagger styles would typically be provided with a style of sheath specific to it, while this one currently has the typical spear scabbard.

2nd January 2005, 02:38 AM	#7
tom hyle Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Houston, TX, USA Posts: 1,254	There are basically five types of handle, any one of which might be correct. In original intent this is either a mata tombak (militia spear) or a lembing (pike; used primarily by professional soldiers). The lembing handle is long: over ten feet, as up to almost 20, tapered, with a thick, heavy butt. The militia spear handle is around 5 or 5 1/2 feet in my experience, though there is frequent talk of 7 or 8 feet. It is thickest in the middle, tapering to both ends. The modern house size handle, commonly referred to as a display handle, is shaped like a militia handle, but is much shorter; generally around 18 inches. All these will have a metal fitting at each end to contain splits. They are also traditionally hilted as daggers, with either a non"kingfisher" type k(e)ris hilt or with a symetrical dagger handle with and integral crossguard and sheath tensioner, often somewhat similar in overall outline to a khoumiya hilt, though the tensioner works as a plug, not an overlay, like the dripguard on a khoumiya. Either of these dagger styles would typically be provided with a style of sheath specific to it, while this one currently has the typical spear scabbard.