Well, the "finger-over-quillon" idea always struck me as strange: blades slide down toward the guard and, when they meet a finger, the blade always wins. The entire idea of the guard is to separate the incoming blade from the hand.
The obvious reason for a ricasso is to strenghten the blade: the more massive it is at the base, the better. Actually, slashing swords require only the distant third of the sharpened blade or thereabouts to be fully functional. The rest is for the show.
|