Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

KuKulzA28 · 10th March 2009, 11:05 PM

I wonder why so many katars (in my experience) are so small... I'm sure it's been discussed. Can anyone please tell me why? I have medium-sized hands, so the handle bars on a katar I am using would have to be a little more than 4" (10 cm) long so that my whole hand can fit. I have held ones too small for my whole hand and they can still deliver a wicked punch-thrust but it feels vaguely awkward having my fingers outside of the longer parallel guard-bars. The fact some old katars had a metal hood over the back of the hand makes me think they were meant to fit over the whole hand and that the hand was supposed to fit inside the confines of the guard-bars...

Somehow I doubt ancient Indian hands were THAT small. Especially if they were from the warrior caste and had more access to better nutrition and exercise - those people should've been bigger than the average peasant.

10th March 2009, 11:05 PM	#6
KuKulzA28 Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: between work and sleep Posts: 731	I wonder why so many katars (in my experience) are so small... I'm sure it's been discussed. Can anyone please tell me why? I have medium-sized hands, so the handle bars on a katar I am using would have to be a little more than 4" (10 cm) long so that my whole hand can fit. I have held ones too small for my whole hand and they can still deliver a wicked punch-thrust but it feels vaguely awkward having my fingers outside of the longer parallel guard-bars. The fact some old katars had a metal hood over the back of the hand makes me think they were meant to fit over the whole hand and that the hand was supposed to fit inside the confines of the guard-bars... Somehow I doubt ancient Indian hands were THAT small. Especially if they were from the warrior caste and had more access to better nutrition and exercise - those people should've been bigger than the average peasant.