19c. silver inlayed Indian axe for comment

[kronckew]

handling it i wonder if there may have once been some sort of cord, leather, or wire wrapping on the haft to improve the grip, which has come off, or is it just that my hands are bigger than theirs?

[Jens Nordlunde]

Yes, most but not all Indians have a finer bone structure that the Europeans, you only need to take a tulwar or a katar in your hand to realise this.
Nice axe by the way :-).
Jens

[estcrh]

Originally Posted by kronckew

handling it i wonder if there may have once been some sort of cord, leather, or wire wrapping on the haft to improve the grip, which has come off, or is it just that my hands are bigger than theirs?

Actually the shaft of Indian weapons can be of a much smaller diameter than yours, some are almost imposible to grip properly. I seems to me that some must have been wrapped with leather etc but very little evidence of this exists. I know of one example which still shows a leather cover.