Indian Bichwa Dagger For Comment

[Norman McCormick]

Hi,
Looks as if it could be an effective 'swordcatcher' with some offensive capability.
Regards,
Norman.

[KuKulzA28]

Originally Posted by Atlantia

Hi KuKulzA28,
Yes, Jim is entirerly correct. The double blade in this format would hinder penetration, and unless razor sharp in the inside, would 'bunch up' material inbetween the blades.
So saying, a stab would doesn't need to be up to the hilt to cause problems of course, and I don't see this as a weapon meant to kill, more a secondary weapon for disabling or wounding.
I imagine that it would be good for slashing, well raking, as the cuts would be very unlikely to follow the same track continually, rather drawing two ragged cuts probobly very close, at some points parallel, some overlapping, other places falling into sync and cutting deeper.
Thing about two parallel cuts close together is that they are very hard to stitch. Often its simply not possible.
This may mean that a light/moderate wound might keep a fighter from returning to battle, or a wound might be more likely to infect etc.
Also, even stabbing would produce horrible wounds which would be difficult to treat, and would cause similar problems.
Just some thounght, I've never seen a paper on how these were used in battle or even their style of use.
Gene

Good point about not needing to stab up to the hilt... after all a quick jab-slash (thus stabbing and then causing a big 'departure' wound) would be pretty terrible.. especially if done near the head/neck or the gut... doesn't take a deep stab to hurt the bladder, stomach, liver, throat, eyes, etc.
Also, it's intriguing that this weapon may not be a direct killer... but you might as well have killed the enemy's fighting ability if his body is criss crossed with deep jagged cuts and he is losing blood fast (and will not be able to be healed easily).
I wonder... are double-bladed bichwas usually very sharp on the inside?

Originally Posted by Norman McCormick

Hi,
Looks as if it could be an effective 'swordcatcher' with some offensive capability.
Regards,
Norman.

I thought the same... though somehow it makes me cringe to think of catching a sword in the small space between the double-blades, especially since the sword is bigger, possibly coming at me.. and the blades are likely to be riveted rather than part of a single solid piece...

then again, if the enemy is occupied with a weapon on your right, you could rush it and trap his sword with the double-bladed bichwa, and then expose the enemy to be killed with your right-handed weapon...

still there's probably better sword-catchers in India, and in Europe and China/Japan there were definitely weapons specifically designed to be able to do so