The Realm of the Dark Blade

Back again with another entry from the weird and wonderful world of finger claws:

Gothic Skull Lord Finger Armor

Meet the Gothic Skull Lord Finger Armor. Because your fingers need armor too.

So here we have another finger claw, a rather more practical version of neko-te, consisting of a regular ring with what I will assume is a likeness of our earstwhile Skull Lord emblazoned on top, to which are attached three armored articulated section, the last section terminating in a rather evil looking talon.

What to say about this. Well. I like the talon. And the armor. And the articulating design. But to be honest, unless this is all attached to a gauntlet, all I can see is pain. In the *wearers* future. Yes. I said *the wearer* The claw wielder. The finger claw sporter. Etc. Ad nauseam. Uh huh. Unless they have really strong fingers. Or like to use poison. Or maybe like to go for the eyes… Yeah… that’s a good legitimate use for something like this… Soft targets.

Not very sporting, imho, but if, for any given reason, you decided to put these on one morning when suiting up for a battle, weeeell…

Not much more I can say about that…

Gothic Skull Lord Finger Armor – [NorthStar Zone]

I’ve posted a relatively fair share of what I consider “battle blades”, but today I thought I’d show you a rather interesting blade, one that, contrary to the other extravagant steel art I’ve been blogging about, looks like it would actually be rather wickedly effective. Yep. I’d like you to meet… the Interceptor:

Interceptor

Now that, my friends is evil. My kind of evil. Edges and curves and points. Oh My! :-}

Ok, back to intercepting. This appears to be a weapon modeled after a push dagger, except based on the brass knuckles form factor we first ran into in Tom Andersons Pantera Claws. Essentially, it’s a pair of wood scaled brass knuckles, (in steel) with a set of blades attached forward and to either side of the knuckles.

In essence, a push dagger. With a little extra. And a mean little push dagger it is. Well, perhaps not so little. It is significantly larger than any traditional push dagger, but in this case, this is not an unwelcome characteristic. Out front, we have two large forward blades, with forward pointing tips and outward facing edges.

Tom Anderson - Vicious Quad Edge Interceptor

On either side of the finger voids, we have one additional blade, edges facing out. All four blades have a little semicircular divot which seems to serve no other purpose than aesthetic style. Not the kind of thing I’d do, but they doesn’t seem to create any particularly bad weaknesses, so I’ll move on. The blade seems to be attached via a set of small screws, which might be the only major weakness I can see.

But beyond that, it seems like it would be a genuinely effective tool. Clearly, as a punch dagger, this would be killer (excuse the pun), no questions. The side blades, on the other hand, might see some limited effectiveness if the blade was used in a side hammer fist, though I’d probably not want to try to cut anything like that with the forward blades, unless you really won’t need the use of your fingers afterwards.

But when all is said and done, it’s sheer wickedness… Well, what more can I say… Look at it yourself and form your own conclusions…

Interceptor – Tom Anderson – [True Swords]/[eBlade Store]

Yet another freaky fang-like blade for fashionable fighting fingers wishing to induce fear…   :

The Touch of Death

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OK. Big bad finger blade. We get it. But “Touch of Death”? Errrm… No. As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, there is a reason that finger weapons are far and few in the history of medieval weaponry. They aren’t particularly lethal. And they have a nasty habit of damaging a wielders fingers if used improperly. Unless, of course, they are poisoned.

But even then they are, at best, an assassins tool, since no self respecting combatant worth their salt would let you get close enough to cut them (especially in any lethal fashion) with such a thing. Unless, again, they didn’t see you coming.

So, yes. It’s a cool finger blade. Is it the Touch of Death? No. I don’t think so. Not unless you are a Ninja…

The Touch of Death – [True Swords]

Actually more like dragon knuckle talons, but whose keeping track? In the tradition of finger weapons like the Iron Reaver,  I present the Dragon Ring:

Dragon Ring

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Now I really like the aesthetics of this weapon. The little dragons head is well done, and the blade itself actually looks fairly sinister. And whose to say there weren’t vicious blade headed unicorn dragons back in the day?

My only gripe with this weapon is that, sadly, the ring is too small for anyone to have any real control over the blade. You could prbably cut someone if you back handed them, with it, (and you might cut yourself in the process) but forget stabbing and such, unless you have really, really, strong fingers. You’d probably hurt yourself worse than whatever it is you were trying to stab or claw at.

But it looks pretty cool. ‘Nuff said.

Dragon Ring – [Collectors Edge]

Of the various kinds of blades I have come across, I think that finger-mounted blades are the rarest. And for good reason. The human finger, as a general rule, is one of the weakest appendage that we have. We just can’t generate a lot of power from our fingers. And because of their relative frailty, they tend to break if stressed in the wrong way, and at stresses far beneath what a fist, wrist or arm could handle.

But that being said, they are not entirely useless as a bladed weapons platform. They can be used to hold light blades or points for low impact/low stress applications. And with this next weapon, I could see someone making use of their finger power to full effect. Plus it gets extra points for just looking mean:

Iron Reaver Claw

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This claw, is essentially a finger mounted blade, much like Neko-Te only bigger. And meaner. And more than likely, much more lethal. This weapon is actually two finger claws in one. At the tip of the fingers, you have a sharp point, and on the back of the base of the finger band, another, larger blade is attached.

This method of support, using the whole finger, and having two points and one blade, gives this an advantage over Neko-Te in the lethality department, and having that large blade on top at the base of the finger means that you could leverage the lateral support of the other fingers by forming a sort of “Tiger Claw”, holding the fingers together.

Though you would have to be careful not to puncture your palm with the sharp point at the fingertip, This would allow for some significantly more powerful thrusts and slashing attacks with the larger blade of this weapon, on a level that could not be achieved by a set of Neko-Te.

And the aesthetics aren’t bad either. The overall design is quite interesting, looking for all the world like the claw of a dragon. And the fact that this comes in a black blade as well as a polished one doesn’t hurt. It would be interesting to see how intimidating this would look if someone were to get a set of six of these, and wear 3 on each hand… Wicked…

Iron Reaver Claw – [True Swords]

Today I thought I’d talk about hand claws related to animals other than Wolverines… Yeah. No more Wolvie. Unless I find something new. What can I say. Oh Come ON. Just let it go…

Anyway, many ninja hand weapons are often confused with one another and incorrectly described, so I thought I’d take a crack at sorting them out. Let me formally introduce: the Bagh Nakh, Neko-Te, Shuko and Tekko-Kagi. Just a quick warning before you dive in. You may want to grab a cup of coffee…

Bagh Nakh
First off we have the Bagh Nakh, also sometimes called the Wagh Nakh, whose heritage is the least obscured, but whose name is often incorrectly used to describe Tekagi. The Bagh Nakh is a weapon of Indian heritage, intended to replicate the damage that a tiger would inflict on your average unsuspecting jungle meal.

Bagh Nakh

Anyway, as you can see, it is essentially a set of claws attached to a bar with loops for the fingers. The version above with the knife blade attached is called the Bich’Hwa Bagh Nakh. In contrast to how it is often portrayed, (and it seems to be portrayed and described incorrectly in a lot of otherwise reputable places) it is not a set of over-the-hand claws, nor was it likely to have been worn with the claws out over the knuckles.

Rather, I believe that is held in the hand, supported by the thumb and pinky, with the claws facing outward from the palm, and the basic traditional designs all appear to confirm this to be the case. If you look at the various forms of Bagh Nakh, you will see than it includes a few different forms, many with a blades that extend laterally out from the side of the weapon, in addition to the claws.

Two Different Bagh Nakh Designs:

Bich'wha (Bladed) Bagh Nakh

Standard Bagh Nakh

This tells me that they the bar was intended to serve a dual purpose as both the knife handle and the claw holder, and would therefore be held in the palm of the hand. Not to mention that many Bagh Nakh designs are near impossible to wield with the bar over the knuckles. From this we can assume that it was used with the claws projecting out from the palm. The same grip would likely have been used for both forms, with or without the original blade.

Simple Bagh Nakh

The Bagh Nakh is an excellent weapon for open hand clawing or raking attacks, as well as open hand slaps, and is very effective at tearing flesh. The best targets for this weapon would be the eyes and face, though any soft target would work.

Shuko
Next up is the Shuko. Shuko, or “Tiger Claws” is the Japanese equivalent of the Bagh Nakh, and is one of the trademark weapons of the Togakure Ryu, which is believed to be the oldest school of Ninjitsu. This weapon employs a similar claw design, except for the way it is held and supported. Much like the Bagh Nakh, this name

Ninja Shuko

Unlike the Bagh Nakh however, it is supported by a steel band that goes around the entire hand, as well as a strap that fastens it to the wrist of the wearer. This extra support mechanism allows it to be used in ways the Bagh Nakh cannot, such as for climbing walls and trees, where it was usually used in conjunction with Ashiko or Ninja foot spikes.

Ashiko - Ninja Foot Spikes

My guess however would be that commercial versions would be lacking and many would have to make a pair custom fit to your hand size, and appropriately padded, in order to comfortably use it for wall climbing duty.

Wearing Ninja Shuko

It would, in theory, also allow for much more powerful raking attacks to harder and tougher targets, like bony parts of the body and ligaments. This hand weapon is also often incorrectly referred to as Neko-Te, (even I have been guilty of this) but as I found out, the Neko-Te is a completely different weapon.

Neko-Te
Neko-Te, or (literally translated) “Cat Hands” are traditionally small steel blades attached to the fingers using a band, usually of leather. Another weapon that is often confused with the Shuko and Bagh Nakh, these are actually steel claws designed to become clawed extensions of the fingertips of the wearer. Much like cat womans claws.

Neko-Te - Finger Tip Ring Claws

The most common references to Neko-Te are as the favored claw weapon of Kunoichi (female ninjas). They were primarily used for distraction, but could be made lethal by poisoning the blades.

Neko-Te - Leather Wrap Finger Tip claws

The use of Neko-Te would be almost exclusively limited to soft targets such as the eyes, throat, groin, etc. Especially since finger strength would be a limiting factor in the amount of power a Neko-Te user could generate.

Tekko-Kagi
Last, but certainly not least, we have the Tekko-Kagi (or Tekagi), which I talked about in my first Wolverine post. This is the only verifiable example I could find of a hand claw that employed claws located above the hand, like Wolverines claws. Most versions of this weapon are supported by both the wrist and the hand, and would have been used with the fist closed, either as a punch blade type weapon, or closed fist rake, depending on the claws configuration.

The Japanese Tekko-Kagi

It was generally used to attack and disarm sword wielding opponents. Of the weapons here, this is the only one that could have been used against hard targets, and I believe it could have been built strong enough to handle the amount of force required to even punch through light armor, (not to mention it is the closest design to good old Wolvies’ claws, making it one of my faves) though sadly, I have not seen any evidence that it was ever used in this fashion.

Wearing Tekko-Kagi

And thats about the size of it. I often see these names used interchangeably, however after doing a lot of reading about each of them, I realized that they each refer to a completely different weapon, and thought I’d share… Hopefully your head hasn’t exploded…

Bagh Nakh – [Brighton & Hove Museum]
Bagh Nakh – [The Forest Hermit (JP)]
Bagh Nakh – [Therion Arms]
Bagh Nakh – [Earmi.it (IT)]
Shuko – [Ninja Dynasty]
Neko-Te – [Warrior Quest]
Neko-Te – [Ninjitsu.com]
Tekko-Kagi – [Mark C. Barrett]
Tekko-Kagi – [Iga Ninja Museum]
Tekko-Kagi – [Warrior Quest]