I have recently acquired a Talwar that has been in the family for a while and while it is very pretty I have been having alot of trouble swinging it. The disc at the bottom keeps cutting into my hand and i was wondering if i could avoid that. I have tried looping a finger over one of the quillons, which just doesn't feel right. And swinging it in a different position with my palm over the disc, which takes away power. I was wondering if i was doing it wrong or if it is just too smaal for my hands. Any advice would be appreciated, thanks in advance.

BTW, first ever post.

Probably too small (most are for quite small hands) - also, try not to hold it too tight, but with 'relaxed' fingers and palm.

Cheers

Fab

Wear a glove?

Was the pommel cutting into your hand or into your wrist? If your statement was literal and it was really cutting into your hand, then the grip is indeed too small for you.

I too found the talwar grip to be rather uncomfortable, & also concluded it was for smaller hands. I was mistaken. The disk has a purpose, that of forcing one to grip it in a manner that encourages use of the talwar as a slashing weapon. The best explanation & demonstration is found in this excellent YouTube video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BoKUfaorJ0
I hope this is useful.

Matt Easton's youtube videos are great. His discussion of the tulwar is what lead me to buying a couple of them. The disc is essentially there to lock the hand in place and encourage the use of draw cuts powered by the shoulder. This is different than western saber where one can cut using the wrist and elbow. With a tulwar, you shouldn't be bending the wrist much. This shortens your reach, but encourages powerful drawing cuts. Shorter range might not be so bad, because the tulwar was almost always used with a shield (dahl) when fighting on foot.

Unless you have massive hands, most tulwar grips will work fine once you stiffen up your wrist (sword almost 90 degrees with forearm) and start swinging with the shoulder. That's broadly speaking. You will still be using elbow and wrist a bit. It took some time for me to get used to it, but now I have no problem.

Good luck!

Still, even with normal-size hands, you can find tulwar grips that are too small. And too large, too. Too large and you can still fit your hand on the hilt, but it doesn't work as well as one the right size.

That's why you find small hilts: people with small hands want small hilts for their tulwars. People with large hands need large hilts. Get a hilt that's the right size for your hand, and put it on the blade that you want. Not so easy for most people today, but in the right time and right place, it was easy enough.

I agree wholeheartedly with keeping the wrist straight (as long as you make sure to keep the hand -and the rest of the body - relaxed). Focus on the footwork and letting your body deliver the weapon. Your hand is an excellent guide for the force that your body and gravity are capable of. If you get the hang of that, try messing with Meyer's rose and perhaps some of the master cuts and additional techniques from Dobringer. You'd be surprised how sneakily your weapon will be able to suppress hands or faces. Are you guys familiar with the master in this video series?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLTcVJGMBkQ

He nails it, in my view. Watch how he takes the hands or the centers of his students again and again, applying big cuts to clear space or to deal finishing blows. It should be helpful. Interestingly enough, he seems to have a certain amount of allowance for grip changes or letting the wrist bend (though I think the more extreme bending seen when he's finished and is driving his student to the ground is more of an artifact of the demonstration setting). Parts 2 and 3 especially show the ability of a tulwar user to flick the tip (or the razor sharp curve where a straight sword's tip would be) about with precision to contest the geometry of the fight. :cool: