Lew's example is like a choora. Choora handles are markedly different from the simple horn scales on most of the big salawar yataghans. Could there be a functional reason for this? If not then my guess is that it's a geographic/ethnic variation. Stone states that the big khyber knives belonged to the Afridi tribe living in the Khyber pass. Perhaps the choora and karud handles belong to some of the other Pashtun and misc tribes.
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