Java dress questions and translation

[Gavin Nugent]

Thanks Alan, understood. It is a very strong grip that also prevents wrist locks in this manner of stand offs that you note.

I shall reference the grip I note as the sabre grip.

With reference to a hilt orientation like this keris and held like a sabre, do you feel there is validity to this?

I ask as the bugis tangs are robust, where if a Java blade, they tend to be longer and thinner in more modern periods, and would the Java keris suffer under this sabre method, as they are to my eye designed as the rapier application noted above.

It is all very interesting the art of one on one combat...

I digress but I recall a conversation had with a veteran special services chap many years ago, referencing several methods of holding a single edged knife, the tradition grip with the knife held in the fist upwards, being the easier to defend, the reverse grip which you note as being much harder to defend from and devastating when applied as it both slashes and stabs, but what struck me with immediate horror was his sharing of the person who holds the single edged knife like a table knife with the forefinger extended well over the spine of the blade... a fighters characteristic he referred to as experienced, evil and sadistic, a fighter who wants to toy with his enemy and break them down one cut at a time...

Gavin