@eldriwolf sent me this, and I immediately thought of the Indian bagh nakh ātiger-clawā weapon, which isnāt usually articulated or as realistic - for a given value of realism - but was a very nasty piece of kit.
The basic version was a steel bar with two rings for index and pinkie fingers, and four steel claws for ripping into an enemyās soft parts - probably neck and stomach, where there were no awkward bones and the result would be more effective.
These simple versions had an extra advantage of being easy to concealā¦
ā¦and sometimes the finger-rings would be gilded and decorated with gems as if they were just jewellery.
Okay, maybe quite a lot of jewellery.
I bet that if timing and location were organised properly, political assassination could be passed off - in honest belief or for convenience - as the victim having encountered a real tiger.
āBut where are the marks of the tigerās teeth?ā That too could be arranged:
These double daggers have proper flattened-diamond blade profiles, and their points are too close for a full-grown tiger or leopard - but (fiction-writer imagination at work) thereās no reason why a special-purpose one couldnāt have been made with realistic separation and correct tooth-spike shape.
The modern era has seen plenty of convenient āaccidentsā and āsuicidesā(what writer Len Deighton calls XPD or Expedient Demise) so how good was Mughal-era CSI?
Or more correctly, when required by Certain Circumstances, how bad did it need to be?
If an Important Person announced: āClearly a tiger did it. How sad. Too bad. Long live the new maharajah, my Dear Little Nephewā, the best way for doubters to maintain good health would be agreementā¦
There was another version which - if the āattacked by a wild beastā excuse was still used - came with a suggestion that tigers in that particular region were getting disturbingly smart. (Though pointing this out may not have been wise, see aboveā¦) :->
These are bichuwa bagh nakh, āscorpion-sting tiger clawsā, the dagger name deriving from its recurved blade shape resembling the business end of a scorpionās tail.
They were sometimes carried in combat, bichuwa bagh nakh in the left hand and a talwar (curved) or khanda (straight) sword in the right.
During close-quarter grappling the claws could rake and the dagger stab, while the finger-rings meant less risk of dropping it.
In the same way that many Indian weapons had ātacticoolā add-ons - miniature pistols, axe-gun combinations, concealed daggers and so on - there were bagh nakh with more than just one extra bladeā¦
ā¦bagh nakh with extra folding blades and a knuckle-guardā¦
ā¦and this articulated contraption which (IMO anyway) was for defence as well as attack.
It was, like the much simpler two-ring-no-blades version, a lot less obvious than the first photo suggestsā¦
ā¦and since many Indian helmets were open-faced while others had face-protection only of mailā¦
ā¦a surprise slap across the face might spoil any warriorās day.
The reason I think it also had a defensive purpose is the fairly thick metal palm and that little spur low down on it, almost certainly meant to stop a palm-blocked blade from sliding any further.
Iām not sure thereās enough articulation for such a blade to be actually gripped tightly, but once trapped between spur and claws it could be twisted aside for long enough that a weapon in the other hand could attend to its wielder.
Yet again: when creating a fantasy weapon for writing or RPG, do a search for whatever you have in mind, because it may well have been made for real a couple of centuries ago by an Indian weaponsmith demonstrating what he could do to advertise his skill, or just making some oddity in steel to see if it was possibleā¦ :->
