feet blades

[Narrue]

I have heard that in some martial arts e.g. Silat, Capoeira etc sometimes blades were held by the toes and used to slash the opponent. I have never seen one of these blades and was wondering if any of you have. I suppose you could use a karambit by inserting your toe next to your big toe through the hole, but I don’t think the karambit is well designed for the purpose. Anyone got a photo?

[tellner]

I've seen spurs from fighting cocks that Guru Inosanto and others say were held between the toes by some pesilat. And Capoeristas I've met who spent time in Brazil said some do hold straight razors that way. Never seen it personally, though.

[Raja Gaj]

Hi,

I'm new to the forum, but i have to post somtime.

Traditionally Silat players will use any advantage in a fight. As for foot based weapons, i've heard many stories of players treating their toe nails to harden them and shaping them into sharp points for slahing and stabbing, but a for a real foot held weapon you need to look into the rencong (rentjong - depending on your spelling). This weapon is most common in Aceh where it is held often with the same respect as we normally see for the Keris. I have a nice antique blade myself, i'll try to take a picture of it and post it up in the picture section.

You are correct, the kerambit is certainly not designed for this use.

[Narrue]

Hi,

I'm new to the forum, but i have to post somtime.

Traditionally Silat players will use any advantage in a fight. As for foot based weapons, i've heard many stories of players treating their toe nails to harden them and shaping them into sharp points for slahing and stabbing, but a for a real foot held weapon you need to look into the rencong (rentjong - depending on your spelling). This weapon is most common in Aceh where it is held often with the same respect as we normally see for the Keris. I have a nice antique blade myself, i'll try to take a picture of it and post it up in the picture section.

You are correct, the kerambit is certainly not designed for this use.

I have also heard the story of the long finger nails (but not toe nails) being used as weapons. The human finger nail is very weak, ask any woman that has long finger nails, they break very easily.
Ripping your fingernail off in a fight doesn’t sound like much fun.
I think that perhaps people in the past seen pendekars with long thumb nails and thought it must be a weapon but as far as I know long thumb nails (kuku pancanaka) are grown for symbolic reasons in times old. If you see the shadow puppet of Bima you will see he has long thumb nails to show his status (satria warrior cast). I also heard that there is a weapon inspired by the story of Bima’s thumb nail (similar to a curved krambit blade)

Would love to see the photo of the blade though, you can attach it to this thread.