page_title: Hilt
section_title: Pommel
hierarchical_section_title: Hilt / Pommel
caption_attribution_description: English: This antique Philippine sword is from Panay-Negros area in the Visayas in central Philippines. The sword is called "tenegre" (roughly, in the likeness of a tiger, that is its tooth versus the blade shape). The photo of the entire sword is here. The blade is made of laminated steel and is chisel-ground (flat on one side and beveled on the other), as is typical of Visayan swords. Carved carabao horn handle has the traditional grinning figural monster for pommel. The circular hand guard is also made of horn, and the ferrule ("collar") is made of iron. Overall length: 567 mm (23.3 inches); Blade length: 435 mm (17.1 inches); Maximum blade thickness: 7.5 mm (1/4 inch) Other uploaded materials by the same author are here: (a) Luzon weapons; (b) Visayan weapons; (c) Moro weapons; and (d) Lumad (non-Moro Mindanao) weapons
context_page_description: The hilt of a knife, dagger, sword, or bayonet is its handle, consisting of a guard, grip and pommel. The guard may contain a crossguard or quillons. A tassel or sword knot may be attached to the guard or pommel.
context_section_description: The pommel (Anglo-Norman pomel  "little apple") is an enlarged fitting at the top of the handle. They were originally developed to prevent the sword slipping from the hand. From around the 11th century in Europe they became heavy enough to be a counterweight to the blade. This gave the sword a point of balance not too far from the hilt allowing a more fluid fighting style. Depending on sword design and swordsmanship style, the pommel may also be used to strike the opponent (e.g., using the Mordhau technique).
  Pommels have appeared in a wide variety of shapes, including oblate spheroids, crescents, disks, wheels, and animal or bird heads. They are often engraved or inlayed with various designs and occasionally gilt and mounted with jewels.
  Ewart Oakeshott introduced a system of classification of medieval pommel forms in his The Sword in the Age of Chivalry (1964) to stand alongside his blade typology. Oakeshott pommel types are enumerated with capital letters A–Z, with subtypes indicated by numerals.
  the "Brazil-nut" pommel derived from the classical Viking sword
  a more rounded and shorter form of A. B1 is the variant with a straight lower edge, known as "mushroom" or "tea-cosy"
  "cocked-hat" form, derived from the Viking sword
  a bulkier and slightly later variant of C
  a  variant of D with an angular top
  a more angular variant of E
  a plain disk. G1 and G2 are disk pommels ornamented with flower-shaped or shell-like ornaments, respectively, both particular to Italy
  a disk with the edges chamfered off. One of the most common forms, found throughout the 10th to 15th centuries. H1 is an oval variant
  a disk with wide chamfered edges, the inner disk being much smaller than in H. I1 is a hexagonal variant
  as I, but with the chamfered edges deeply hollowed out. J1 is an elaborated form of the classic wheel-pommel
  a very wide and flat variant of J, popular in the late medieval period
  a tall type of trefoil shape; rare and probably limited to Spain in the 12th and 13th centuries
  a late derivation of the multi-lobed Viking pommel type, found frequently on tomb effigies during 1250–1350 in southern Scotland and northern England, but with few surviving examples; see Cawood sword
  boat-shaped, rare both in art and in surviving specimens
  a rare type of crescent-shape
  a rare shield-shaped form only known from a statue at Nuremberg cathedral
  flower-shaped pommels, only known from artistic depictions of swords
  rare spherical pommel, mostly seen in the 9th and 10th centuries
  a rare type in the form of a cube with the corners cut off
  the "fig" or "pear" or "scent-stopper" (for its resemblance to the stopper on a bottle of scent) shape, first found in the early 14th century, but seen with any frequency only after 1360, with numerous derived forms well into the 16th century. T1 to T5 are variants of this basic type
  "key-shaped" type of the later half of the 15th century
  the "fish-tail" pommel of the 15th century, with variants V1 and V2
  a "misshapen wheel" shape
  square shape, with its sub-types used to closely define the area and age, Z1 and Z2b (most common in south-eastern Europe), Z3 ("cat's head", typical for Venetian swords), Z4 (typical for Serbia and Bosnia)
caption: A Visayan tenegre horn hilt from the Philippines, depicting the moon-engulfing sea serpent deity, Bakunawa, a prominent figure in Philippine mythology.
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