Kaydotz

Oh shit, I've been doing the complete opposite! I thought that getting the bristles deeper in = deeper clean. 😫

Can anyone explain the reasoning behind prohibiting this?

Do you accept payment in upvotes, dogecoin, or dank memes?

Are there any eye issues that would make them unusable, aside from the harvesting time limit or any trauma/damage?

If there's a guard, it would be metal, but the grip itself would typically be some sort of wood covered in some sort of hide or other material. Have you ever played baseball using a metal bat? Without the grip tape and batting gloves, it hurts like a mofo.

Two more points against a solid metal hilt are weight and serviceability. Weight pretty much speaks for itself. While a full metal hilt would be more durable than one with a leather/wooden grip, when it does get damaged or starts to corrode from your sweaty hands and the elements, you can't really replace it. A wooden grip protects the metal tang and can be replaced when worn or damaged. The grips of Japanese swords are made to be replaceable as well.

If you look at practical historical swords, they are almost all generally constructed like this:

<EEEEEEEEEEEEE====

• This is the main metal part. It is all one piece. It typically consists of a sharpened blade section and a thinner unsharpened tang where the hilt (guard+grip+pommel) would be installed. This is the same for Japanese katanas, except their "tang" (nakago) are wider, almost as wide as the blade itself. The tang of a typical medieval European sword is way too slender to grip properly.

} guard (metal)

+++ grip (wood)

D pommel (metal)

• All together, these three parts form the hilt:

}+++D

• The guard is slipped onto and installed on the tang first:

<EEEEEEEEEEEEE}====

• Then the grip:

<EEEEEEEEEEEEE}+++=

• And then the whole ensemble is held securely in place by the pommel:

<EEEEEEEEEEEEE}+++D

• The grip is wrapped in something like leather, sharkskin, ray skin, etc.:

<EEEEEEEEEEEEE}###D