@Background Pony #E9E2
I’ve thought about it, but I think it would put the thing being cut in a blind spot under the nose, whereas although ponies don’t have binocular vision to the side, the thing being cut would be fully in view. At the same time, the blade shape might still have some merit in making it easier to keep a direct view and pushing action.
@Coda42
I think in the case of the knife, a somewhat similar design to what we have would make sense; A knife is foremost a tool not a weapon, holding it perpendicular to the mouth rather than in line allows you to slice things on a surface in front of you. Having a guard of some sort prevents your mouth from slipping onto the blade. Obviously there would be slight differences in shape, but a knife shaped like that would give a decent hold in the mouth and give a good view of what you were cutting, and be more hygienic for cutting food than using your hooves which have been on the ground all the time.
I do think the easiest way for a pony to “hold” a tool is through a retaining strap which can be tightened, as is found on 6Kh3 and 6Kh4 bayonets; in my experience, if you tighten it correctly, you can keep the knife tight enough to cut without gripping it with your fingers just by slipping your fist between the retaining strap and the grip. It is much firmer than you would expect, and you would definitely be able to, for example, hammer a nail with the pommel or strike something quite hard with the knife without using your fingers or losing grip of the bayonet.
I think three-legged locomotion while fighting would be worth the additional striking ability of not having the weapon in your mouth, as it would hurt a lot to hit someone with a weapon in your mouth, and you cannot effectively redirect blows with it (even getting hit hard on the head through a helmet will hurt a lot and possibly stun you) and a lot of the shock through the weapon might lead to jaw injuries and concussions. I do think the show is reasonable in showing the main weapon of the guards to be the spear, as it is very flexible in that it can be held even without a strap just by using balance and pressing it against the body with the leg (even with something as heavy as a rifle and bayonet, gripping it underarm while balancing on the hand in front is fairly firm, though obviously sub-optimal, and a strap to prevent slipping would be good), in addition to being able to act as a walking stick to reduce pressure on the other legs while standing or marching with the weapon held. Thrusts and parries can be accomplished in similar means to the couched lance.
I’ve never been a fan of the idea of mounting even the heaviest weapons on, a saddle, unless the hoof is still in control, except for emergency use, because I think it sacrifices more control than is worth the loss of walking with an extra leg while using the weapon. For a lancer, unless heavily armoured, the lance must be able to parry. For a shooter, it is even more important because aiming would be compromised and most gunfights in the open start at 200-300 m for rifles and longer for machine guns or recoilless launchers. This might be different for shooting while flying, as the high speed (by my estimations an average pegasus can fly at around 100 km/h) increases the chance of dropping weapons during turns, though you would absolutely not want a melee weapon firmly attached for use in flight, because if it gets stuck, you need to be able to drop it immediately so you don’t get your limb dislocated (and you should absolutely not hold a weapon in your mouth because if it gets stuck while charging an opponent at speed you are going to break your neck), this was even a problem for cavalrymen on horses that rarely went more than 50 km/h and who had hands to drop their weapons easily.
Sorry if this is a bit of a wall of text, I really need to illustrate it at some point but I am frequently too tired to do so. Hopefully it makes some amount of sense.
They’d probably use different weapon design to begin with. This knife is clearly designed with hand holding in mind.
This is generally a problem pony fiction writers have: they try to adapt human-designed weapons for pony use even if it makes no sense, instead of thinking of how ponies would design their weapons.
I still need to try and draw this out at some point, but I reckon it depends on the weapon; I could see daggers and maybe some short swords being used in the mouth. The main problem with holding things in the mouth is that the more force is applied to the weapon, the more likely it is to knock one’s teeth out, and additionally it makes it harder to talk so it isn’t good for a primary weapon.
As far as other weapons go, I think holding it in one’s hooves is ideal; a knuckle bow (or stirrup hilt, for horse theming) would probably make a sword, or other small weapon able to be held in hoof, or even a fabric strap from the pommel to the guard, and couching a lance or other polearm under the armpit while holding it up with the hoof would probably also work (many 19th century lances had retaining straps, which I think would be useful here because hooves aren’t necessarily very grippy.) A pony with good balance might even be able to fight reared up especially with the aid of a long weapon like a polearm to provide some counter-balance, or a tall shield to rest against the ground when not moving.
As a blacksmith I like this concept.
I’ve thought about it, but I think it would put the thing being cut in a blind spot under the nose, whereas although ponies don’t have binocular vision to the side, the thing being cut would be fully in view. At the same time, the blade shape might still have some merit in making it easier to keep a direct view and pushing action.
I imagine earth pony knives would look roughly like this:
I think in the case of the knife, a somewhat similar design to what we have would make sense; A knife is foremost a tool not a weapon, holding it perpendicular to the mouth rather than in line allows you to slice things on a surface in front of you. Having a guard of some sort prevents your mouth from slipping onto the blade. Obviously there would be slight differences in shape, but a knife shaped like that would give a decent hold in the mouth and give a good view of what you were cutting, and be more hygienic for cutting food than using your hooves which have been on the ground all the time.
Edited because: clarity
This is generally a problem pony fiction writers have: they try to adapt human-designed weapons for pony use even if it makes no sense, instead of thinking of how ponies would design their weapons.
As far as other weapons go, I think holding it in one’s hooves is ideal; a knuckle bow (or stirrup hilt, for horse theming) would probably make a sword, or other small weapon able to be held in hoof, or even a fabric strap from the pommel to the guard, and couching a lance or other polearm under the armpit while holding it up with the hoof would probably also work (many 19th century lances had retaining straps, which I think would be useful here because hooves aren’t necessarily very grippy.) A pony with good balance might even be able to fight reared up especially with the aid of a long weapon like a polearm to provide some counter-balance, or a tall shield to rest against the ground when not moving.
Buttknife?
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