Steel knuckles take the form of four linked metal rings in a shallow convex formation with a bumper attached to the concave face. The rings are slipped over a combatant's fingers with the bumper pressed into the palm of the hand. When a punch is thrown, the knuckles take the majority of the impact impulse, transferring much of the punch's kinetic energy to the target by way of the harder, smaller impacting surface of the metal knuckles. This drastically increases the likelihood of serious tissue disruption and bone damage.
