So, I’ve had this idea for a game, but it needs larp-safe claws. There’s a good tutorial here on making them, but they seem to be rather short. From browsing around, UK larpers seem to think ~4 inches / 10cm is an acceptable length. What should I be aiming at here, and are there any tips to constructing them safely?
Dave & Lex made claws 75cm long from camp mat and open cell foam attached to leather gloves. The camp mat formed the underside, open cell formed the claws. And lots of ados. They did break after a while, perhaps cloth sandwiched between layers woulld strengthen them.
Attached to the fingers or the back of the glove? One of my worries (apart from inadvertant punching) is the risk of finger injuries. 75cm is a lot of leverage…
nzlarps has some in the gear shed that were used for bone wraiths
We also have the clawed gloves we used for the Daywalkers in Wolfgang. They’re gloves with foam claws sewng into the end of the fingers - they look really lame when they’re off a hand, but when they’re on a hand, they look creepy as anything.
How long are those ones? Basically I’m looking for something useable, potentially at Hydra, for lions. Of course, I can just make some for the gear pool down here, but if there ar eones available which NZLARPs isn’t using, then that would be great.
(You could send some down with Teonn or Witch House people. I love regular couriers)
Attached to the fingers or the back of the glove? One of my worries (apart from inadvertant punching) is the risk of finger injuries. 75cm is a lot of leverage…[/quote]
They were attached to the back of the hand. You either poked at your opponent with all fingers at once, or pointed the fingers down and poked with the thumbs. Message Tequila Dave for more info.
It depends what sort of functionality you want. If you just want something that looks the part, the daywalker glovers are probably your best bet. If you want something that’s primarily a weapon, the bonewraith claws or Wut’s claws are more ideal. Wut’s claws were more proof of concept than anything, but they worked bloody well and Lexi was near impossible to land a blow on…
After having a poke around and a bit of a play, those claws are more akin to the Daywalker gloves, and not something I’d actually recommend for proper combat. They’ll look creepy as hell and be great for touch attacks, but if you inadvertently try to block with them you’re going to get fingers broken.
Most “combat” claws are built like any other weapons, which is how I did the bone wraith claws. Because they’re actual weapons, they usually have to fit with whatever system as well, so you’re looking 18-24 inches of claw on average. I’d recommend thinner fibreglass cores, maybe 6mm (or even sail battens like MikeC uses), and do an experiment in sandwiching between two flats of foam a la that guide you found. The real trick will be securing them to the back of your hand, Wolverine style. I used smaller leather dog collars to make two firm straps that went around the whole thing, securing at the wrist and around the hand as a semi-grip, though this makes them a bit chunky.
You could instead try securing the rods to the back of a pair of heavy gloves and then building from there, or even to the back of the first phalanges with an overlap that sits against the back of your hand when your hand is flat, so the fingers can’t be forced backwards. This is similar to Wut’s claws in that there’ll still be some flex in the claws as a whole (and in your fingers for grabbing things, if you can keep the finger-tips free), but unlike Wut’s claws they won’t be nearly as heavy (hers were too long by far), they’ll be a lot more robust and claw-like with the cores, and they’ll actually be useful as weapons instead of just being two big floppy shields.
The problem with this angle is that individual claws can end up quite chunky so you might have to reduce the number of claws on each hand, which was something that always bugged me.
And some prototypes: dainty little 4.5 inch claws, for those who might still want to be able to use a sword,
[attachment=0]littleclaws.JPG[/attachment]
And some serious 10-inch fighting claws, for those who want to look scary:
[attachment=1]bigclaws.JPG[/attachment]
In both cases they’re coreless two-layer sandwich, mounted straight onto the fingers of a Pam’s rubber glove, with the join wrapped in leather for reinforcement.
I’ll need to try latexing them, though doing the actual glove is going to be a pain.
Awwww, dainty claws. They look good, I like the longer ones myself. I’d go with leather or cotton gardening gloves, I think. Wearing rubber gloves for hours is going to be awful.