I’ll see what I can find.
The RD1 in albany can get 1500mm x 10mm lengths at around $6.49/length. It’s what we used for the claws on the bone-wraiths, but you might have to ask them to get it in.
Doesn’t Kite Works in Newton do 10mm fibreglass rod at pretty much any length? They cut from pieces that are several meters long.
Gourock at 77B Patiki Rd, Avondale do fibreglass sail battens and fibreglass rods. The prices were reasonable last time I went there.
They have a catalogue here (2.1 MB).
Personally, I find flat battens better for swords because they are flat like a sword.
Derek, would you be interested in doing a “Latexing for n00bs” workshop sometime ? I’d like to get into latexing my weapons, and I’m sure others would be interested too. Like Vanya, can supply beer
I will be doing one at Chimera which is only 8 months away…
I’m not working between Xmas and New year and I’ll be in Auckland, so there is bound to be a spare few hours in there somewhere. It’s pretty easy really.
Gosh those are cool looking!
Really looking forward to trying my hand at building/making weapons.
I will be doing one at Chimera which is only 8 months away…
I’m not working between Xmas and New year and I’ll be in Auckland, so there is bound to be a spare few hours in there somewhere. It’s pretty easy really.[/quote]
Great, I’m working through…and only a couple of mins drive from your place, too
Will PM next week…
Here is some more silliness
For when a sword isn’t appropriate.
A table leg Awsome.
Now do a bottle and a larp safe tool box filled with larp safe tools.
Last I checked they charged $10/m, and it’s lower density with flex in mind - not really ideal.
Yeah, I guess $20 is pretty rich if you wanted a 2 meter rod at 10mm.
I haven’t had any issues with the flexibility of their fibreglass rod, but I haven’t used it for stuff over 1m, with max diameter of 8mm.
Thanks for the offer, I might wait until Zane and I sort out if he wants a large club or a large hammer with the foam and broom stick we have at the moment before trying to take on tonfa’s.
That table leg is awesome.
How are you shaping the foam - hot wire?
Behold a 1000W variable speed drill with a sanding wheel on it! The variable speed is nice. I crank it up to full for most of the heavy work and drop the speed for the fine work and finishing.
And I use a 9" angle grinder with a sanding disk. But it tends to be a bit less accurate, so I only use if for removing a lot of foam.
I had a go one evening with Derek and how he works is great… 7 of us standing around trying to work out what to do, he grabs a kraft knife blade, a sheet of 35mm foam and cut out a few daggers, trimmed them up and then starting talking about latexing them.
7 People standing there trying to work out what we’re doing and he’s already made 3 damn things!!!
Then there was the sanding. He show’d me and Porl roughly what he wanted done, so we started doing it, a little nervous about messing it up. 20 mins later he comes out wondering what’s takeing us so long, shows us what we’re doing werong, finished the sanding in less than a min and back intside to start latexing.
I warn everyone… Derek makes this look WAY too damn easy… yes it’s easy… but OMG Derek in a workshop can make weapons almost as fast as you can throw foam at him.
On the flip side he bashed me with the bamboo, the war club and the staff and I could tell I was getting hit. But padding wasn’t an issue and as he said at the time he wasn’t holding back on his strikes either so they’re safe.
Joel got some fiberglass in 6 meter lengths for $24 ish I think. Will check with him when he gets back. 6m of 8mm fiberglass rod and another 6m of “sail baton” flattened fiberglass aswell should be enough to try almost anything. It also means it’s out there should people actually look around a bit.
Just as a point of view - while the flatter sail batten does make for sexy looking flat blades, it does lend itself to weapons that are quite wobbly sideways. This can take a lot of getting used to and while I’m not going to say it’s unsafe, it should definitely be something to keep in mind when picking materials and if you do go that way make sure you get a lot of practice with the weapon before taking it into a game.
Also as a point to the weaponcrafters in general - while looking as realistic as possible is good, don’t forget the last thing you actually want is a “sharp” edge, otherwise by the time it’s got a few coats of latex it will be too hard and thin to not cause harm. A few commercial weapons fall into this trap as well, but by and large they actually have fairly rounded edges, or very shallow and blunt points.
0.8p
derek,
it’s really great collecting ideas from you. thanks.