The manufacturer’s instructions don’t mention what to store them in, only to store them horizontally in a cool dry place. I did my best to inform people that it was better to store them in the clear sheath and not directly in the black carry bag once I realised it myself, but that info may not have reached everyone. Also, it’s possible that storing it in the clear sheath isn’t perfect either - it’s been good in my experience, but there are no manufacturer’s instructions regarding what to store them in so experience is the only guideline we’ve had.
Our ones - from TradeMe - didn’t have the sheath, only the bag.
Right. Time to find somewhere flat. Though there’s always the garage.
It’s not so much a matter of having to store them flat. The important thing is not to put pressure on the tip of the blade. That’s the part of a sword that takes the most wear, so the less pressure on it the better. Hanging them in the bag would probably not be that bad, because the bag would probably spread the pressure fairly evenly and lightly. The really bad thing to do would be to stand them upright resting on the very point of the tip.
Given that you don’t have the clear sheath (which is just a long clear plastic “bag” with no ends), you might want to consider making up some sort of inner bag yourself. The black carry bags are convenient, but they do have this problem of sticking if in direct contact with the weapon. But if you make a non-stick sheath of some sort first (perhaps out of something like cotton, not from a synthetic fabric) and put the sword (including the hilt) into that first, then put it in the carry bag, should be sweet as.
There is some general advice on the care of latex weapons here:
about latexing swords, how much liquid latex on average would you use for 1 medium lenght sword?
Or I could just wrap it in some cloth. Which given that I’ll have offcuts from my shield cover…
I just throw mine in a corner of my garage where they get covered in sawdust, grime, dust and filth.
I’ve done about 3-4 swords and used about 500mls. I mix about 25% acrylic paint with 75% liquid latex. I think you can use less paint.
I took my swords over to Dr Derek last night, and he confirmed my diagnosis that its was just the paint that had come off, and the latex was still intact. So we applied more silver paint and she’ll be right.
Thanks for your other offers of help guys, hope this will be a lesson to other noobs as well. Don’t store latex weapons in the plastic bags they come in. Excepting Ryan’s proviso earlier of course …