Making a Red Sword

Last Bel practice I was rather inspired by a newbie Belegarth Player who chose a Red Sword as his first weapon, he did surprisingly well in a 8v8 battle with himself being the last on his team, and he effectively took out the last two on the opposing team, one of them being me dual swords + sword and board vs one newbie red sworder

So now I am inspired to make my own red sword, to the specifications and rules of Dagorhir of corse so any suggestions for starters? I know how to make a blue, but never made a red o.0 I am unsure on lengths and what not, I was going to attempt a Glaive, but my resources of foam are better used for something I stand a chance at completing... a red sword!

Actually a glaive is easier to make than a red sword.
A glaive is basically a short sword on a very long handle. If I had to advise you, unless you just want a red sword, I would say go with the glaive.

K-

Also will give you reach... which is nice.

Yeah I think I'll go with Glaive, it just looked hella complicated on the glaive creation page, I wanna get proficient with a 2 handed weapon, I started out with a spear, because I was a pansy and afraid to get hit, but then I got into dual wielding florentine/flanking.

The best thing I can suggest is, tlak with Surt, without me being there he is the one to have walk you through the build.

K-

I'll just bring some supplies in a duffel bag to my first practice and if Surt is willing I'll seek out some advice from him. -bows to teh mighty Surt-

lol i actually want to make myself a glaive as well.

You might check out the glaive kit that bestdagstuff.com will be selling soon. The design is an intelligent one of progressive resistance and I have heard good things about the performance.

i like to build my own stuff and would recommend everyone else to do the same.

I saw a bunch of tutorials on making red swords, video tutorials that is, and for about 20$ I can make 3 red swords or glaives lol camping foam ftw, but the video tutorials for the red sword seemed pretty simple, just wider and longer than a normal blue, was more like a bastard red sword than anything, course maybe I am confused on what a "glaive" is in particular.

Isn't a glaive like ===long handle======^v^v^v^v^ and a red sword is like =======v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v

Or is a glaive only a one sided weapon? o.0 I have seen glaive videos where only one side is striking, but a good friend of mine has one where its like a red sword, but with a longer handle and shorter blade ratio (but wider)

glaive = little sword with a long pole for a handle.

The difference comes in structural integrity. It's difficult (for a first timer) to make a long bladed weapon that will not torq or spin loose from the core. The longer the blade the more likely this is to happen. Thus, the glaive suggestion. A glaive has a shorter blade and thus less chance of it breaking free from the core. Not to mention the fact that , as Knubbs said, it gives you better reach.

P.S.- I would not suggest using the blue camping foam, go to Galaxy Foam on Charleston and Main and get the 1/2" Velora. It's much higher quality and they sell it by the yard, it's 5' wide x the yard for $11. And they will cut it into strips for you. Depending on the size of your core, you should get them to cut it at 1 1/2". I would suggest buying 2 yards and having them cut it length wise. Good Luck.


K-

K'urn wrote:

The difference comes in structural integrity. It's difficult (for a first timer) to make a long bladed weapon that will not torq or spin loose from the core. The longer the blade the more likely this is to happen. Thus, the glaive suggestion. A glaive has a shorter blade and thus less chance of it breaking free from the core. Not to mention the fact that , as Knubbs said, it gives you better reach.

P.S.- I would not suggest using the blue camping foam, go to Galaxy Foam on Charleston and Main and get the 1/2" Velora. It's much higher quality and they sell it by the yard, it's 5' wide x the yard for $11. And they will cut it into strips for you. Depending on the size of your core, you should get them to cut it at 1 1/2". I would suggest buying 2 yards and having them cut it length wise. Good Luck.


K-

DX is Camping Foam good for javelins? I am not in Vegas yet so camping foam from wallmart and PVC insulation are all I got.

Also I don't like the traditional style that many use for their weapons, this being the [] square shape where they make a long rectangle out of their foam and core goes down the middle, I prefer all the foam lay on top of itself all laying the same way, with the middle piece of foam with a slice cut out for the foam to go own? Then obviously a square piece or two on top for stabby if I choose?

So instead of

=======foam==========
= --empty--core--empty---- =
=======foam==========

I prefer

=======foam==========[stab]
==foam==core===foam====[stab]
=======foam==========[stab]

Is that allowed? The foam would likely wrap around the top, like a traditional sword from Dag but I am basically sandwiching the core in the middle of it, with all the foam laying horizontally up the blade all parallel, where as many of the blades I see at belegarth just have have two horizontal foam pieces, then they simply put another two flat pieces on each end, and the opposing ends are layed down opposite to each opposing side, but from what I have seen of the belegarth swords made the first way I mentioned, this typically leaves empty space between the core and its shorter flat ends?

-confused himself-

Here is an example of the way I want to do the foam for my sword: only this is with an axe:


http://www.dagorhir.com/gear/content/weapon_tutorials/images/ryker_axe/axe2.jpg

See how they have the foam piece that goes down the middle, then wrapped a longer piece of foam around that? all the foam lays horizontally. However for a sword obviously the foam would go lengthwise with the sword/glaive. Also I would probably have two wraps/layers as recommended by many.

The image shows how we make our Axe heads. Once the Dap has set, you carve it to the shape you want. No reason, I suppose, you couldn't carve a glaive head instead. Remember your courtesy padding down the haft. 1/3rd of the haft must have courtesy padding (Like two layers of closed cell)

Konradr

The sandwich design is a very good design. I use it myself. Yes, it is legal.

If all you have is Walmart camp pad, that's what you'll have to use. It's not inherently bad foam, I was just saying there is better foam to be had.

K-

Sweet, I was typically going to go with this glaive design:

http://dagorhir.com/HowTo/GvK_Glaive_Design_Feb%202007.pdf

But its so damn confusing lol, I also prefer two have more than one striking surface, and a stabby tip. I might just wait til I get to Vegas for our weapon and garb day to make this lol I'll just bring all my foam and materials and we can make some group weapons