Foam Smithing – Spear progress Pt 2

Have had a couple of very busy evenings trying to get the spear finished.  Had a mini disaster when gluing the foam on the spear shaft.  I was doing this in the garden where I’d been banished because of the fumes.  Trouble was, and I’m guessing here, that the cold air was affecting the glue so as I was applying it to the foam it was not sticking and just rolling up into big gluey bogeys!  So I had to wait until my partner (bless her pom pom socks) had retired for the evening and I could shut myself in the kitchen with the windows wide open.

To the latexing.  Which was about the point when I realised something was missing.  The spear was missing a ferrule (at least I think that is the right word).  So that was the next step and after it was added I carved a exagerated wood pattern into the spear shaft and then began latexing with a black undercoat.  I tend to build this up quickly with a lot of layers as I’ve found in the past that if you leave it too long to dry the new layer doesn’t adhere to the previous layer properly.

With the softer open celled foam you need to build up quite a few layers as the foam does absorb some of the latex.   You can mitigate this somewhat by covering the foam with a layer of glue, but I found that the glue was disolving the foam a little and so this was not ideal.  In the end I used latex thickner to get the latex to a consitency that was not being absorbed too much.  This worked fairly well so after it had all dried I started on adding the “bronze” latex to the spear head.   I’m pleased with the result.  The spear doesn’t look brand new but has a sort of battered appearence which I hope suggest age.   The photo to the left isn’t great but then it was taken early in the morning b.c. (before coffee!).

The next stage is to add colour to the spear shaft and then seal the whole thing.  I’m in for a long night I think, which is ok as I have the day off work tomorrow but do need to get up at a reasonably early hour to get every thing packed for the event this weekend.

Foam Smithing – Coreless Dagger and Spear progress

The dagger went a bit wrong again as I was cutting the foam, but luckily  I was able to re-carve the foam a little to make it fairly decent.  The problem is definitely the size of the point of the dagger, it is to thin so keeping it still as you carve is very difficult (you can see a slight “wobble” at the end of the blade in the picture below).  In the end the person I made it for didn’t like the bronze finish, it is a little on the orange side of bronze.  My son however, really likes it

Had the chance to order some more foam recently so was able to continue with the spear. I covered the end of the fibreglass core with two layers of tough cotton to help prevent it pushing through the foam.  Then after fixing the head of the spear to the core I covered the core with a layer of foam.

It looks a little on the thin side to me so I think that I’ll add another layer of foam to make the shaft a little thicker.

Leatherworking – Armour – Greaves – Part 3, Vambraces and a Quiver

Having completed the greaves and being pleased with the result I made a pair of vambraces (bracers?) as well.  I think the acrylic paint works well.  Looking at a lot of leather dye products which seem to also be made of acrylic I think that possibly the secret is to 1) make sure that the paint is absorbed at least partially by the leather and 2) that you don’t lay it on to thickly, otherwise you will have a sort of plastic acrylic coating.   The test will be when I actually use them.   It will be interesting to see how they fare over a couple of events.   This is all good information for when I make the leather scale armour I’m planning, hopefully I’ll complete this by the beginning of May. I am hoping to experiment with decoration for the armour.   There are more than a few guides on the internet so I have a rough idea of the basics (although looking at some of the examples it is I think wise to practice on a few scraps first).  One thing in my favour though is that I’m not planning on any really elaborate designs.

Another thing I learned, which was obvious really once I thought about it, was that setting rivets needs a hard surface.  Previously I’d been using a corner of my tool box and of course the plastic was absorbing some of the hammer blow and the rivets were not setting properly.

After the success of  the bracers and greaves I decided to make a quiver for my arrows which had until now been carried in an old cardboard postage tube covered in faux suede,  which can be seen in a photo on this post.  It didn’t look too bad, just made an annoying rattling noise when ever I moved,  not great for someone trying to play a stealthy scout.  The quiver was a quick fix job really so I didn’t spend a great deal of time on it.  I had some softer leather spare, which I originally bought to replace some of the thinner bits of my current armour, but in the end decided not to use.  The quiver is basically a sort of leather bucket with a strap cunningly made from a very cheap leather belt.   It is a little too big for the task really and I’ll have to re do it at some point but it will hopefully be useful for a weekend.

Foam Smithing – Coreless Dagger

The advantage of having no core in a dagger is that in many systems it can be a throw weapon.  No core means you have in essence a lump of foam covered in latex, and while not the softest thing in the world it is unlikely to do any great harm.

From the point of view as being used as a prop weapon is that the foam has virtually no rigidity.

I’ve made a couple of coreless daggers in the past the first one although not bad was a little on the large side, so I never really used it and eventually removed all the latex to try out an idea I had for carving the foam.

The second was the stone/flint dagger  in the right of the picture to the left.   It was an experiment which worked really well and used up an off-cut of foam that was otherwise destined for the bin.

The current one is a little more ambitious and has the added  factor that I’m making it for someone else, and not having made anything for anybody apart from my son and I means I’m even more nervous about the result.

Coreless Dagger Blank

It’s based on the dagger in this photograph on wikipedia.  A fine looking celtic dagger with anthropomorphic handle. The blank was relatively easy to prepare using four layers of 6mm foam.  Well truth be told this was the second blank.  The first went horribly wrong during the dreaded cutting phase, which resulted in a nice handle but a blade like a stiletto, or possibly the first larp safe tooth pick.  As I’ve said before the cutting out the blade bit is the part I fear most.  In theory it should be easier with a dagger, shorter blade, less to cut.  So using the last of my foam I started again.  Hopefully this time it won’t be such a disaster.

Foam Smithing – Spear – Pt2 “c”

Too many projects!  I’ve sort of resigned myself that I’m not going to get the spear finished by the end of February.  Partly because I don’t have enough foam to cover the spear shaft.  It isn’t a huge problem though the February event is probably going to be “combat” light so I will make do with the weapons I already have.  The spear is to be a back up weapon anyway.  I have finished the mould and cast the first section of decoration though.

Leatherworking – Armour – Greaves – Part 2

So far so good.  I used some fine wet and dry paper to take the waxy finish off of the leather, then some fine sandpaper.

The first greave I painted went a bit wrong, the acrylic paints I was using (two different brands) kept seperating so I kept getting dark green “pools” that made the finish look a bad attempt at camouflage.  DPM greaves anyone?

With the second greave I kept mixing the paint as I went and this seemed to help.

After the paint dried I soaked both greaves with water and scrunched them up to give them more of a used look.

The main thing I am worried about is that the acrylic will peel off.  So far it is looking ok.  The one mistake I did make was making the straps too small.

Leatherworking – Armour – Greaves

Well making things with bits of leather to be more precise.  When you’ve seen the work of a master leather worker like Ben Loder the things I do really are not worthy   I have a belt and a pair of wristbands made by Ben and know a few people who have armour that he has made.

I’ve made an armour tunic in the past which considering my lack of skill, came out fairly well.

Leather armour tunic

It is starting to look a bit tatty these days mainly because to save money I made bits of it with old leather coats that cost me £5 each.  The rest of the leather came from Ebay and is of a reasonable quality.

My new project is to make a leather tunic, bracers an greaves from thicker leather.

The leather I chose was a special offer from Le Prevo who I throughly recommend for all leather working supplies.  Buying cheaper leather seemed like the best plan as this was a first attempt.  The first step was to make a template/pattern out of cardboard to get the shape of the greaves (armour for the lower leg).  Then cut out the basic shape from the leather.

The first stage will be to try and remove the waxy finish that  is on the leather at the moment so that I can change the colour.

Foam Smithing – Spear – Pt2 “b”

The spear head was near completion. All ready for the first coat of latex.  The material to strengthen the join between the two types of foam was all stuck on and some latex spiral designs that I’d had a mould for from another project had been added.

In the end the  spiral designs looked a bit weedy on the spear head so I decided to make new ones.

This will add a couple of days to the project but will hopefully improve the look of the finished spear head.

For the first stage, making the master from which the mould is made, I use modeling clay mainly because it is

reusable and fairly easy to sculpt.   In fact the main downside I find is that it can be a little squishy but that can be got around by popping it in the fridge for a bit to harden it up.  The picture to the left shows the design unfinished.

Foam Smithing – Spear – Pt2

Ooo that is a snappy title!

I haven’t had as much time to work on this as I’d liked to.  Added to that I’ve picked up an old hobby which is also increasing my list of “things to do when I’ve got the time”.

For me though the scariest part of making the spear is over with – the carving of the foam!  I think I’ve mentioned in previous posts that I dread doing it.  It is the stage that can really mess up a project, although compared with a sword there is less to carve.

It didn’t go too badly in the end and I’m quite pleased with the result (although there is a bit of tinkering still to do before it is ready).

Spear head assembled.

The next stage is to reinforce the join between the two densities of foam with material before adding the first coat of latex.

Foam Smithing – Spear

The LARP season is over for the year (for the club I attend anyway – there may be some hardy souls out there braving the cold!) which gives me lots of time to start a few projects.  The first thing I’m doing is making a spear.   Although the character I play is not really a front line fighter there have been more than a few occasions when I’ve been in a shield wall where a spear would be very useful.   I have made one but it is too short and although I was pleased with it, it is not of a great piece of work.

The spear I’m planning is based on a spear head found at Le Tene and has a particularly wavy blade.  I use the excellent Osprey Publishing “Celtic Warrior” as my first reference in many cases for ideas and inspiration.  The particular spear can be see on this Google Book search page.

Dumnonni Chronicles unlike more than a few systems allows “stabbing” spears.  So safety with spears is probably more important than with swords.   The tip has to be “stab safe” and so is made of softer foam than a sword would be.

Spear components

The picture to the left shows the main components of the spear.  Top to bottom – soft foam for the majority of the spear head, thick fibre glass core – to thin and the spear would be too “wippy” and denser foam for the lower third of the spear head.