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.

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.

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.

LARP and more Foam Smithing

The penultimate LARP Event is fast approaching (well for the club I attend anyway). Which has made me realise that I haven’t posted anything for some time. Between the last post and this I’ve made a couple of items for my kit. The first one being a shield. This was the biggest project (in size anyway) that I have so far attempted. The basic design was based on a picture in Osprey books “Celtic Warrior” of a votive shield from the rather than a full sized one. Although there may be some evidence that full sized shields of this type did exist. (Andrew Brozyna on the webpage http://www.redrampant.com/roma/celtshields.html discusses where these votive offerings were found -figure e in the first picture).
The basic structure of the shield was two layers of thick foam with a thinner foam for the shield boss and a length of plastic pipe to form the handle. The most time consuming part of making the shield was making the molded “knotwork” hounds. This was a process of making two separate modeling clay masters (one for each version of the hounds, you need two so the knotwork runs properly) and then making a plaster mold of both. This done I made two latex moldings from each mold. The back of the shield was easier as it was just made to look like wood. Not my best photographs but they give the general idea.

As well as the shield I’ve made an axe and a dagger. The dagger was made from an off cut of foam left over from when I made my sword. Using a sharp blade I carved it to give a flint or stone dagger appearence. The axe came about as I had an old length of pipe from an axe that I’d made a long time ago. I wanted to play around with carving foam a little more and so come up with the dog head design. I’m quite pleased with the results although my partner says it looks like Snoopy and my son maintains that it looks like a fire-breathing duck.

More Foam Smithing.

The recent bank-holiday weekend saw me attending this years Outlore (see A visit to outlore 2007) And a fine event it was too. This year the atmosphere was even better than last year. I took my son along and he had a fantastic time. In the couple of weeks before the event I made him a new shield and sword. I didn’t take photos of the whole process but did when I had finished.

The sword was a bit of a rushed job. I removed the latex off of an old sword and cut down the foam and core of the blade and added a new hilt, handle and pommel. It turned out ok but I think the hilt is a little on the wide side. The important thing is though, that my son thinks they are great.

Foam-smithing Part 5

With all the paint/latex dry the next stage is to fit the pommel with a good amount of glue. The pommel has to have a good amount of foam at the end to stop the core pushing through. The next stage is optional. The sword can be left as it is and just finished off by adding the handle and dusting down the latex with a bit of talcum powder.

For the first time with this sword I’m following a recent trend in larp weapon making and adding a couple of coats of clear liquid rubber roofing paint. This is a nasty toxic smelly substance so it needs to be done either outside or somewhere with a lot of ventilation. It also has the odd property of drying better in the cold. Brushes are more or less useless after as well. The effect though is nice, the colour of the latex is brought out and the finish is shiny.

With all that done the handle is added, different people do this in different ways. I use a bit of foam pipe lagging cut to fit the diameter of the core and then wrap the whole thing with (in this case) fake suede.

And here it is the finished sword, the best I’ve made so far and despite a few “design features”  I’m rather proud of it : ).

~End~

Foam-smithing Part 4

With all the components stuck together, any rough bits of foam sanded and smoothed. I found a tip on a forum that worked really well. Put an iron on the hottest setting and cover the foam with baking sheet and apply the iron. It works really well especially on sanded areas as they tend to be a little “bobbly”.