how to choose wood for sparring weapons?

[William Savage]

Me and my friends recently went to the home depot and bought 3 1and1/2 inch diamitor dowel rods. They were pine if I remember corectly. Anyways I cut out the shapes of a pole ax and glaive blade out of 1/2" plywood and then shaved off half way through the dowel rods where they would be attached. I covered the edges of the plywood blades with pipe insulation and bolted them on. The weapons were some of the most fun we've had until they started breaking.

If anyone can think of a better way to construct polearms, or of a stronger type of wood I could use so that they wouldn't break right away please let me know.

Thank you.

PS Im cutting some swords out of mapple boards and am planning to make 8"x2"x1"(LxWxH) crossgaurds with 2"x1" holes for the blades and then using a strong glue and glueing them to the blades. I may also wrap some wire around them for renforcment. In my expiriance bolting a crossgaurd on makes a waster break off at the hilt. not as important, but if anyone has any thoughts on this matter.

Thanks again, William Savage

[Brian Hunt]

A couple of things that will help,

#1 avoid soft woods, use maple, ash, or preferably hickory.
#2 pole arms work better with a squarish handle. This is of great help with edge/hammmer/hook alignment.

hope this helps.

Brian Hunt
GFS.

[JeffGentry]

Hey guy's

#2 pole arms work better with a squarish handle. This is of great help with edge/hammmer/hook alignment.

This was my thought also, get a square 1x2 of oak may be the ticket for the pole weapon's, becareful of splinter's you may want to wear glove for the pole stuff.

Jeff

[Jeffrey Hull]

I have used a number of oak wasters and they always eventually begin to fragment and fracture like crumbly candy-bars. Oak is very hard but its grain structure is not so consistently dense or compact as say hickory, ash, maple. In other words, it can sustain loads well, but not impacts.

So I would advise against oak unless you only expect to get like a year of use -- though still, it seems more hazard-prone too, due to its fractious nature, so maybe just avoid it altogether.

[William Savage]

Thanks alot for the advice guys. I'm trying to buy a bunch of maple 1-1/4" dowels off of ebay so I can have unlimited polearm recorces.

William Savage

[Jeffrey Hull]

Maple is a good idea. Also, I have seen suppliers with their own websites that deal it various sized hardwood dowels, usually wanting a minimum order of 10 or so. Good luck!

JH