ARMA Padded Sword and durability

[Josh Petrovich]

Well I can say that Longsword sparring is awesome. It's amazing at how complex the REAL thing is compared to the edge-on-edge clanging of the movies.

I was practicing my fendente cuts from falcone with my partner parrying from full iron door, and as we got faster and harder in our swings one of his parries broke my sword.

I followed the ARMA padded sword construction and used the given measurements (longsword-sized). Upon dissecting my sword to get at the break I realized to the humility of myself that I was using oak slats with a grain at about a 45-degree angle from the blade. Seems that I need to actually pay attention to how parallel the grain is to the edge next time.

Now I know these swords won't last forever, but a 10-minute sparring session should be no problem. Does anyone have any ideas as to how to improve on the durability of the ARMA oak-slat design? I've heard that hickory is better than oak. Right now the two slats are each 0.5x1.25x48 inches. I am thinking about glueing the two slats together, but would that make it too rigid? Can I go from 0.5" thickness to 0.75" thickness?

I hate to bury everyone with this mountain of questions but I'd like to achieve a padded sword that lasts. Thanks!

- Petro

[JeanryChandler]

My advice is forget the slats altogether and use Sch 80 PVC for a core. This is special 'high pressure' PVC which is about twice as strong as the regular stuff. I'm usually able to find it at LOWES, you can also find it at plumbing supply stores (call and ask them before showing up)

Jeanry

[jeremy pace]

Hey Jeanry! I used your design for building two padded practice "wasters" and they blew me away. My sparring partner and i are both big guys, former marines, and we like to hit hard and these babies can take it!! They have the look and feel of real swords and while not quite the same as steel on steel they are worth the price for safety reasons. My buddy is a craftsman and says your work is that of a "master". I recommend these to any and everyone. We have tried so many designs and they never hold up..... Either make your own using Jeanry's design or buy them from his site. You wont regret it i promise.

[JeanryChandler]

Hey thanks a lot amigo. I guess I should be a 'master' by now since I have been making these things since I was 15, and that was, well more than twenty years ago I'm embarrassed to admit.

Once you make a few of these you will notice that you will get better and better at it in subtle ways.

Anyway, I like your comment, can I quote you on that on my website when we do the redesign?

Jeanry

P.S. I remember like a year ago people were talking about flattening cores and also some other materials like solid PVC boards... has anyone kept up with this, and if so, is anyone interested in collaborating on developing this idea further?

[jeremy pace]

Yeah i guess that did kinda sound like a prop there..... but i couldnt help it. We were so excited when we made these new ones we were like little kids! The only critical thing i have to say is it took a long time to make and the quillions and pommel could really hurt someone. We like to bind and it is a hard temptation to resist.... okay one more critical thing: it was very tempting to just use them as is, but i hit my buddy so hard in the head he kind of fainted for a minute. he was ok and has taken harder i assure you, but the padding is kinda false. you can get hit in the body pretty hard and not really notice but i would definately suggest a helmet, gorget (neck prot), and a cup. The three things no man can live without. But all in all they are superb. We made ours and i still feel like i owe you something. Take the quote, but if you are ever in okc give me a call and ill buy you dinner. (after we get done in some free play!!! <img src="/forum/images/icons/grin.gif" alt="" />

[JeanryChandler]

Yeah I always used use helmet and gloves when sparring with these full force. There is a reason we call them 'padded wasters', they are a lot like wooden wasters, and impacts are hard. They are unlikely to break bones, but you will notice the impact of a good strike for sure.

As for the guards, you can either use all foam guards, or you can put extra foam on the guard, particularly the edges. Kind of ruins the look a bit but it makes them much safer. I have a couple of weapons I have added extra padding to the guards for pommel strikes and such. I still wouldn't use these to do murder strokes but they are much safer. Also you will notice that the aluminum brace will bend under very hard impact, which is another safety feature, and then you can just easily bend them back into place.

Jeanry

[Aaron Pynenberg]

I think Kevin Peterson's finger would disagree with that statement- It bust open like a grape----and broke, he was using fingerless gloves at the time---not such a good idea-

[JeanryChandler]

Ouch... check that, gloves with fingers, reccomended at all times. Is he ok?

JR

[Aaron Pynenberg]

He's better that was awhile ago- no probs-

[jeremy pace]

Good imagery though! Like a grape! ouch..... well anything is better than what we have been using. We alternated between boffers and wasters. Really we liked boffers for the headshots, but we used the wasters full force too.... i have broken more fingers than id like to admit, none my own thankfully. <img src="/forum/images/icons/blush.gif" alt="" />

[Mike Cartier]

yes watch those fingers, sch 80 will give you a nasty case of the twisted finger. We at ARMA-SFL like to bash our paddeds as hard as they can take it (we have a saying, "you can never hit too hard"). The sch 40 versions used to break regularly, now we have sch 80 and they never break accept at the cross guard which is a 4 way done with sch 40.


i can attest to jeanry's mastery of the padded sword craft we handled many of his and they are by far the best feeling paddeds i have felt. Although I have yet to try to slatted wood versions. We are working on pressing our sch 80 to make it flatter.

[JeanryChandler]

Ah, those four ways are a killer. We used to use those back in the 80's. Reccomend against it. Puts too much pressure on the core.

If you think the aluminum brackets are too hard, I suggest trying coat hanger wire for a core with a lot of the softer closed cell foam around it (landau / volara or the blue camping pad stuff) if you cross hatch forver and ever with tape this makes a semi-rigid guard which is strong enough to protect your hand pretty well though you really can't do disarms.

Jeanry

[JeanryChandler]

One thing for those to watch out for when making swords. I just found out that different colors of microcell puff foam have different hardnesses. The red is harder than the blue, enough so that you might not want to use it.

JR