Jonathan_Kaplan wrote:Jason Taylor wrote:Jonathan_Kaplan wrote:Well I ordered one of these as well, and it hasn't shipped yet, so I am hoping I get a good one! I did order it from here:
https://yourcornerstore.com/which seemed to be the cheapest after shipping place that had it in stock. About $37.50 after shipping!
http://trophys.dealerease.net/catalog/p ... &pid=66747 is the best price I found for these. It has them listed for 24.67. I'm not sure on the shipping, but I don't think it's 13 bucks.
Well I found it cheaper all over... but not in stock at the cheaper places! Anyway, can you explain some of your modding practices with these? I had asked about that elsewhere, but no conclusins on modding possibilities were made.
There's a guy on SFI who cut his handle in half, sank a piece of all-thread into the remaining handle, then created a hickory spacer and put the pommel back on, lengthening his handle and fixing balance issues at the same time. However, this is way more work than I like.
One of the guys in my group ground off the bottom of his pommel (I imagine you could saw it, as well) and then used a carriage bolt to affix a stack of heavy washers onto the bottom. The results gave him about two inches of handle length and a much better balance point.
Someone else in our group drilled a hole into the bottom and filled his poomel with lead shot and then epoxied them in place. He also stuck a bunch of bolts into the cross, which I *don't* recommend because they stick out and catch on things and chew up other wasters.
The washers seem like the best solution I've handled so far, but it's an ugly solution on first look. However, I think that could be helped by epopxying the washers together and filling the gaps, so that grabbing the new washer-pommel isn't so weird a feeling, and then covering the whole thing with something like a giant furniture cap, so it looks more like the rest of the waster.
Again, none of these make them perfect--there's a reason my primary waster is a With Intent plastic, not a Cold Steel one. But it does provide a good entry level version of the plastic waster for people who want something both durable and cheap.
However, it would have been *much* better if Lynn Thompson of Cold Steel had just contacted the HEMA community first and asked what we thought. Then we'd all have a nearly perfect $35.00 waster at this point (qassuming he listened). A few design modifications at the injection molding stage would have made a universe of difference in functionality.
Jason
I'm impatient with stupidity. My people have learned to live without it.--The Day the Earth Stood Still
