Padded weapons

[Guest]

Bending isn't a bad thing, you know. Schedule 40 PVC does not whip, and it really reduces the force of the blow when it bends just a little on impact. That's probably the best way to accurately cut with a sword without hurting somebody, because it doesn't effect the cut until after it lands, and even then just barely. I would also think that schedule 80 would end up heavier than a real sword.

[Scott Anderson]

weapons that bend, unfortunatly, can be a very bad thing, a weapon that bends makes it much harder, and sometimes impossible, to get a technique to work correctly at anything but unrealistically slow speeds. bending frequently leads to a wierd bouncing effect and both the bend and the bounce cause you to adapt how you fight to take advantage of those effects. the usual adaptations i've seen for bouncy and easily flexed weapons tend towards purposly planning to take the energy rebound of the bounce so that if your attack is parried you simply let it bounce a bit lower and hit your opponent with very little power. the argument then becomes "so what if it wasn't a hard hit, it still hit?". the other common one i've seen is that you no longer ever try to be hard at the bind and purposly become soft at blade contact to increase the bounce so that you have a faster turn around time to try to hit them in a different location if you are parried. I have to admit that this is exactly what i did for year before finding ARMA, and trust me, it's not a good habit to develop.

SPA

[Guest]

My class uses padded weapons made of schedule 40 PVC exclusively, and they have never bounced nearly enough to have that effect. I've seen "boffer" polearms whose owners were taking advantage of its "wiggling", but that was the extent of it. The most my sword ever does is shudder a little. And I do mean a little, it barely makes any difference in handling it, if any at all.

[Scott Anderson]

that's what i used to think about what we used here, recent (over the last year) has changed my opinion of just how much that "shudder" can effect what you're doing. but i guess ultimatly it's up to you to decide if it has that effect or not. I've just noticed that for me it makes a major difference, and i'm sure there are others here of the same opinion.

SPA

[Guest]

Well, either way, I still wanna switch to ARMA padded weapons.

[Guest]

Every weapon I've ever made, I've used two pieces of fiberglass dowel rod bound together with duct tape as a core.

It ends up being not-too-light with very little flex, but the ends have to be wrapped extra-well or the rod will eventually poke through the foam.

[Craig Peters]

Michael,

Have you ever tried to apply the techniques of one of the masters when using PVC swords? I have, and I can tell you right now that it doesn't work.

I too used the standard schedule 40 PVC for swords, and the style of boffer we made was different from the SCA's (Read "less safe and a bit more like a sword"). However, PVC pipe always has a unnatural tendency to flex or spring. Have you ever tried, for example, to counter a Zornhau with a Zornhau using PVC pipe? Inevitably, a blade will bounce upon impact. You also really start to notice a problem with PVC pipe the more you utilize ARMA-style strikes, rather than SCA attacks. The other thing is that because PVC is round, you do not have a proper edge to your weapon. Yes, it is possible to create an "edge" on your sword using padding, (and I have certainly done this before), but what really matters is whether the internal, solid core of the weapon has an edge. Without one, even though you have a visible foam edge, you cannot hope to strike with proper edge alignment, which is crucial when using a real sword.

If you are interested in practicing swordsmanship seriously, don't go with PVC pipe, no matter how easy or tempting it may be. In the long run, the distortion of how it handles is not worth the benefit of the ease of construction.

[Guest]

Well, I don't use "SCA" attacks, and my sword is heavy enough that it bounces very, very little. Also, the quillons make it easy to see where the edge is. Either way, I'm still trying to switch to ARMA style.