How to make a larp boffer bardiche (or berdiche) great axe

The bardiche is a type of great axe, possibly evolved from the dane axe, that was widely used in medieval Russia and Poland. Its notable for its very long blade - often up to 60 sm and lack of spear point or rear spike, that made it different from halberds and the like.

Unfortunately after I finished mine, I accidentally deleted the step by step photos. Therefore I'll have to improvise with this guide, since I can't make another one.


So, bardiche - how its made.

First of all - there are a lot of similarities with the guide on a one handed fighting axe and the warhammer guide.

BUDGET - bigger than usual - roughly twice what we'd need for a simple sword.

TOOLS - the usual.

MATERIALS - F32 pipe 1.5m long, foam, tapes, wood texture wallpaper for the shaft, f20 pipe 1m long,  about 20+ plastic bottles, cardboard. Pop rivets.


First things first - about the shaft - the shaft is made exactly the same way as the shaft in the normal axe guide. Of course its much longer - the bardiche stands at a 1.85. sm - its as tall as I am.  The f20 pipe is about 1 m long and its fitted inside the f32 as a counter weight and for improved stability(and less wobbliness).




Now the real deal - the axe head. To make the axe head you will need a LOT of plastic and cardboard.
 Therefore your main resources will be plastic beer bottles and pizza boxes. Well - at least for me they were.

 I used a LOT of both - About 20+ plastic bottles and I still don't think its enough.

Here is the tricky part now. Even the large 2 litre beer bottle is not big enough for the whole head.

Therefore you need to make it two piece - First from plastic bottles you cut and shape 2/3ds of the axe blade, then rivet that to the shaft. Reinforce it with the cutouts from the bottles the cardboard and truly frightening amounts of duct tape. After that with yet another batch of plastic bottles you shape the top half of the axe head AND rivet that to the lower half. Don't forget to cover the rivets with foam/cardboard. Don't leave exposed metal. Again reinforce it with copious amounts of cardboard, tape and plastic. After all this, actually fitting the foam covering is a trivial job.