How to make a larp boffer kukri

You know, because kukri are awesome  and gurkhas are awesome too. If you have one, you are awesome yourself by default(either a kukri or a gurkha).

Anyway, the kukri is perhaps the last still used curved blade in existence. Modern ones are smaller than the original, being all in all an oversized combat knife. Old kukris varied but at 40+ sm length, they fall right in the short sword category for me. Anyway

Larp boffer kukri. 

For the record, this is the first time I don't like how a new weapon turns out. The tip could have been better. 

I'm not going to give YET again the budget, tools and materials, since they are all the same as for other weapons around. One thing you should consider is how long you want your kukri - that is do you want a big knife or a short sword.

Anyway...

First things first. I decided to use 40something sm core for my kukri, which with tip and pommel would bring it close to half a meter. 

The core needs to get a roughly 20 degrees bend so we use the method described here.
Once its done we can start with the blade.

The blade itself is made in the same way as all other I've made so far.

 What is of note of course, is its more specific shape which can easily be achieved with extra layers of foam.

 After that its a rather mundane task to wrap it in tape and move to the handle piece right?

 

 First a piece of foam from a flip flop - it has density and durability and it will shape out the handle of the kukri.

 After that a few finishing touches with the paper knife and we are nearly finished.

Whats left to be done is by now standard procedure - wrap the handle in leather for better grip...

 A small pommel piece, just to keep the end of the leather firm and we are done.

 Chop chop!

Advanced soft core larp knife

In the previous tutorial on larp knives shown here , we described to get an easy to make soft knife. This is good for a beginner, but giving it a bit more time and more attention to detail can go a long way.

Here I'll show you how with some extra work you can get a good looking weapon, not just a functional one.

Advanced soft larp knife

Budget: 1-5$


Materials: pair of flip flops- I picked biggest available, made from a sturdier foam. Yeah I had to buy them, I don't have that many old pairs just lying around. Various tapes, glue, a bit of pipe foam, a strip of leather - got it from an old fake leather belt - you can improvise here. Glue.





Tools: scissors, paper knife.

Recommended for: A hidden blade, backup or a boot knife. Since it lacks a hard core don't try to use it in open fights as a parrying dagger unless you don't care much about your knuckles.Depending(literally) on the density of the flip flops you pick for the core, it can fly quite well - at least the one I made now is just heavy enough to fly very decently as a throwing knife with  range of 5-10m.

And here we go.

 First things first - with the paper knife and scissors - shape the blade of the knife. Give it a real edge.

   When you are done, wrap the knife blade, its time to do the handle piece next.

 Mostly even...I could have done better if I'd picked a sharper knife.

 Now its time to get the handle ready. First cut off a piece of foam for the knife pommel.

Then start wrapping the handle in duct-tape. I also added a small bit for a guard again.

 Now the handle is wrapped in tape and the pommel is attached, but only loosely - don't wrap it fully just yet - you will see why.

Next take the leather strip, get some glue on it and start wrapping it around the handle.

 In the end you'd get something like this if you were doing ok. Thats why the pommel was left barely hanging.

 Finally, wrap the two ends of the handle in duct tape again to secure the leather and the pommel and
we are done. The only thing I could have done better was the sharpening of the blade, but I do have some ideas how to do that part better.

 

 This is roughly as far as you can get without latex, but unlike latex weapons this takes 15 min. to make so its eventual loss would hardly be mourned.

And it certainly does not compare to these:

Making a soft core larp knife 2

There is more than one way to make small boffer knives for larp. Apart from the one already shown here there is the "flip flop" method. Its even faster and I'd say better though it requires a more specific resource - a pair of old flip flops.


Budget: About 1$

Materials:  An old pair of flip flops and tape.

Tools: Scissors.

Recommended for: A hidden blade, backup or a boot knife. Since it lacks a hard core don't try to use it in open fights as a parrying dagger unless you don't care much about your knuckles. It can also be used for a throwing knife with average range. Mind you - since its quite light, don't expect good accuracy and aerodynamics at ranges more than 5 meters.

Here we go then! Mind you - don't pick child size flip flops, unless you want to fight with a pin.

First things first - disassemble the flip flop with the scissors.  Its all straight forward from here on in.

    Next - measure out how wide you want your knife to be cut out the unnecessary pieces. You should do proper measuring, we don't want it looking too shabby.

Now we are left with our larp knife body(to the left) ready for forming.

Cut out a blade shape (again measure the cuts), if you want - prepare pieces for a guard.

Then wrap the handle with tape, afixing the guard as well if you decided on one(you can get cut it out from the initial shape, you don't have to add it later)

Finally, wrap the blade in tape and we are done! A simple, easy to make, easy to use and easy to maintain larp knife. Mind you that's the simplest possible model - just to show you how its made, you can do a more complex shape or decoration with ease.

Basic soft core larp knife

There are two ways to make a larp knife with a soft core. One is the heh, let's call it flip flop method, in which you simply cut out a knife shape out of a pair of flip flops. The other is this.

Budget: Less than 1 $


Materials needed: some cardboard - I used an old pizza box. Some pipe foam and duct tapes which one would expect are already available.

First things first.

 I picked the length of the knife and cut out a suitable piece of cardboard. A soft core knife shouldn't be too long - its no use as an offhand weapon, you need it for throwing or slicing throats,  backstabbing, as a boot knife and so on.

 After that the cardboard is layered several times - this will be the core of our larp knife.

 Once the core is done, the foam is cut into strips again. You don't have to be as careful as with the swords - when your core is cardboard hurting someone becomes quite the challenge. In fact, if you manage it, I'd say you should seek an army or law enforcement career. You may have noticed that I've aligned the foam sideways - its again for the same reason.

 After that its time to shape your blade with the scissors or a paper knife.

 

 When done, wrap the blade in duct tape, or in my case in aluminium foil.

 

 Once the blade is wrapped, its time to do the handle. The string I've placed would be both decoration and give better grip on the handle.

  

Finally you wrap the handle of your larp knife in tape and its almost done. 

 

 There is one last step to do - flatten the blade. Put it under something heavy and leave it like this. It will take a while but in the end it won't look like a dicksword. Can't show you the final result since its still flattening - the other knife in this pic is halfway done.