How to make a larp boffer bastard or hand and half sword

Now the bastard sword, longsword or hand and half sword, or however you want to call it since all those names actually refer to a pretty large family of swords used throughout medieval Europe for a decently long period of time is another less common larp weapon. What makes it different from one handed sword is mostly not the blade but the larger grip made to accommodate two hands. When it comes to larp - its a jack of all trades and master of none. It lacks the pure ooomph power of the dedicated greatswords, or the speed of the one handed arming swords, but takes a bit of both, leaning to either side of the spectrum, depending on how you design it. In size it ranges from about 100 to 120sm - longer variants are dedicated two handed weapons and people will probably call you out if you swing it with one hand.

 

In terms of construction it does not differ from the arming sword - its just a bit bigger, so this guide will be quite short. Here you can see a size comparison between the ordinary sword, the bastard sword and the claymore.

Materials tools and supplies, I believe I don't have to explain again. The core is an F25 polypropilene pipe - 1 meter long.

 When making it, measure the size of the grip well - its supposed to be big enough for two hands.

After that - its business as usual, same as the other guides. A counter weight and pommel are added.

 The grip is covered in leather. I used two types of leather this time. Normally my swords are very plain and lacking in decoration, I decided to indulge myself this time around.

The sword guard I made exceptionally thick this time, with even more layers of plastic than the claymore. I'd say you will have to rely on it, and well, it should be at least a bit reliable right?

 About the blade...well there is nothing extraordinary about it - make it as you make any other. My only advice would be - don't trim the foam too much. Its a sword that you will occasionally use with both hands and you may feel tempted to hit someone with a bit more force than needed. Best to be safe than sorry. Also the tip on this one is a bit long - that's why its 120sm, I might trim it a bit later.

Well, that's pretty much it I guess.

How to make a larp boffer war hammer

After an inevitable delay, I'm back crafting weapons. Now, the subject of this post will be the war hammer.
War hammers are rather rare in most larp games, their specific job of armour breakers often not taken into account. But first to clarify something.

This is a war hammer.

This...is a cartoonish joke of a weapon.

Unfortunately the popularity of Wacraft 3 and World of Warcraft also means a lot of people get the wrong ideas and start using ridiculous designs and wearing latex house-sized pauldrons.

Admittedly back in the day when Chris Metzen was doing the Warcraft artworks they were honest to god high fantasy, not high stupidity.

But I digress, back on topic. 

So - war hammer. First things first -

BUDGET - about 15$ if you start from scratch. Less if you already have some of the supplies and materials.

Materials: 

One polypropylene pipe, around half a meter long (F20 or F25), pipe insulation foam, duct tapes, quick glue, blind rivets,  1 meter of wallpaper with wood texture(They only sell those by the meter anyway). Plastic bottles and cardboard.

Tools: The usual for making a larp sword AND a tool for blind rivets + drill or hammer&nails.

 First we start by cutting the plastic bottles and dividing them into two equal piles and taping them together. This will give us the the core of the hammer head. I used a total of 4x4 layers +1 for the job.

After that we roughly shape the hammer head and leave it like that. Here is where you decided just how you want it to be, so make your pick. I decided to leave the spike and hammer head longer for safety issues. Not the best decision in regards of aesthetics but its a bit inevitable, larp boffer weapons are by default thicker than real world or latex counter parts.

Next thing to do is rather simple - cut out a piece of the wood texture wallpaper and glue it to the shaft.

 Now some people might actually mistake it for real wood and call weapon arbiters on you to inspect your hammer, but hey, if they do it - it means you've done a good job.

Next thing to do is rather important. After stuffing the hammer head with some cardboard for thickness. Fit it to the shaft, drill 4 holes and use blind rivets to secure it firmly in its place.

Now the head can withstand allmost anything without tearing from the shaft. Don't try anything stupid to test it though.

Next we have to make sure the top part of the shaft is safe, it will be bad if your swing falls short and you break someone's nose with the naked pipe right?

 With that done its a simple job to shape out the hammer head and then cover it all with tapes.

 With this, our war hammer is finished and ready for use. Now go find something to smash.

Here it is compared to a knife and a sword to get an idea of the size. Shorter weapons are sometimes a better idea.

Recycling an old homemade larp boffer sword part 2

Previously on Buskador's LARP....

Last time we took this old torn boffer sword and gut it out like a fish. Now we are going to remake it.

While we already have a guide on Single edged swords this one will also serve as such for double edged swords. What we are going to get here is pretty much the classical "sword" stereotype, which everyone will be able to look at and say oh a medieval sword and be right. In other words - the Oakeshott type XII

From the old larp sword I kept only the core and the pommel, I decided to make a new sword guard piece eventually.Here we go!

Talking about sword guard, I decided to start with it, instead of making the blade first. For the guard I cut up two plastic bottles.

Then, I cut those in 6 strips of plastic and held them together with tape. From this I cut out the shape of the sword guard. We are using plastic bottles because they are far more durable than guards made from foam or cardboard. It will actually stop another sword from sliding down your blade so yes - it works too.

This is now fitted on the sword and two piece of foam and added to either end both for visuals and to keep the edges covered. The guard is tied firmly in its place with a piece of cable, same I retrieved when removing the old guard piece in part 1. Then its wrapped in tape and we move on for the time being.

Next thing on the list was hammering in a counter weight similar to the one shown here. After that the pommel is filled with screw to act as additional counter weight and fitted on.

Then we give the handle an oval shape by adding leftover bits of flip flops  from the making of the Advanced soft core larp knife. This will improve handling and keep you from hitting people with the flat.

 Finally - the outer shell is added. Leather is glued on for better grip and grey tape for better looks.

Now the pommel, handle and guard are finished and we only need to make the blade of the sword.
There is nothing special to it, its no different from the other swords I've made so far except that now both sides must be symmetric since we got a double edged sword here. 

Its important to pay attention to the tip especially if you plan on stabbing with it. I've inserted another piece of foam in the pipe itself

 

And after wrapping the blade, we are done. An old boffer is given new life and its ready for the summer games. 

Recycling an old homemade larp boffer sword part 1

Naturally when you are making your own weapons, its obvious you can unmake them too. A time comes in a homemade larp boffer when patchwork repairs just don't cut it and it needs a complete overhaul to be brought back in a game. Of course you might also need its parts for another project. Whatever the reasoning sometimes a larp sword simply has to be undone.


 This is my first sword which i had made by myself more than 3 years ago. Back then I could not do good looking weapons and even when it was brand new it was on the lower estimate as far as looks went. It was however (extra) safe and just the right size weight and length for me.  After countless action finally the damage is too much to be fixed with  (yet) another batch of tape. The foam of the blade is torn on multiple places, the guard is leaning and covered with more uncountable layers of duct tape, the pommel is about to break off any second now.But fear not -we can rebuild it, we have the technology! But first we have to pull it apart for spares.


Yeah its pretty mangled up as far as boffer swords go...Let's fix that shall we?

I started with removing the barely hanging pommel from the sword handle. No small feat considering all the tape involved.

After that I cleaned it out from the tape and it was ready for reuse. As you can see the pommel itself was from a water tap which used to be full of old rivets and screws to act as a counter weight.

Next the handle is unwrapped from the tape. An electric cable was used as decoration and to give better grip so I remove it  without cutting it, to be available for reuse.

 

Then the guard is removed as well and stripped from most of the tape holding it. Another small cable that was holding it in place before that is removed for future use.

 

Now the only thing left is to bisect the blade and slip it off the pipe core. This is actually the simplest part.

Finally we are left with a set of  parts ready for use - a weapon core, a pommel, cable for decorations and the sword guard which would need some repairs first.

How to make a leather mitten and keep your fingers safe

So far I've only shown how to make weapons. This is well and good, but weapons will only get you this far.

In most LARP games that involve combat - hits to the head, hands and groin and ignored(/and/or penalized) and the vast majority of people prefer to wear only rule wise relevant armor, thus ignoring helms, gloves and cod pieces. For some - its a part of their costume, for the rest - its inexcusable . Unfortunately we live in the 21st century now, and while its tempting to clean the gene-pool of such people(or at least make sure they won't reproduce with a well placed groin hit. Don't forget to say Sorry after that!) its more trouble than worth. That of course doesn't mean you are one of them are you? If so you have a chance to redeem yourself partly if you follow this guide.  

 Chances are that the first part of your body to suffer would be your fingers, and bloodied knuckles are annoying. To avoid them, one must protect his sword arm. Here's a simple way to make a sufficiently thick leather glove for it. The model is sturdy and if you have tougher leather it works for SCA and reenactment as well.


Leather mitten

Budget:10-15$(depends on what you got)

Materials:2x Leather belts - look in second hand stores to find them cheap or use old ones ready for throwing away. If you can find an old army belt you scored the jackpot. A pair of leather workman gloves - these offer some protection, but in this case will serve only as a carrier.  Thread for sewing leather - normal one isn't strong enough.

Tools: Scissors, leather hole punch, strong needles.

Here we go!

 First we cut the leather into pieces, as many as necessary to cover the workman gloves with 1-2 extra since they will be overlapping.

 Then we start sewing them together, starting from the top. .Make sure they overlap.

 Measure carefully where you punch the holes - once you do it, you can't fix it.

 The first two pieces are sewn together.

 Now we simply repeat the same operation several times.  Once you get halfway there - its time to switch the direction of the overlapping. This is also the point where the thumb will go once we get to it.

Now the full length of the mitten is finished. Next thing on our list is to get the first strap on.

Again, measure the length of the strap carefully, then cut it out and sew it on.

Now that we can zero it in -  we can attach the thumb of the mitten. We are almost there now.

With this done, only thing left is attaching the mitten more firmly to its base - the workman glove.

Once we sew it firmly to the workman glove, with some quick glue to help keep things together, we are done.