40 replies to this topic

[death by cheez]

Here's the pics, the first is the sword before I placed the wood into the half inch hole and used a hammer to get it in. In the second the wood should be visible, it is 2 halves of a wooden sheet, because that's what i had in the basement, since I was unable to go to menards due to the shitty weather. More than likely you will have to sand down the wood to make it fit, or cheat and use a dremel like I did. And make sure you wear a mask, I forgot that, and I probably need to get checked for lung damage now. The last pic just shows the final product as I was holding it in place for the glue to dry.







The Thunderfury sheaths are rather simple to make. You can use any sort of paper, such as notebook paper, newspaper, or some pages from a magazine. I chose the magazine pages, as they seemed more sturdy to me. What you do is rather simple. You take a sheet of paper and wrap it up like so:

Tape the paper at both ends, and in the middle like so:

Then place it on the sword to check if the fit is right for the sheath.

You then repeat this process several times, and add several layers for sturdiness. You will have to tape the lip of the sheath, as in the part where the sword enters the sheath. Then when you are done you just wrap it in any other sturdy thing you may have, such as thin sheets of cardboard. The halfway product should look like this:

Edited by death by cheez, 13 February 2010 - 07:08 PM.

[flyingpie77]

I measured mine and I got about 11 inches. And I like the frowny no-no part hahaha.

[death by cheez]

The whole thing? That might cover the handle, but I definitely think that will not cover the whole thing.

EDIT... fixed the mess up I just noticed in this post. Still need the length/width of the inner pipe thing from pommel to tip!

Edited by death by cheez, 11 February 2010 - 05:20 PM.

[flyingpie77]

Oh I feel stupid, I ment 11 Feet.

[death by cheez]

Somehow I don't think that;s right either... I googled the length of the sword itself, and it's 42 inches in length, but the core isn't the whole length of that, because I could easily squash the blade tip and the pommel end. I'll just estimate at 39 1/2 inches, to be safe, because that will leave some extra room.

[flyingpie77]

Shit Im such a dumbass, just don't listen to me cause you'll just get messed up.

[death by cheez]

Okay, I've figured something out. If you use a 1/2 inch drill bit, you need either a 3/8in(diameter) by ~40inches length rod or a 7/16in by ~40 in to fulfill the strengthening requirements, though you can marginally increase by the max dimensions of the sword itself, or place multiple rods in to create a maximum strength bonding. One word of advice though is that this (no matter what material you use) will make the sword heavy as hell, especially if you use steel or most other metals. When we head out tonight I will get the steel rod.

Edited by death by cheez, 11 February 2010 - 06:51 PM.

[Foamfoot]

Oh I feel stupid, I ment 11 Feet.

These are magical swords.

[death by cheez]

They extend in the presence of awesome.

[angelfalcon]

I measured mine and I got about 11 inches.

I am so quoting that it isn't even funny.

[J cobbers]

If you want a quality foam sword I present to you several options.

1. Build one following guidelines for various LARPS/ SCA guide lines. A quick google search should help. I've made them out of PVC, pond noodles and duct tape much like this one..

2. Buy one from a site like strongblade I really like the cutlass I got from these guys, the foam is dense and the tip will flex but not fold in half and is safe to stab with. Another shop is knighthawk Armoury

3. Rebuild a toy one like the nerf swords or this one from Amazon.com which I have modified before. I had to cut around the handle and pull out the plastic core and replaced it with carbon fiber tubes sheathed in PEX tubing. Have the tubing overlap the carbon fiber rod a little and seal it in with hot glue, insert back into the blade and handle. I also reccomend treating the entire thing with several coats of plasti dip, and adding stiffer foam to the end to prevent injury. If should be noted that stabbing with this thing isn't reccomended as stabbing weapon because the foam will fold.

Personally the cheap option is to make a boffer rather than refurbish a toy one. Rebuilding the toy one however is a nice way to improve what you already have. But if you want something you can wack and stab at people without worrying about hurting them there are some as affordable as this one. Yes that's almost double the Marauder sword, it's safer and more durable.

Like I said I really like the one I got. It has taken quite a beating and is still in as good a shape as when I got it.

[Blacksunshine]

i would strongly urge you to not place steal tube in your melee weapon if you intend to swing it at any living thing. a small layer of foam would not be enough to offset the force of the rod and you are likely to seriously hurt someone.

[death by cheez]

Yea, I've had to switch to cheap wood for cost reasons anyways, the steel rod was WAY to expensive. Another contributing factor was that my parents wouldn't allow me to buy the steel anyways. Will get pics in about 5 minutes.

need to find my camera cable....

Edited by death by cheez, 12 February 2010 - 02:50 PM.

[J cobbers]

Yea, I've had to switch to cheap wood for cost reasons anyways, the steel rod was WAY to expensive. Another contributing factor was that my parents wouldn't allow me to buy the steel anyways. Will get pics in about 5 minutes.

need to find my camera cable....

Sigh, you tell people how to do something properly and detail the right materials for the job and they don't listen.

Wood is just as bad an idea as steel rod. Where steel rod has strenght and durability, it also is inflexable and will probably tear right through your foam when you start thrusting with it. With wood (cheap wood at that) you run a differnt risk, namely that the wood will crack, or snap, tear through your foam and puncture someone's skin. I hope you at least wrapped it in duct tape or electical tape to provide some sort of sheathing to keep your dowel in one piece if it does snap.

The reason I reccomend carbon fiber tubing is because it is not only light and strong, but it won't snap and splinter dangerously especially if you sheath it in another material.

[death by cheez]

I was incapable to get a carbon fiber rod because none of the hardware stores around here carry it, which surprised me, then for another I was only able to find carbon fiber rods online, and they were rather costly once you add shipping. We learned about some of the properties of carbon fiber in manufacturing class, and while it is really light and really strong, it still breaks. It may not crumple like steel and other metals, but it sure does crumble if hit hard enough. From what we learned in the class, this stuff will shatter like glass if hit with enough force. If we were to hit one of these against a wall really hard, or run it over on accident (just a scenario, we don't use vehicles) the carbon fiber would likely crumble into little shards, which would basically ruin the point of reinforcing these things. EDIT: And I just read the part of sheath it in some other material: The problem with that is I only have a 1/2 inch drill bit, which is my largest drill bit. If I actually got the tube then I would have a bitch of a time finding a material to sheath it in, other than tape, which isn't in any way structurally strong.

You realize the likelyhood of the wood breaking through the plastic core is extremely slim? It took 2 swords colliding from opposite directions at full force to break one of these when they weren't reinforced. And yes, the 2 pieces of wood are glued in the middle then taped with 3 layers of masking tape at 1 inch intervals. I doubt this thing will break, at least for a few wars.

Edited by death by cheez, 13 February 2010 - 09:27 AM.

[Fome]

Food for thought:

Do you really need to hit things as hard as you can with this?

[death by cheez]

No, we just tap with them, kind of like in the DBF comic that people kept posting whenever there was a topic on these. The only way I hit something really hard with these things is if I wish to see their strength.

[WesStone]

Durin g my LARP days I quickly learned that Wood should never be used in something that's meant to strike. It breals way too easy.

[BritNerfMogul]

Durin g my LARP days I quickly learned that Wood should never be used in something that's meant to strike. It breals way too easy.

Yeah, and you LARPer's are soft as shite.

Nothing wrong with hitting each other with wood. We re-enactors know about this kind of thing. you just have to build them right

Death By Cheez - Nice work. Just a shame about the use of lego paperwork. I'll slightly upset at that...
Is the weight difference a problem?

Edited by BritNerfMogul, 13 February 2010 - 02:51 PM.

[death by cheez]

It's almost imperceptible, this thing was light as hell before this anyways. I am also kind of saddened that I used the nerf magazine, I found a natgeo kids one this morning. in the same bin I found the lego one in.

[Dangaard]

If you want to get a professional and durable core but keep it light, I would recommend fiberglass or carbon fiber tubes this is a very resonable priced place. I have bought cores from them, for making boffers the cores are very durable. I prefer a good thick fiberglass core.

[Zorns Lemma]

Food for thought:

Do you really need to hit things as hard as you can with this?

100% agreement with Fome.

The new Nerf swords are already dangerously dense. Further stiffening them is the equivalent of trying to tank expand or airflow mod a singled titan.

I would not attend a war where swords like these were allowed. The stock longsword and battleaxe are already probably borderline bannable because any dumb kid that swings it with excessive force is going to cause injury.

And Brit, when you stage mock fights, are they impromptu brawls or are they rehearsed and carefully executed? Some medieval reenactment organizations use steel and iron weapons, maybe we should attach bayonets to our blasters?

[VACC]

I would not attend a war where swords like these were allowed. The stock longsword and battleaxe are already probably borderline bannable because any dumb kid that swings it with excessive force is going to cause injury.

I think you're overreacting. I've yet to meet anyone who is gay enough to bring a sword to a nerf war, and yet capable of lasting long enough in a round to use it. In fact, whenever selected as a captain for team picking purposes I have a general rule that anyone carrying a melee weapon is not selected and, if it comes to it, is donated to the other team as a form of sabotage.

[Chadpuff]

I would not attend a war where swords like these were allowed. The stock longsword and battleaxe are already probably borderline bannable because any dumb kid that swings it with excessive force is going to cause injury.

I think you're overreacting. I've yet to meet who is gay enough to bring a sword to a nerf war, and yet capable of lasting long enough in a round to use it. In fact, whenever selected as a captain for team picking purposes I have a general rule that anyone carrying a melee weapon is not selected and, if it comes to it, is donated to the other team as a form of sabotage.

Interesting tactic. Will have to remember that for future reference

[death by cheez]

Good old Zorn.... For a test I had my friend hit me with his marauder before we started using them as hard as he could. While it may hurt like hell for oh say, 20 seconds, the pain just disappears. It didn't even leave a bruise. Or a cut. The only time one of these cut me was when some dumbass in my church group stabbed me in the face with it after the tip had broken off, which it took a considerably large amount of force for it to break.