Constructing a Club

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Clubs are basic to every fighting system ever. This page should grow to include many time-tested designs for things from tip-heavy clubs to (probably) weapons referred to as roundswords or speedbats.
Here is a link to a video you can use if on the off chance you get stuck and need a reference or just more visuals: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YQzvkUfTnw

A Basic Club

1. Begin with a 30" length of your favorite core material (1/2" PVC is fine, 3/8-1/2" fiberglass is better, kitespar is great). Cap the core on both ends with strapping tape and a biscuit (see step 2 here: Updated_Blue_Sword_Tutorial#Instructions.

2. Take a Sharpie and mark off a reasonable length for handle and pommel; 1/3 or less of the length is a good guideline. Here, that's 10 inches of core.

3. Cut a ~3" wide strip of blue camp pad foam long enough to wrap around your core seven times. An easy way to do this is to just cut a three inch wide strip the length of your sheet of foam; that way, you're assured of having enough length and will certainly have leftover length for building another club!

4. DAP the core, DAP the strip, and spiral the strip from the top of your handle mark to the tip, cutting the foam off flush with the tip. This is called spiral wrapping or barberpoling or candycane striping your core. You now have a piece of core with 2/3 of its length wrapped in one solid layer of bluefoam.

Club.png

5. Trace the tip of the foamed-up core onto a small piece of foam; cut out the resulting circle and DAP it onto the tip of the foamed core.

6. Now, grab your Sharpie again and mark off the length of the head of your club. Half the length of the weapon is a good guideline. Cut out a strip of foam that wide and long enough to wrap around the base layer of foam. DAP the base foam, DAP the big, wide rectangle you just cut out, and attach them. Be careful not to pull the wrap too tight; you don't want to pre-compress the foam! (That would make it hit harder.) Be sure not to leave a gap where the wrap meets itself.

7. Add another cap of foam to the tip of the build, like in step 5.

8. Do that step 6. over again, wrapping this new layer over the previous layer. Take care not to line up the splits in the wraps and to make sure they come together flush and clean. You don't want any gapping in your club!

9. Awesome. Almost there. Weigh the weapon and add weight to the pommel if it is underweight. Make a pommel for the weapon and sew a cover for the striking surface. Cover, tape all exposed foam with hockey/cloth tape (or sew cloth covers for the incidental padding/pommel), and add blue tape to the pommel to mark the weapon.

10. Take 'er to weapons check! If it hits too hard (they'll let you know), hit the weapon against a passing shield's face for a while, making sure to rotate the weapon as your do, to distribute the beating evenly. This will help the foam's skin to loosen up and gain elasticity, causing the weapon to hit nicer.

Other Designs

Please add other (good) designs here!

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