I've decided to give myself a long-term dag project that will hopefully benefit not only myself but other fighters as well. Over the next six years I plan to make sixty weapons of varying shapes, sizes and styles. Below is a rough list of weapons I'd like to make. I'm spreading it out over six years because I only make weapons between May and August. I'm at Truman the rest of the time, and I rarely have the time or location to make weapons, and nowhere to store them when they're finished.

NOTE: The list isn't all-inclusive. There aren't sixty different kinds of weapons in it. If you have suggestions for more weapons, I'd love to hear them. Otherwise I'll just be making multiples of some.

ALSO NOTE: While I plan to keep at least some of these weapons for myself, I'm counting on selling or commissioning many of them. I've given myself a maximum budget of $300 for all materials, but if I could avoid spending that much, that would be great. If you want one of these made and are willing to supply the materials, I'd be happy to make it, and since the goal of this project is to learn how to make each of these weapons as well as possible, I'll put much thought and care into your weapon's creation.

LOTS OF NOTES! 400 NOTES!: I've never made many of these weapons before. I'd appreciate any and all help in doing so. I want to find the best materials and methods used to make the weapons, so any advice would be more than welcome and would save me a lot of web-surfing.

OVER 9000 NOTES: If you aren't already aware, I won't be taking any more requests for weapons this summer. I'll be accepting new requests at the beginning of next summer though. And I'll probably donate at least some of my creations to Turrin, depending on how well his recruiting is going in Kansas.

BLUE WEAPONS

- Blades
o Kukri
o Katana
o Wakizashi
o Gladius
o Dao
o Longsword
o Scimitar

- Maces
o Flanged
o Barrel
o Morningstar

- Axes
o Single-blade
o Double-blade


RED WEAPONS

- Swords
o Min red
o Long red

- Pole arms
o Glaive
o Guan dao
o Sword-on-a-stick

GREEN WEAPONS

- Spears
o 6’-10’

YELLOW WEAPONS

- Arrows (5)
- Javelins (5)


BLUE/GREEN WEAPONS

- Dagger
- Short sword
- Katana
- Wakizashi
- Axe

RED/GREEN WEAPONS

- Claymore
- Glave
- Odachi
- Halberd
- Poleaxe


SHILEDS

- Buckler
- 24”-28” round
- Square tower
- Kite
- Custom

First off, your 'notes' comments made me lawl. Secondly, I think this idea is absolutely amazing, and I'll be extremely excited to see the finished products you create. Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, I'd likely be very interested in commissioning a few things from you at various points in time. Next summer is what I'll aim for. Hopefully I'll have a small list (and even more importantly, perhaps some materials or monies) to commission from you.

Also: If you'd like so you can make certain weapons, I'd be more than willing to pick up fiberglass rods in Rolla that are of specific sizes that you might only be able to order online here in Blue Springs. I'd need to be paid back (unless I'm commissioning the weapon) but I'd be happy to pick them up so long as I will be.

Are you planning on making all these weapons because you want to know how to make them, or are you looking to be effective with them on the field? If the latter, I would recommend only a few weapon sets as standing the test of time. As for stuff you want to keep, I would also recommend only what's necessary: your weapon of choice (something fun to play with), shield and weapon, long range melee, spear, bow.

As for notes on construction methods, I've made 26 of the 35 items you listed, some things multiple times over. Granted, I made some of them so long ago that they would make grown men cry if they were still around. But, I'm more than happy to lend some foamsmithing lore.

I know materials can limit a lot of what you want to build, but if you're tight on a budget, never overlook the cheaper materials as inferior. PVC cores, blue foam, and duct tape can make lasting weapons almost as well as some EVA, graphite cored, bulletproof weapons.

i think this is a fun idea! and if you need a walkthrough on the simitar, i've made one and took pictures of every step and posted them on fb, and i think somewhere in here too. lol

yeah, no offense man but both the tips on the swords you gave me went out, i'm goin to fix them soon though

I'm not really sure why that happens. It happened on my red too. I'm pretty sure I make the swords the same way a lot of people do. It seems like the only reason the tips should break are if they sustain repeated, heavy abuse from the side, which shouldn't happen.

noobs ,most likely, also, i'm usin crazy glue to put it back on the core, but BEWARE, use latex gloves if you use krazy glue, while it's cheap its really good and starts to adhear immediately, and is hella hard to get off your hands, there is still stuff on my hands and i've even used bleach

I think 3/8" fiberglass rods just make for weaker sword tips. That's what our swords have in common, anyway. It's just less area for the DAP to bond to. I probably won't use fiberglass much more in the future. It's more expensive and it takes more of it to make things.

duel 3/8 fiberglass is really nice.

Seconded.

That's what I've been using, but it seems like PVC is the way to go for anything but a min red. It's just so much more cost effective.

i hear that

TRUTH TRUTH
Preach it brother!!!

maybe put a PVC endcap on the tip of the fiberglass core. the prob with fiberglass is that the tip is so small, so the force of the core on the interior foam is focused at the tip of the rod, rather than distributed over a larger surface area (such as with PVC)

I was thinking, the South Haven Schmiedennarren has achievements and such for its ranks. Perhaps something like this project could be incorporated. I'm not sure how those of the Schmiedennarren would want to modify it or what the reward would be, but it's an idea. It might also be considered a quest of some kind. I dunno. I'm just doing it because I want to, haha.