1.25"

In the MoA, it says that a blade's dimensions are 1.25" x 3" along the striking surface. I'm seeing this as an edge is 1.25" wide by 3" tall, is that correct? If so, why do I see a lot of weapon making guides that show you how to make 1" wide weapons? (1/2" pvc and one later of blue foam on each side (1/4" thick)) making a 1" wide blade. Is this something that's largely ignored? Am I reading it wrong? This is something I just noticed, i've been making mine about 1" wide the whole time.

The strike area of a weapon needs to be 1.25 inches across for cutting(the side you hit with) and 3 inches wide across the flat side of the weapon. We are talking Popsicle swords here. Then the length of the blade has to be a minimum of 12" long. A 1" striking/hitting surface will fail.

Did that answer your question?

I don't know what blue foam those guides are using, but the foam we like to buy is 1/2" thick. That would make a 1.5" striking edge.

I'd been pretty sure i'd seen 1" swords pass, but i could be very wrong. Thanks a bunch

Thats because they are not actually measured, i know that Dominion actually uses a template to measure, they don't measure weight unless it's ridic light.

Yeah, 1" and 1.25 inches aren't that far off. If you measure it, though it is pretty obvious.

You might have seen them pass if the checker was easy going enough and they hit ok.

Yeah, and honestly that .25" isn't a huge deal, though coonstantine was basically correct about the size. 2 layers of blue foam is 7/8 of an inch, which when combined with the 1/2 from pvc, (or 3/4 to be safe) makes the 1.25"

Weapons checkers at Rag are very picky about this. One of my weapons failed because it was 1/8" in. off.
...and blue foam is 7/16 in thick.

the stuff i get says half inch , yeah for actually lookin at label(also i have measured it )

the walmart blue foam, as Iohn said, is 7/16, which when combined w/ at least half inch pvc is good enough, though that means the blue I brought down to Rolla that was fiberglass might not work.... booooo

PVC is measured by inner diameter not outer, meaning that 1/2" PVC pipe is actually closer to 3/4" in outer diameter. 3/4" plus 7/16"x2 layers equals 1 5/8", which is well enough over the minimum that a mistake here or there and you're still within spec. That's why this design is well suited to beginners or weapons that you want to pass without question.

Honestly for dag/bel I like PVC anyhow because of the weight.

PVC is a great relatively light weight, and super cheap core. Fiberglass can be lighter if you build with it right, but its key advantage is durability. A 1/2" PVC core will snap 100 times before a 1/2" fiberglass core snaps.

*agrees with Iohn

Plus, you can get varying thicknesses of fiberglass for core. Thicker=heavy. In fact, 11/16 fiberglass is indestructible nearly and weighs a bit more than PVC. Plus, I can get my swords to weigh whatever I want. So weight of core isn't an issue really.

fair enough, but for a poor college student with only access to 3/8 inch fiber glass, pvc is the way for me lol.

if you want a good training weapon, make a half inch pvc sword with half inch fiberglass in the pvc, i had to do that to repair a special sword and it makes a very heavy sword, about the weight of a real sword, after a few practices with that pick up a fiber glass or pvc and it will be o so light

yeah, after fighting a lot with pvc swords, I'll pick up and amtgard sword, which weigh about nothing to begin with (graphite golf shaft and fun noodle) and it's like swinging air, so i agree with you totally Odin, making really heavy swords for training can really pay off.

I use a adjustable T-square to measure and mark the foam at exactly 1.25 inches. i don't do exactly as the tutorial says, (i may try that way out sometime, though) some of my weapons are bare min, but they pass, and hold up well enough.