Has anyone tried to pour a resin sword blade?

Otto von Teich · Post by **Otto von Teich** » Wed Mar 28, 2001 1:23 am

I'm looking into a possible alternative to rattan.I'm a part time sculptor and make two part resin copies of my work using rubber molds made off the original sculpts. I was thinking I might try making swords out of resin.I know I could make them look very good,but would they hold up? Before I spend a bunch on money on mold rubber, I was wondering if anyone ever heard of this being done in the past? If so, how did they preform? Thanks in advance...Otto

anhur-set · Post by **anhur-set** » Wed Mar 28, 2001 4:32 am

I've done some resin casting in the past, I made a dagger blade for a woman, some claws for some fantasy leather armour, and a few other odds and ends. It all depends on the resin, I've used some that seemed indestructable and some that fell apart if you looked at it cross eyed, if you dont get it mixed just right it will shatter on impact. I would say it would work so long as it's some what flexible, the more ridged the resin the more shatter prone it is.
I also suggest wearing safty glasses during the first test, resin shards in the eye hurt like hell.

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But why shall I say more? To-day I wear these chains, and am here!
To-morrow I shall be fetterless!- but where?

Murdock · Post by **Murdock** » Wed Mar 28, 2001 4:48 am

what if it had a hard core? like really thin rattan or hard wood?

Like an arnis?

would that help?

Otto von Teich · Post by **Otto von Teich** » Wed Mar 28, 2001 11:25 am

I can get a more flexable grade of resin, the trick might be to find a good middle ground between brittle and rubbery. Thanks for the tip on saftey glasses, thats a very good idea......Otto

Payn · Post by **Payn** » Wed Mar 28, 2001 12:40 pm

this sounds like something that would have to go to your kingdom earl marshal and probably Society marshal to get a ruling on. The only experimental material that I know of to replace rattan that is allowed society wide is UHMW.

Fritz the peasant.

Of note.
Rubber tool dip on the edges of your sword does not appear to be non legal, and grabs metal bits quite nicely.

Destichado · Post by **Destichado** » Wed Mar 28, 2001 3:04 pm

I read -Damn, I think I might still have it somewhere- a how-to on making fibreglass/resin swords -really kick ass stuff. The guys who made them made them to fight with, I guess in a LARP situation. They apparently held up ok, and I think they used PVC(?) as a core... I dunno, it was four years ago, I hadn't even heard of the SCA back then, and I only half paid attention to it anyway.

You could probably run a search on "Fibreglass Swords" jusat to see what you come up with.

Asbjorn Johansen · Post by **Asbjorn Johansen** » Wed Mar 28, 2001 4:48 pm

Back in November, before the board crashed, someone going by Drey166 posted that they had made an engineered material for swords with a foam core. I know several folks on the board have tried to get in contact with him since the board came back up (including me).

If you come up with a decent material I'll be happy help test it.

Asbjorn