Advice on making a 5 1/2 ft. glaive

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Advice on making a 5 1/2 ft. glaive

Postby SnoJoo » Fri Feb 24, 2012 6:27 am

I'm looking at making a 5 1/2 ft. Glaive. Here are my questions:

1. Should I use thick Kitespar or a solid carbon core and what size should I use(I would like it to be light, but not a feather either)?

2. What kind of foam should I use for the blade(I would like something that will last longer than blue camp pad foam)?

3. How should I build the stabbing tip and what kind of foam should I use for that as well?

Thanks for any input you guys can give me on this.
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Re: Advice on making a 5 1/2 ft. glaive

Postby randy » Fri Feb 24, 2012 9:04 am

If you can get access to something like this: Fiberglass mop

I have built 3 test poles and tested them at battle of the ring. None of them broke and all still meet the weight requirements for Red.

For Foam, I would go with 4# MC on the inner layer and 2# on the outer layers.

Stabbing tip, I would use 1" yoga mat. What I do is build build my MC about a 1/2" above my core. Then add the yoga mat on top of that.
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Re: Advice on making a 5 1/2 ft. glaive

Postby Ragefire » Fri Feb 24, 2012 10:53 am

I have experience with similar mop handles, they tend to be very thin walled and I have broken 4 of them. I'd recommend bandshoppe pole for a weapon like that. Music123.com, free shipping. I don't alot about advanced foam so I'll let someone else answer that. An easy stabbing tip for a glaive would be a POOF football, but I'm sure there's probably other more advanced things to do with todays tech.
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Re: Advice on making a 5 1/2 ft. glaive

Postby Sir Par » Fri Feb 24, 2012 12:08 pm

I've been making my reds out of this square 1/2 solid fiberglass. http://neoprene-rods-bars.com/fiberglass/bars.htm

You do NOT want to make a red out of kitespar. It will snap.
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Re: Advice on making a 5 1/2 ft. glaive

Postby Dangus » Fri Feb 24, 2012 7:37 pm

Sir Par wrote:I've been making my reds out of this square 1/2 solid fiberglass. http://neoprene-rods-bars.com/fiberglass/bars.htm

You do NOT want to make a red out of kitespar. It will snap.

I dunno why you wouldn't go for .625, seems like that would have less long term flex potential. Also, sick link Par! I've been looking for **** square fiberglass for a minute and a half.
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Re: Advice on making a 5 1/2 ft. glaive

Postby Tiberius Claudius » Fri Feb 24, 2012 7:48 pm

I second the 5' length of bandshoppe pole that Ragefire suggested as well as the Music123 source - free shipping is very much worth it.

I've never built on 1/2" square fiberglass because of cost and difficulty finding it, but it is good for the length you mentioned also.

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Re: Advice on making a 5 1/2 ft. glaive

Postby Beck » Sat Feb 25, 2012 11:28 am

For the Square Fiberglass, is it just really expensive (63.50 for one rod) or am
I doing it wrong?
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Re: Advice on making a 5 1/2 ft. glaive

Postby Bran ap Eynon » Sat Feb 25, 2012 6:40 pm

Beck wrote:For the Square Fiberglass, is it just really expensive (63.50 for one rod) or am
I doing it wrong?


There is a minimum order of 4.
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Re: Advice on making a 5 1/2 ft. glaive

Postby Sir Par » Sat Feb 25, 2012 11:51 pm

Yeah they make you order a minimum of 20ft. It took 75.00 ish bucks to get my cores here, but I have two reds built on them, One glaive and one omni blade. Both stabby. Both Awesome.
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Re: Advice on making a 5 1/2 ft. glaive

Postby SnoJoo » Mon Feb 27, 2012 2:18 am

Thanks Par! You pretty much gave me exactly what I was looking for.
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Re: Advice on making a 5 1/2 ft. glaive

Postby Sir Par » Mon Feb 27, 2012 8:40 pm

I have to give credit where credit is due. Ryu found the link originally. I stole it from him.
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Re: Advice on making a 5 1/2 ft. glaive

Postby bo1 » Mon Feb 27, 2012 9:18 pm

at that length, band shoppe or 11/16ths solid round fiber glass will do just fine.
square is awesome, but i have never had the priveledge of using it, so i will differ to those that have.

.5 round will not work, it will be too flexi. kitespar may last, but is not durable enough for my money, i have broken to many prety things.
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Re: Advice on making a 5 1/2 ft. glaive

Postby Remdawg Killionaire » Tue Feb 28, 2012 12:07 pm

We had a double kitespar core red that was probably 5' 5" back in the day, still broke it. 1/2" fiberglass all the way buddy. I scored a 3/4" fiberglass rod and turned it into a min-glaive and while it's pretty heavy it's also solid as ****.
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Re: Advice on making a 5 1/2 ft. glaive

Postby Nish » Tue Feb 28, 2012 2:12 pm

I've found that half inch square gets really flexy over five feet, but YMMV.

On Par's link though, they also offer .625 and .75" square. One of those would probably work really well for that length or longer.
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Re: Advice on making a 5 1/2 ft. glaive

Postby Sleeper » Tue Feb 28, 2012 10:51 pm

Sir Par wrote:Yeah they make you order a minimum of 20ft. It took 75.00 ish bucks to get my cores here, but I have two reds built on them, One glaive and one omni blade. Both stabby. Both Awesome.

True dis. But beware, Bandshoppe poles will shatter too. Saw a bandshoppe SPEAR shatter just a few weeks ago....... so be prepared to give up some dough for them. However, as many have said, you'll be in LOVE with how light they are. No flex either though, they can shake your hands up.
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Re: Advice on making a 5 1/2 ft. glaive

Postby Atman » Thu Mar 01, 2012 4:15 pm

At 5.5 ft bandshoppe will be needlessly bulky compared to solid fiberglass. Depending on your location, 11/16" round fiberglass is the best bargain at ~$6 for a 6' core. My personal preference is for a lower profile blade, it uses less foam, fits in tighter places, and generally looks better. The biggest drawback is that a smaller blade cross-section and narrower core don't distribute impact as much as on a bandshoppe blade-though this has been mitigated a great deal by increasing knowledge of, and accesability to better foams.

Assuming you use 11/16" round FG, I would start with a single box of high density floor-mat foam with a second box of the same high density foam on the flat of the blade and regular blue foam on the striking surface. Cap with two layers high density foam. Run a strip of lower density mini-cell up each striking surface and cap again with 3/4" of marine foam. The last layer is a continuous strip of blue foam on the striking surface that goes up one side, over the top, and down the other. Reinforce the tip with strapping tape.
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Re: Advice on making a 5 1/2 ft. glaive

Postby Tiberius Claudius » Fri Mar 02, 2012 5:33 pm

Atman wrote:At 5.5 ft bandshoppe will be needlessly bulky compared to solid fiberglass.
Depends on how big your hands are. I use bandpole for my 5.5' - 6' red sword (essentially a mini glaive) and with a thin rope running down the handle to oblong it, it works perfectly. Get much smaller and I'd be running the risk of flatting folks or having to thicken the handle considerably.

Atman wrote:My personal preference is for a lower profile blade, it uses less foam, fits in tighter places, and generally looks better.
If all your foam is cut straight and perfectly aligned, you're only saving ~ 5/16" (.3125") in blade striking edge width. I recognize that you stated it is your personal preference, and on a blue that's a game changer without a doubt, but I put forth for the average foam smith that's not really a big deal on a red weapon since the majority of fighters (average joes; not vets, not people who train to get better at a sport) can't/don't regularly control their blade to that degree of specificity in the mobile combat environment, and even less of a deal with a larger weapon such as a longsword/mini-glaive which is intended to strike larger targets (shields, legs, torsos) rather than thread the needle of slot shots and pocket stabs.

I use a similar, but alternate build method.

  • Box of floor mat foam
  • Layer of armor grade leather/high strength plastic as cap to disperse forces of stabs and prevent coring
  • Layer of floor mat foam cap
  • Blade layer of blue (up and over top)
  • Blade layer of yoga mat (up and over top)
  • Blade layer of blue (up and over top)
  • Two more strips of yoga for stab
  • Support flats with either blue tear drops (8" length) or strapping tape as your experience and vets advise
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Re: Advice on making a 5 1/2 ft. glaive

Postby Atman » Sun Mar 04, 2012 2:15 pm

Reasonably valid points, though I would have to contest the notion that 5/16" is negligible on a stabbing weapon.

A significant portion of my preference for solid FG over bandshoppe has to do with the length of the desired glaive. My personal feeling is that it is a waste to chop down an 8' core that costs $20 and could/should be used at that length when there is a $6 option that can accomplich the same goals.

The one thing I must object to is the idea that less than stellar fighters should settle for less than great equipment. As much as some people don't like to admit it, superior equipment is a viable way to gain an advantage on the field. Whether it is a "valid" way to gain that advantage is debateable, but I will contend that it is if a fighter is building their own top notch equipment since they are developing a skill just like improving their stance of footwork.
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Re: Advice on making a 5 1/2 ft. glaive

Postby Tiberius Claudius » Sun Mar 04, 2012 5:47 pm

Music123.com has 5 ft - 8 ft lengths of bandpole in .5 foot increments, with free shipping! No cutting down needed at all, which is why I use their site exclusively.

$6 for a core is a nice price for the fg.

You're right that folks shouldn't settle for inferior equipment; I see how I came across like that in my post. Rather than considering it "settling", I look at it as a conscious tradeoff in size vs how much other work I need to do putting the weapon together/maintaining it. Personally, its easy for me to use the bandpole (familiar source, don't have to do too much w/ the handle) so I accept the thicker striking edge width. Its the same way that I trade off using blue foam tear drops at the tip of all flat blade weapons which increase the width of the tip, but have proven invaluable, to me, in prolonging the life of weapons vs the usual strapping tape/side blowout method.
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