Belegarth

I know it might sound a little odd, as so many people I see seem to want to build so light, but the last couple of weapons I've built have ended up too light/underweight. Didn't do anything special, just ended up that way...they are blue walmart camp pad foam, 3/8" fiberglass core deals (both blues-one's a flanged mace, the other a sword). I'm curious of the best ways to add more weight to these both (I've been advised to make them more tip heavy for my purposes). I was told to add gorilla tape...but I'd like to ask and get multiple ideas before I just dive in. Thanks in advance!

First thing I'd tell you is use a heavier core. Those won't last you very long. But if that's not an option, then I like to add Gorilla tape on the Handle. It adds weight pretty fast and counter balances at the same time. As discussed somewhere else you can even make a good oblong handle with it.

3/8 fiberglass will make a light weapon, partly because it's hard to go beyond 32" without failing flex. Having had this problem myself quite often the easiest thing I can suggest to weigh down a finished weapon is pennies.

Cut slits in the top of your pommel and shove in a enough pennies to bring it up to passing weight then retape over the slits. Done and done with a cheap and effective counterweight.

If you're going to build more weapons I would second the notion of getting a beefed up core. 1/2" fiberglass is pretty much the best balance of weight and durability. Use it and you shouldn't have any weight issues.

Fatter cores.
Strips of barstock down the sides of the handle.
A couple of strips of gorilla tape down each flat.
Wrap the base of your core under your pommel with gorilla tape til it's like 1.5" wide, build your pommel on that.

Thanks everyone for all the great advice, it's exactly what I wanted :3 I figured the core was mainly to blame (I tried it out first since I could buy it at my local feed store for near nothing and wanted to stay away from pvc) I'll surely get a hold of some 1/2" fiberglass for future projects. I definitely need to go grab some Gorilla tape. Thankfully not being able to get a longer length out of these hasn't been an issue for me, I'm still learning (or should I say trying to survive XD - and I feel the short weapons force me to move in closer and work a little harder (BTW I cut the cores for both of these at 27").

Stray wrote:Thanks everyone for all the great advice, it's exactly what I wanted :3 I figured the core was mainly to blame (I tried it out first since I could buy it at my local feed store for near nothing and wanted to stay away from pvc) I'll surely get a hold of some 1/2" fiberglass for future projects. I definitely need to go grab some Gorilla tape. Thankfully not being able to get a longer length out of these hasn't been an issue for me, I'm still learning (or should I say trying to survive XD - and I feel the short weapons force me to move in closer and work a little harder (BTW I cut the cores for both of these at 27").

That's the perfect length for those cores. Well done. Just add gorilla tape up the flats and counterweight it down near the top of the handle (mine on 28" of 3/8" round came out at 15oz when I was done weighting it, balanced 2" above the top of the short-ish handle) and get busy. When you replace them with 30"-cored 1/2" fiberglass swords or .524 core swords, you'll be in heaven.

Put a good stabbing tip on it and watch for blowouts; 3/8" round is really easy to blow out on a stab.

*Thread Hijack Alert*

Arrakis, have you ever tried the 1/2" fiberglass tube MaxGain sells? I have personally gone to using that exclusively for blues over 26" since we broke a few of the .524" kitespar swords we made.

My two main swords are .524" kitespar and 1/2" max gain tube. By the time they were finished and counterweighted with lead they are both ~13 ozs. I honestly can't tell which is which anymore so I don't see a perfomance reason to use the kitespar and the Max Gain tubes are cheaper, especially if you ask them to precut them for cheaper shipping. My personal .524" kitespar sword has held up fine, but we've never yet broken a Max Gain sword and we broke one of the .524" the first night it was on the field.

I have not tried it. I have a largish stash of .524 left from a group order that didn't get fully paid up, so I guess I'll try them one day, when I run out of kitespar.

I'd do the same thing, for sure. I haven't got a particular pile of anything, though, so I have tried to sample it all as I've gone along. I mostly wanted to throw that out there, as when one is buying new materials, MaxGain's tubes are cheaper and more durable (IME) and for normal length blues, they can both be easily made to min weight.