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 Post Posted: Thu Jul 15, 2010 8:37 pm 
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Joined: Wed Jun 30, 2010 6:54 pm
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I was looking at some fiberglass and plastidip shields, and was thinking that amtgard equipment could potentially look a lot more awesome if it was a bit more sword shaped, possibly a little oversized to allow for more padding, and covered on the outside with a prettier material than cloth. Some chemical options include thicker coats of latex, or possibly some sort of soft styrofoam-like foam with tiny bubble and a thin coat, sort of like the dense foam-rubbers they use in cars, except maybe 1/8" - 1/16" thick and solid color-appearing. We could then potentially require that all swords look like swords, possibly slightly oversized swords with shiny plastic-like sword shaped covers and other realistic looking parts. I should note that although real swords tend to be thin, I was thinking a neat shape for a sword would be to take a golf club, wrap one layer of camp pad foam around the core, tape that in place, then tape/glue a strip to the front and back to add width and make it into a bit of a square shape like a current flat-blade sword, then where the 90 degree angle would normally be replace that with a softer-foam pyramid, possibly pipe insulation or even a soft open cell foam to form a triangular blade-like shape, then cover with a thin layer of a softer tape such as duct or pvc tape, then optionally shave/sculpt/glue more foam on/off until it resembles an oversized broadsword, possibly with a tape/foam handguard, then contact cement/gapless glue some fabric or a nicer, soft, hopefully metallic alternative material. It might even be possible to carefully contact cement a thin piece of aluminium foil to the outside of the sword safely, and if the glue coverage is 100% then the foil should not tear and remain durable on impact, at least as durable as the underside (tape or foam) layer. Other shiny and/or metallic covers should work, and may or may not already be rulebook compliant, since ultra-thin metal should be pretty safe, especially the thinner brands of foil, and it's not a core or structural piece of metal, although some caution and testing should be done. It may also be possible to cover the sword in a thin coat of a durable rubber material, possibly some sort of liquid rubber or latex, then color or "paint" (with some sort of rubber-bonding paint) the outside with a shiny, metallic paint. Making the foam "metal" items look metallic could potentially be really cool, especially if you just have to glue some foil to a duct tape outside to make a "metal looking" foam sword?

On a side note, I bet it would be pretty easy to make a really spiffy tunic/shirt/non-armor amtgard outfit out of a thicker foil and any kind of glue, possibly a few layers thick in the weaker parts. You could also staple (like rivets, but for foil!) the "fabric" sheets of foil together, and boxes of foil are pretty cheap at most foil-selling stores, in particular food stores. It may also be possible to augment fabric garb with foil via glue or other attachment methods, although foil will tend to tear during amtgard combat if not glued to something durable enough to survive the combat, hopefully without streatching too much.

I also thought that some foils might be too thick, especially when crinkled or folded, so something even thinner might be needed for the sword-covering technique, I think thinner metal than foil is called "leaf", so you might want to try that one or just find the thinnest metal you possibly can, then glue it on to a more durable base layer such as tape, or even to some cloth, although non-stretchy pore-free durable cloths might work better. (I'm thinking of felt)


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