Concept test - magnetized weapon cradle

[jpariury]

So, I recently picked up a pair of these, and was trying to come up with a good way to strap them to me. My first idea was the rig a pair of back scabbards, but the shape of the blade makes that a bit tricky to do without resting them in the sheaths on their tips. My next thought was a pair of rubber-capped hooks that the crossguards sit on, but to be honest, the back of the crossguards provides enough lip to get torn, but not much to rest on.

Which brings me to my next idea. No, to be clear, this is all built to test the concept this weekend., If it works out, I'll get to fancyin' it up a bit. I had a bunch of neodyn magnets sitting around, and I thought they might be just the thing to secure the blades in. Being as this was a test, though, and not wanting to jack up the new swords, I decided to play it safe and attach the magnets to a couple of white headbands that I could strap around the blade. To keep the magnets from slipping, I clear taped them to the headband (not the swords).

I have a giant sheet of plasticard that I bought from a plastics supplier for 40k stuff, so I cut out a couple slips and held them briefly a foot or so over a hot stove burner, to soften them up just a bit. I then bent them over a piece of PVC in order to get them to cup properly without pinching, then clear taped three more magnets to the inside of the plastic. I shaved down the corners to round off a bit more, and my basic concept was done.

My first pass was a smaller cup, but after testing it on my hip, I opted for a slightly larger flange. I tried jumping up and down a few times, and doing a little hula-hoop twisting to see how it held up, and the first one just fell out, despite using a line of three neodyns. They held on fine for normal bouncing and walking, but any sort of hard, fast hip motion (where's Rainville with an off-color joke when you need one?) would send it falling out, so I opted for a slightly higher one on my second pass. This held better, but the plasticard isn't supper sturdy as a single layer, so I cut down some clothes hangers to shape into an outer frame piece.

This offers greater stability if I fall on an empty cradle, and helps support against any twisting motions.

With that in place, I coated the whole thing in black duct tape, to keep it all more or less in line as well as keep it relatively unobtrusive, visually. Making loops for a belt was easy enough to do as well, and the tape helps round off the plasticard edges and the wire points, so nothing should be poking or cutting into the latex swords themselves.

The cradle does a good job of letting the sword rest in place without pinching it, and the three-magnet line keeps it firmly locked in, even if held upside down, yet smooth and easy to draw.

If this weekend goes well, I'll need to look into doing them over again in hard leather, with a cloth inner lining to stitch the magnets in place, or possibly fine-tuning the wire frame and just using soft suede. I don't have a great idea for the magnets on the swords, other than maybe replacing the white cloth with a brown or black one, but overall it seems pretty solid, and doesn't damage the swords themselves should I decide to resell the swords in the future.

 

[jpariury]

So, as a follow-up, here's my notes on how it worked out:

Speed draw worked fine, without any snags or hang ups. Similarly, sheathing was smooth and easy. I fell on them a few times, but nothing that snapped the plastic - the wire framing held it all durably enough. There were two fail points:
1 - the tape loop for my belt fell off on my left sheath. Pretty expected, and should be solved when I redo it in leather.
2 - the wrap on the swords became loose, twisting occasionally to a different location. When I have the rig set up more permanently, I'll secure the sword magnets more permanently.

 

[dragonfire8974]

K and J magnetics are a great place to get strong magnets that don't break down at really good prices. i am actually doing something similar with a couple things on my person. i used to stick things to my chainmail, but that was a bad idea.

i'm trying to come up witha way to sheath a polearm using magnets

 

[Grishnar]

Do you have enough blade length for those magnets? In that the length of the blade the magnets take up can no longer be considered padded towards the blade minimum length requirement.

 

[jpariury]

Probably, though, tbh, no one took measurements. The magnets are not along the striking surface (i.e. the leading edge), and are right up against the grip (in which case, if I'm hitting you hard enough for the 1/16" inch-thick magnets to render it unsafe, I've already done nine things wrong, like punching you ). It was deemed sufficiently safe for use.

 

[Grishnar]

Probably, though, tbh, no one took measurements. The magnets are not along the striking surface (i.e. the leading edge), and are right up against the grip (in which case, if I'm hitting you hard enough for the 1/16" inch-thick magnets to render it unsafe, I've already done nine things wrong, like punching you ). It was deemed sufficiently safe for use.

Not to be rude but it seems you get special treatment then. If I had a weapon with all the padding missing on the flat of the blade near the handle and not enough full blade above that to meet the minimum I am sure I would get my weapons failed. It really should be the same rules for everyone. Not, well I am good at fighting and many things will have to go wrong for that to be an issue.

 

[jpariury]

Weapons are passed per-chapter, and even per-event, so not knowing who might be checking your weapons or if we even attended the same chapter and event*, I have no idea whether or not the idea that I'm getting "special" treatment is a particularly valid concern. As best as I can tell from your post history, you play in SoMinn, so I'm not sure that we've ever played together, much less at the one event in which I brought these. Even if you meet every technical spec suggested by the rulebook and guidelines, what passes in one chapter may fail in another, and, at best, you're talking hypothetically ("I am sure I would get my weapons failed") rather than an explicit event ("You and I went to the same event, had our identical-in-every-way weapons checked by the same marshal, and mine failed and yours passed!"), so I think the semi-accusatory tone might be a touch uncalled for here.

That said, the latex guidelines do not specify that blade length needs to fit the current rulebook requirements. As I have seen the guidelines interpreted in two chapters thus far, the overall length needs to fit the class of weapon it is tagged for, and the striking points (i.e. the edge) needs to be padded with at least 5/8"; both of these remain true for the weapon in question (obviously, the magnets are not under any stretch "the core"). I have yet to see someone check blade length with pre-fab latex weapons, folks have just been checking overall length.

And ultimately, it remains up to each chapters' marshals' discretion on whether or not a weapon fits within the agreed-upon margin of safety that the game promotes. Yes, this means that you will end up with inconsistent rulings on whether or not a prop is deemed "safe enough for local play". Case-and-point, some chapters disallow pre-fab latex weapons entirely, and them's the breaks. Different marshals apply different tests. Personally, the test I apply when checking weapons is "is this likely to lead to problems with standard use?". YMMV.