Hammer Construction

KyleSchmelz

KyleSchmelz

Fighter
I'm working on a hammer rep and I'm having some trouble. I made a really basic hammer a few months back with the head composed entirely of open cell foam and just anchored on the bottom half with duct tape - the "thrust tip" was the top two inches of the hammer head. I brought it to a fight practice and the head popped off within a couple hours of fighting. I'm currently thinking about making something kinda like this modified for Alliance rules, although I really like the hammer in this picture from the last Ashbury event. (There's some great costuming in those pictures, major props to the Dryads especially.)

So I have a few questions:
The rulebook states you have to use open cell foam for any padded weapon head. Does that mean I can only use open cell foam? I'm picturing a design where a large portion of the head is made of blue camp foam, but with at least 2" of open cell foam on the striking surface.
What is the best way to anchor the hammer head to the weapon shaft? I feel like it would be easier to connect it if the head terminated at roughly the same point as the pipe foam with a separate crush tip on top of that, but I also think that would look kinda lame.

I've seen plenty of people successfully use hammers and I'm generally pretty good at making boffers, but I don't have a lot of experience with making blunt weapons yet. Any advice is definitely appreciated.
 
I can't answer all of your questions with any cerititude...but I can say that the hammer I'm making happened to work out to be in 3 layers. I just attached the middle layer to the regular foam around the core (it was the same thickness) by running duct tape up the sides and over and then glued the outer layers onto the middle one, which also helps to hold the middle layer in place, attached to the "core foam".

-Luke
 
Can you describe how you're building your hammer? What is each layer made of?
 
The strongest bond would be to have a three part sandwich - with the center slice being a U-shape around the shaft.

In other words, take the picture below, yellow being the foam, gray being the pipe insulated core. Glue the foam with contact cement to the pipe insulation then glue the two other square slabs to each side.

Hammer.png


Now if you are using duct tape, put strips where the red lines are, including one that goes all the way up, over and down the other side of the center slab before duct taping the rest together. The piece of duct tape under the head is what helps secure everything together.

If you're using latex - you don't have to worry about the 'thrusting tip' on top of the hammer. In fact, if you check with your local weapons marshal, they may allow you to make the hammer without the 2" on the end of the pipe - maybe only 1 inch or less.

You could also make the entire yellow area out of close cell foam (camping pad) and add a 2" striking face of open cell foam to the hammer.
 
Exactly what Mark just said, that's what mine is like. The head is all made of open-cell foam. I had an old mattress topper which I cut up and used to make the layers.

-Luke
 
Thanks for the advice, I'll go pick up some supplies today.
 
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