News/Blog

So much has happened since last I wrote on this blog. I’ve been hard at work, both with Fomp! and the rest of my professional life - but I’ve also spent a lot of time dedicating myself to learning rapier fencing and competing.

Right before summer started, I started making new prototypes that weren’t 3D-printed, so I had more durable ones that could easily be made as a DIY instructable in making your own Fomp! style boffers, and also to try out a new small and very simple invention of mine to solve the issue of flexibility of foam swords.

I have now made a retractable construction that collapses on in the thrust, but only after overcoming a certain force. Usually, a spring mounted collapsible blade will start to retract on touch, which has issues when you want to bind blades. My construction on the other hand is perfectly stiff until 5-6 kg of force is applied.

I fenced with these swords without foam covers, and due to how light the upper part of the blade is there wasn’t ever any real danger of anything other than bruises. This has led me to consider making swords with less foam than is common. Nowadays many have moved on from pipes to solid cores, which increases mass. I honestly don’t think my pipe core needs much padding, and it could actually be an issue for durability to have too much foam weighing down on the core when swinging the sword.

There is bad news, but bad news to learn from. My first attempts of casting the rapiers in rubber failed spectacularly, at least the cup. Making silicone molds is a whole new craft for me, and I have reconsidered a lot of the design of the hilt to simplify casting. Learning all the ins and outs and what can go wrong with rubber casting has been fun, but was also very stressful as I desperately tried having my prototypes ready for the International Rapier Seminar in Copenhagen. I caught a wicked airbubble that boggles the mind how the physics worked - it did fill all the way up, so I didn’t expect anything wrong until I took the mold out the next day:

Because of that I will now begin with a Fomp! sabre instead, since it will be much easier to cast so I can learn how to set up my casting workflow better. The model is all finished! Material is due to arrive tomorrow, so I should be able to get one out in real life quite soon.

With foam swords I think a stirrup hilt is enough, especially with the lighter blades of my swords. The shape is very easily cast, and I have several people from different clubs interested in trying them out. It’s genuinely exciting!

P.S

I’ve added more projects that will need a blog post of their own that aren’t foam swords, but as a sneak peek I’ll let you in on what they are:

• A magnetized holster
• A “no-gauntlet protective” add-on for sideswords and sabre stirrup hilts.

I also played Return to Monkey Island. It was okay, but far too easy, and Curse of Monkey Island is still the best one to me. It’s better than LeChuck’s Revenge to me though. Still …