As you may have noticed over the past few months I’ve been on a bit of a quest to figure out how to build a practical walking stick that is by and large LARP Safe.
Well as the crude picture above suggests – I may well have a design. Couple of points you need to understand first.
- Its based on a design from Ian Knope of Larp Kit. Not my own idea.
- I haven’t built one yet – I’m not much of a weapon / staff maker. I hope to get round to this – but would love to collaborate with someone who really knows how to make stuff.
- Before embarking on making something like this talk to the club / company you intend to use it at. It seems to me that this design will not be universally accepted every where.
Let’s start off with Ians description on how to build one of these. This is the description he sent me.
Basically putting a walking stick “bung” the end of a rod, rather than the standard foam bobble is how they’re made, most weapon manufacturers should be able to replicate the idea.
So the idea is that you follow pretty much the standard instructions for making a staff but use a walking stick tip (aka a Ferrule), to create an end.
Ferrules are easy to get and come in a range of size, shapes and qualities. Often in a pack or more than one. This is a link to an Amazon page containing these. So you can idea of size and price.
One problem you may find is that the receiving hole in a walking stick is quite large compared to most Larp weapon cores. This means you’ll need to source a wide rod. I’ve done a little bit of research and found some people in the foamsmithing community favouring light weight “flag poles”. This is a U.S. reference that you may find useful. The poles seem reasonable and come with “crutch” ends that look like they may make good walking stick ends.
Another option would to simply take a wide core and good ferrule and use “packing” material to ensure a good and solid fit. Be aware that this really has to be tight fit!
That puts the tip on the core. Making the staff would now be the same as making any other larp safe pole or staff.
Except for one wrinkle. I want to make sure these are safe. Part of the safety is going to come from  usage. My idea here is to place a walking “head” at the top. This is a larp safe top designed to be used as the top of the stick. I suspect this will have to be quite small in order  to take the pressure of weigh bearing. Then at the mid point and the near the base I suggest two leather or similar grips. The idea here is simple. The grip placement push you towards keeping the ferrule away from your opponent if you use this stick for offence or defence. Hopefully reducing the chances of anyone being hit in the head by hard rubber.
So that’s it for the design. I’d love to hear from anyone who builds one of these, or from anyone who can improve on this idea for a design.
Hi,
As I mentioned, it’s an interesting idea and probably a good option for people wanting to give some range for accessibility in a Larp game.
As it stands it would certainly work for smaller games I think where Refs could be convinced of the design but it poses an inherent degree of un-safety. Primarily from the exposed foot. I’d agree that the addition of a handle lower down directs people to hit with the head of the staff but the fact that people’s natural inclination would be to strike in the normal way they use the stick (if surprised etc). Also I don’t like weapons that are ‘safe’ for one user who knows the weapon, as there is always risk that some random will pick it up and use it.
I had some ideas based on a staff I made for an old character who, whilst I might be hale-and-hearty, relied on a stick for walking.
Though I didn’t need it I figured that I would be putting some weight on it so wanted it pretty resilient. It was used in the LT, so was checked reasonably well without issue. That said this is a modification of the design so for it to pass everywhere isn’t 100%.
jpg:
http://rpg-elements.com/images/Content/Plans/Walking-Stick-01—Sheet1.jpg
Or pdf version:
http://rpg-elements.com/images/Content/Plans/Walking-Stick-01—Sheet1.pdf
In principle the only difference between this and a normal LARP weapon is that the foot is a wholly encapsulated affair with a nylon (or similar) internal foot and neoprene/rubber backstop to stop the core projecting into the foam of the foot. Then there is an outer wrap to take off the hard edge of the neoprene disk, then a final outer covering of foam. Depending on load I’d go with 12mm rod or 16mm tube, 16mm rod is pretty heavy so I’d definitely go for tube unless it really needed the strength (hopefully not). Too big a core OD and you’ll be looking at a very chunky weapon.
Perpendicular top handle etc are all pretty much decorative and could be supported with leather wraps similar to an axe does:
http://rpg-elements.com/index.php/tutorials/10-let-s-make-a-post-apocalyptic-lrp-axe-part-1 (bottom of the article)
I should probably caveat that it’s going to make a big difference how much this staff is needing and what it will carry is really going to effect the life of it. 9 stone of Larper is a big difference to 20 and someone putting all their weight on it rather than just relying for some extra stability will again strongly effect the usage level.
I don’t think and staff would live forever but with this design a degree of preventative maintenance every few years replacing the tip of the foot (and if a wrap was positioned low down allowing just the base to be re-skinned) it as a whole weapon would have a long life.
If you wanted to do something properly clever I’d go for various densities of castable foams, maybe something like FlexFoam-iT 25 but as it stands I went for materials everyone would be familiar with.
Cheers -Drew
Hi,
As I mentioned, it’s an interesting idea and probably a good option for people wanting to give some options for accessibility in a Larp game.
As it stands it would certainly work for smaller games I think where Refs could be convinced of the design but it posses an inherent degree of unsafeness. Primarily from the exposed foot. I’d agree that the addition of a handle lower down directs people to hit with the head of the staff but the fact that people’s natural inclination would be to strike in the normal way they use the stick (if surprised etc). Also I don’t like weapons that are ‘safe’ for one user who knows the weapon, as there is always risk that some random will pick it up and use it.
I had some ideas based on a staff I made for an old character who, whilst I might be hale-and-hearty, relied on a stick for walking. Though I didn’t need it I figured that I would be putting some weight on it so wanted it pretty resilient. It was used in the LT, so was checked reasonably well without issue. That said this is a modification of the design so for it to pass everywhere isn’t 100%.
Jpg:
http://rpg-elements.com/images/Content/Plans/Walking-Stick-01—Sheet1.jpg
Or pdf version:
http://rpg-elements.com/images/Content/Plans/Walking-Stick-01—Sheet1.pdf
In principle the only difference between this and a normal LARP weapon is that the foot is a wholly encapsulated affair with a nylon (or similar) internal foot and neoprene/rubber backstop to stop the core projecting into the foam of the foot. Then there is an outer wrap to take off the hard edge of the neoprene disk, then a final outer covering of foam. Depending on load I’d go with 12mm rod or 16mm tube, 16mm rod is pretty heavy so I’d definitely go for tube unless it really needed the strength (hopefully not). Too big a core OD and you’ll be looking at a very chunky weapon.
Perpendicular top handle etc are all pretty much decorative and could be supported with leather wraps similar to an axe does:
http://rpg-elements.com/index.php/tutorials/10-let-s-make-a-post-apocalyptic-lrp-axe-part-1 (bottom of the article)
I should probably caveat that it’s going to make a big difference how much this staff is needing and what it will carry is really going to effect the life of it. 9 stone of Larper is a big difference to 20 and someone putting all their weight on it rather than just relying for some extra stability will again strongly effect the usage level.
I don’t think and staff would live forever but with this design a degree of preventative maintenance every few years replacing the tip of the foot (and if a wrap was positioned low down allowing just the base to be re-skinned) it as a whole weapon would have a long life.
If I was trying to be properly clever I’d probably suggest something similar with variable densities for castable foams, something like FlexFoam-iT 25 but I figured something using materials everyone is familiar with would be more useful.
Cheers
Drew