The Dun Abhon Guardian: The Pool Noodle is Dead

How to build a Belegarth weapon

When I first started building weapons I got a pool noodle and stuck it on a piece of PVC. It was fine for the kids to bop each other with but wasn’t Belegarth legal. Lets face it the only thing that pool noodles are good for is well, playing in a pool. What happened afterwards was a lot of me experimenting with different builds, wasting a lot of time and money. Through out that process I managed to build weapons that were legal to use but often didn’t last long. I still experiment but I enjoy the process. Some people would rather have clear cut instructions on how to make a good weapon without a lot of head ache. The pool noodle is dead.

The first thing that I recommend is that you get on the Belegarth web site and look at the rules of war. Specifically you will want to look at the section on weapons to see what is required. http://belegarth.com/rules.php
You will need a work space. Take several things into consideration when doing this. You need enough space to build your weapons. You may want a table or work bench to work on. Ventilation may be important. Also this can be very messy so don’t do this on your mom’s kitchen table. She won’t be happy if you scar it up with razor blades and stain it up with glue. For my first work place I utilized a folding table and worked on my back porch outside.
You will need a few tools. A knife (I prefer a razor knife or box cutter with replaceable blades), a straight edge, a black sharpie, a tape measure, screw driver or paint can opener, a ruler, a hacksaw, and a wooden paint stick. Optional tools: a compass (for drawing circles and curves, a scale (for weighing your weapons)
Choose a core. The core is probably the most important part of your weapon design. There are several cores to choose from carbon fiber, bamboo, band poles, fiberglass rods, kitspar, and pvc to name a few. what you want to build should determine what you use. Here I have chosen a piece of bamboo 30" long for my project and as you can see I have put caps on the ends.
Adhesives are your next choice. There are a few standard adhesives to choose from. Most people use DAP. There is also Super 77, hot glue, and gorilla glue just to name a few. For this project I chose hot glue. I dislike using DAP although I have used it much in the past. I learned that DAP causes cancer and I have always disliked the smell of the fumes. It remains one of the best adhesives for this type of project but hot glue also works very well.
Get your padding. Blue camp foam is the foam that is most commonly used but there are a number of options on line. Steer clear of pool noodles they are really inadequate for what we do.
Get the covering materials that you need. cloth athletic tape, double sided carpet tape, electrical tape, tights, fabric covers, and rope can all be useful for finishing your project.

Now that you have all of these things in order your next step is to glue a box around your core. In my case since I used bamboo I decided to prepare the core first with a wrapping of protective tape which also reinforced it. I cut two strips the width of the core and two strips the width of the core plus 1". Blue foam is 1/2" wide so that makes the box flush and even. Since bamboo is a little uneven I ended up trimming off a couple of spots that over lap. I then finished the box up with two square caps on the end.

Next I cut long strips 2" wide and covered the whole box twice. I then added a piece of couch cushion foam, taped it into place and added a third wrap of foam over all of that. I then added a cross piece of foam and a foam covering of the pommel. Finally I covered the blade with some tights that I purchased at walmart and covered the handle with cloth athletic tape. Below is a picture of the finished product.