Info Favorites Register Log in
myArmoury.com Discussion Forums

Forum index Memberlist Usergroups Spotlight Topics Search
Forum Index > Off-topic Talk > wasters Reply to topic
This is a standard topic  
Author Message
Douglas Peters




Location: Baton Rouge,LA
Joined: 17 Nov 2003

Posts: 25

PostPosted: Thu 08 Apr, 2004 12:07 am    Post subject: wasters         Reply with quote

I guess it's probably past time that I get a wooden waster, so I'm pretty much considering between http://www.woodenswords.com/index.htm and http://www.newstirlingarms.com/woodwasters.html. Does anyone own any of these wasters, or have any other suggestions? Also sometime in addition to a wooden waster, how would an aluminum blunt from Valentine Armouries be?
View user's profile Send private message
Gary Grzybek




Location: Stillwater N.J.
Joined: 25 Aug 2003

Posts: 559

PostPosted: Thu 08 Apr, 2004 4:39 am    Post subject: Re: wasters         Reply with quote

Douglas Peters wrote:
I guess it's probably past time that I get a wooden waster, so I'm pretty much considering between http://www.woodenswords.com/index.htm and http://www.newstirlingarms.com/woodwasters.html. Does anyone own any of these wasters, or have any other suggestions? Also sometime in addition to a wooden waster, how would an aluminum blunt from Valentine Armouries be?



Both vendors offer excellent products judging by my personal experience. Wooden weapons offers a no frills tough training weapon and New Sterling Arms offers the same but with some more refinement. I would love to get one of their claymore's soon. If you go with Wooden Weapons I would recomend the ARMA approved tapered longsword.

Gary Grzybek
ARMA Northern N.J.
www.armastudy.org
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Douglas Peters




Location: Baton Rouge,LA
Joined: 17 Nov 2003

Posts: 25

PostPosted: Thu 08 Apr, 2004 11:37 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Yeah I was planning on getting a longsword first, so I guess I'll go with purpleheart. Thanks for the help.
View user's profile Send private message
David Bromkovsky




Location: Wheaton, IL
Joined: 17 Sep 2003

Posts: 13

PostPosted: Fri 09 Apr, 2004 12:58 pm    Post subject: Purpleheart Armoury         Reply with quote

I'm going to put in a quick plug for PurpleHeart. Awhile back I bought two wasters from them and one of them cracked the first week I had it. I called them up and they were extremely helpful and replaced it right away. I haven't had any problems since and I've had them for about a year and a half. I highly recomend purchasing from them.
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Bill Grandy
myArmoury Team


myArmoury Team

Location: Northern VA,USA
Joined: 25 Aug 2003
Reading list: 43 books

Spotlight topics: 2
Posts: 4,194

PostPosted: Fri 09 Apr, 2004 1:29 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

I've been pretty happy with Purpleheart myself. All of my wasters are from them.

I also like Hollowearth's wasters, though they have never returned a single e-mail of mine, so I don't know what the deal is there. But I've had friends who'd owned their stuff, and they do good work.
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Sean Flynt




Location: Birmingham, Alabama
Joined: 21 Aug 2003
Likes: 10 pages
Reading list: 13 books

Spotlight topics: 7
Posts: 5,981

PostPosted: Mon 26 Apr, 2004 11:37 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

I originally posted this in the ARMA forums (thearma.org), where you'll find tons of information/advice about wasters.

There's been much talk in these forums about the suitability of street hockey sticks for use as wasters, so take this option in light of that. I've made three wasters out of cheap ($9-$15) street hockey sticks and have significantly refined the design but never properly tested them. You can see my latest longsword prototype below.
Aesthetically (not engineering-wise, of course) these are inspired by the blunt steel fechtbuch practice swords (see illus. from Joachim Meyer, 1570, below) that have thick. parallel-edged blades with rounded/sqaured tips and flared ricassos. The street hockey stick just happens to lend itself to that look. I abandoned the ricasso, but the basic blade profile certainly has more in common with those steel practice swords than with tapering sharps or with most modern wooden wasters. I made these for a friend just getting started in ARMA. She'll work out with these and report back to me so I can refine my design. I can't say yet how well these will perform as sparring tools. At the very least, they have many advantages over a dowel. They have clearly defined flats and edges, appropriate balance, and crosses that don't protrude out from the grip any farther than the crosses of steel sharps. What I CAN say is that the stick/blade is composed of thin laminated strips that seem more than up to the work at hand. The lamination produces a stick much heavier and more durable than it looks. I drill out the tip and screw in a threaded steel rod to increase the blade weight, and attach the pommel with a long steel bolt for added weight and counterbalance. The cross is a four-piece sandwich slightly inset into the blade, glued and pinned at the three key points with more threaded steel rod. That means there's a hole (approx. 3/16") through the flat of the blade. That could be a failure point, but I'm trusting the strength of the laminate here until it gives me reason not to. The grip is natural hemp cord over glue, with light gluing over the finished grip to prevent fraying. The hemp may not hold up under constant use, in which case I'd recommend covering the cord with gaffer's tape and replacing as needed. These are prototypes, so still have some cosmetic problems, but they seem to be very sound. I'd say they're too light for training more advanced than learning stances, basic cuts, slow drills and beginner sparring. I'd recommend eventually moving up to heavier hardwood wasters if the student shows serious commitment to WMA. Then these cheap, lighter wasters could be loaners for new students in a group. For somebody starting out, just learning footwork and other basics, this is an inexpensive alternative to commercial wasters. I have about $20 worth of materials in each of these wasters. Tools: All you need for these are a drill, a wood saw, a hacksaw, a metal file and a pair of locking pliers.
(A miter box and dremel tool with sanding bit and cut-off wheel dramatically speed the process).
These wasters are 48" long overall and, if I remember correctly, about 1.4 lbs each (about a full pound lighter than I'd like them to be).



 Attachment: 82.34 KB
cross.JPG


 Attachment: 82.33 KB
meyerF.jpg


-Sean

Author of the Little Hammer novel

https://www.amazon.com/Little-Hammer-Sean-Flynt/dp/B08XN7HZ82/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=little+hammer+book&qid=1627482034&sr=8-1
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Sean Flynt




Location: Birmingham, Alabama
Joined: 21 Aug 2003
Likes: 10 pages
Reading list: 13 books

Spotlight topics: 7
Posts: 5,981

PostPosted: Mon 26 Apr, 2004 12:30 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

By the way, that nifty fig-shaped pommel is available in a two-pack among the Martha Stewart window treatments at your local K-Mart. It's a good thing...
You have to slighly modify the base, rip out a little glued-in screw, then use that hole as a guide to drill all the way through the pommel for the carriage bolt you'll use to attach it to the blade.

-Sean

Author of the Little Hammer novel

https://www.amazon.com/Little-Hammer-Sean-Flynt/dp/B08XN7HZ82/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=little+hammer+book&qid=1627482034&sr=8-1
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website


Display posts from previous:   
Forum Index > Off-topic Talk > wasters
Page 1 of 1 Reply to topic
All times are GMT - 8 Hours

View previous topic :: View next topic
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot attach files in this forum
You can download files in this forum






All contents © Copyright 2003-2024 myArmoury.com — All rights reserved
Discussion forums powered by phpBB © The phpBB Group
Switch to the Basic Low-bandwidth Version of the forum