[Thomas R.]

Hi fellow swordsmen,

everytime I went to the training, I was really annoyed about all the cluttering swords, I had to carry. Since I do lend some of my swords to my sparringpartners, I sometimes carried up to five swords and a couple of shinai. I thought a lot about it and found a solution:

I ordered a kiteboard carry bag, got me a thin multiplex board, some velcrostraps and two very thin insulation mattresses for camping (Evazote). First I cut the board to a size, which would fit into the bag, then I cut with my dremel the necessary slits for the velcros, which hold the swords nicely. After that, I cut the mats to fit the board and made the slits for both sides of the board. The most difficult step was to glue the mats onto the board, while sticking the straps through the slits. Since none of my liquid glues did the job on the evazote, I decided to use two sided adhesive tape. It worked very well! Two 10-meter-rolls did the job.

So now I can present you my new sword carry bag. Since it was meant for two kiteboards, there is also a second compartment, where I can store the shinai.

Perhaps someone will find this little DIY-guide useful Feel free to ask, if you need any further information.

Thomas

Edit: I'll recommend to use a special glue instead of double sided adhesive tape. Some parts of the mattresses detached themselves over night, they can be reattached, bu now I think about replacing the evazote with cork or an other sort of carpeting.

[Richard Schneider]

Sweet solution! How much do you think it weighs when loaded?

[Tim Lison]

I think you need a squire! Just kidding, of course! I really like the bag you've made. It seems like a great solution.

[Thomas R.]

@Richard

The bag plus inlay weighs around 3,5 Kilo (says the my bathroom scales). So if you trust Albion it should add up to
Meyer (1,4), Liechtenauer (1,6), two I.33 (2,4), and a Krondak (approx. 1,8) ... 10,7. Let it be 11 Kilos at maximum. It's a lot better to carry the swords in the bag, than in your bare hand. Trust me.

@Tim

We already got some squires in our group, but they are always somewhere else. So... when I arrive at the parking lot, they are already in the castle. When I go, they are gone to... well, where the heck did they disappear to?

This morning I had a bit trouble with two of the corners, where I had to pull the mattress a bit while gueing. The mattress had pulled itself together again, so I had to correct it by cutting two squares out of it and replace them with new evazote. Well I hope the mat will now stay where I glued it on. One can hardly notice where I did the repair.

Thomas

[Scott Hrouda]

[Thomas R.]

Hi Scott,

thank you for your compliments . And you haven't even seen my Langes Messer, the Mac-Bible-Falchion and another one-handed Krondak (for showcombat, not fencing).

Well, we do train on a real castle. And a very peculiar castle as well...

It's Burg Frankenstein. Yeah, the very same castle, which Mary Shelley may have visited on a boat trip, up the river rhine, back in the 19th century. She got the name for her sinister Dr. Victor Frankenstein from this castle. And there is a local tell tale about an alchemist called Konrad Dippel, who experimented there with maidens corpses stolen from the graveyard...

The castle may be known even in the US, because every october it fills up with hordes of ghouls and ghosts, to celebrate halloween. It's a tradition brought and initiated by GIs, back in the 50s or 60s. It's a real fun do go there then.

Have a look at the castle here:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons...Castle.jpg

We train in the inner courtyard and sometimes we even camp there...
Thomas

[Scott Hrouda]

[Thomas R.]

As I mentioned in my edit of the first posting, there were some problems with the adhesive tape and the evazote mats. They simply didn't stay in place longer than a couple of days. So I decided to discard the matresses.

I cleaned the wooden core and bought some permanent spray-on-glue (Pattex) and 3mm thick felt made of natural wool (no polystuff this time! I've learned my lesson). So I sprayed both pieces with the glue, cut the slits for the velcros. But this time I cut the slits through the other side of the felt, too. Simply because I wanted to glue the felt nice and plain on to the wood. So you'll notice the black velcros used for the backside on the front. But that's a minor flaw compared to the "evazote disaster".

I wrote this follow up, so that anyone, who tries to make a similar inlay won't make the same failure regarding the evazote mattresses.

Have fun,

Thomas