Hi all. I've been thinking of building some pollax simulators lately, and was wondering what kind of constructions other people have used and how have they have worked?
The pollax rubber heads combined with spear ones seem to work quite nicely, but I'm not aware of any suppliers in Europe. And I was thinking of some low budget versions anyway (but if there is a tax-free supplier, I might give it a serious thought).
So, has anybody tried making these by oneself and is it worth the trouble?
Yours,
I guess you have seen the one that I made. Not much of a simulator, but easy to make, cheap and gives you something to hit people with. If you don't remember how they were made and wish to know, I can try to describe it to you and maybe take some pictures of it too.
I believe I remember what they looked like, but can't recall how they were made. If you can describe the construction or send a pic, I'd be delighted.
Btw. did you try to do something for the weight distripution? So that it would be bit more front weighted or something like that?
Thanks.
Hi!
I don't have a camera at hand right now but I'll try to describe the idea. I haven't done anything to make them more forward balanced, but if you would like, then perhaps adding langets to the sides could shift the weight a little. Would make them last longer if used against swords too. Hard to do otherwise without actually making a poleaxe head or compromising the structure of the head to a weaker one. Maybe inserting a flat 5mm or so lead bar to a slot made in the head of the shaft using bolts for attachment?
This is how you do it if you want removeable heads, so you can use the same shafts as spear simulators and as poleaxe simulators. The basic idea is to get rubber pipe that's inner diameter is just slightly smaller the diameter of the shaft. The rubber pipe should be thick enough to be somewhat rigid but thin enough to have some give in it. The one I used is some sort of fabric reinfroced pressure piping and should be found from Etola or a similiar rubber stuff selling store. It's about 5 or 6 mm thick.
First to make the part that you thrust at people. The pipe is first cut in half lengthwise for the part that is supposed to go over the shaft. Them you make holes to the edges of the cut so you can sew the pipe to fit the shaft. I used strong thread but I recon some sort of fishing line or similar would be stronger and thus easier to tighten. Now as the joint between the shaft and the head has been made you can make the thrusting part a bit softer. I made it so that you cut the pipe lengthwise in four parts and taper the parts towards the end of the head. Leave the tips to be a bit square. Then make holes in the tips of the four parts (two holes per tip, one on each corner of the tip) and sew the opposite parts together. This should produce a structure that compresses when pushed against somehing solid. The length and stiffness of the give can be varied by a longer cut, more or less segments that are cut or the thickness of the pipe.
Then the part that you hit people with. Cut a slit in the middle of the piping and slide the shaft through the pipe so that the pipe forms the heads. You can make the striking parts softer like I described above or by cutting small windows to the sides of the pipe. You can try to make the beak to look a bit more like a beak if you make it by splitting the head to three sections instead of four and one of the shorter and thinner than the other two. Then make another thusting tip for the bottom.
Ah, I realized I can take a photo of it with my webcam. I hope this helps. If you have any more questions, fire away.
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Wow, that was more than I hoped for
Thanks! I think I'll try something like that with iron bars added for extra weight and strength. I'll post how they worked out once I get around to making them.
Righty right, the pollaxes are now done and considering the effort and money I put into those (little), I'm actually quite pleased with the outcome.
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I made them following pretty much Risto's construction. I went and bought a couple of staffs, with a diameter of 3,3cm and sawed them to about my height. From Etola I found a fabric inforced rubber pipe with inner diameter of 3,2cm, which was perfect, since I didn't need to cut the pipe in order to insert it to the staff. I just pressed it in and couldn't take it out anymore
I was a little miserly with the rubber pipe and only bought a meter of it (cost 12e), which wasn't enough for the bottom pikes. But I cut 4cm pieces to the bottoms just to remind people that there ought to be a nasty pointy thing at that end too.
I didn't cut the spear heads into four pieces. Instead I cut away "V" shaped pieces and then sew it back together. This way they look a little more like sharp objects. They may not be as comfortable to get hit with but what the hell
I also inserted some foam pipe insulator (2e from Biltema) to the axe heads to make the pipe a little more rigid for hooking &c.
I also bought the iron bars from Biltema. I don't know what they were originally designed for, they had something to do with poles I think (one end was cut from the middle and then bent). I cut away the end piece and drilled new holes. The bars were first about 30cm long and when inserted, the pollax became way too heavy from one end. So I sawed the bars in two and drilled more holes. This way the weight was way more better and they feel actually quite lively in hand. The iron bars made a big difference on the overall feel of the weapon.
And here's what they cost:
- 2x wooden staff, 16e
- 1m rubber pipe, 12e
- 1m foam-pipe-thingy, 2e
- 2x iron bars, 4e
So all in all about 34e for two simulators, which was perfect for my low-budged policy
Yours,
Jukka
Spiffy!
(04-15-2009 11:23 PM)Jukka Salmi Wrote: [ -> ]They may not be as comfortable to get hit with but what the hell
Buahhahahhaa!
I recon those are pine staffs? With the added weight to the head I doubt you can do any more than light drills with those (at least for a long time). If you want to do a bit more rigorous practice I suggest using oak (a pain to work with) or ash (a bit lighter than oak) but they both need a little more of your own work as I don't know any places in Finland that sell finished oak or ash staffs. The cost would be about the same (IIRC I paid 40e for a plank of ash I made 3 staffs and 2 wasters from). Oak is more expensive.
-Risto
(04-16-2009 03:47 PM)Risto Rautiainen Wrote: [ -> ]I recon those are pine staffs? With the added weight to the head I doubt you can do any more than light drills with those (at least for a long time).
It's pine all right - not the best option, but the only thing they had in finished staffs. I don't have a plane for smoothing and rounding wood, so I'll make better staffs when those break down. I'd like a octagonal cross-section for the staffs anyway.
For yesterday's seminar, we taped wooden wasters to the ends of sticks. They worked relatively well, even though the end result is quite far from doing the stuff with steel axes in full armor.
- Ilkka