Making a Finnish style Boffer Sword

Описание: This is how you make a single-handed boffer sword using finnish boffer weapon standards for Sotahuuto battle event in less than 40min.

I chose to do this non commentary as to concentrate and not get carried away. In this video is you'll see all the phases from start to finish..

This is just one way of making boffer swords and you are free to use these techniques when making your own boffer sword adaptations of real historical sword types for example sabres or katanas.

All you need is 25mm PVC-pipe, 22mm pipe insulation (I recommend Climasnap brand), foam rubber, cellular plastic 10mm thick and garden hose for cross guard.

For tools: scissors, knife, exacto knife, saw edged knife, cutting board, tape ruler, duct tape (Advance brand is the best for its best suited for soft surfaces), Glassfibre tape is recommended for attaching the pipe insulation into the pvc pipe for it's extremely durable and makes sure your blade stays put.

Make sure you use 15mm thick pipe insulation and the blade are made of minimum 30mm wide 15mm thick strips of pipe insulation.

The pipe must be plugged carefully, so that the pipe does not tear through the padding. I used 10mm cellular plastic followed by 2 layers of 10mm of the same material. This layering ensures a base for foam rubber (use new not worn down) that is minimum of 80mm. i recommend 90mm in case you press it down during the wrapping stage. The 80mm is optimal for the point for too short point absorbs too little and too long will just bend too much.

This soft point is supported by the blade pieces that go over the frame by 20mm.

As you see in the video, I only put the pieces together lightly and using small strips of tape so as not to use too much of it. This all gets covered during the vertical wrap up stage and too much tape makes boffer sword unwieldy to use.

Then after that's done, make holes to the soft foam head and at the base of the blade strips. This makes the air flow through the point and though the strips and allows it to breath (so to speak) and revert back into shape after being pressed down.

That's why you don't press the tape down violently during the wrapping. This will make sure you can safely thrust with the boffer sword and best way to test this is to make sure this is safe for headshots (that are legal within finnish battle events), is to make sure the point does not fit into the eye socket and absorbs the impact properly and reverts back to where it was (I point out that this sword is made for one-handed use only so and should not be used with full force two-handed).

If you later notice any wear and tear in your boffer sword. Simply peel off the vertical strips of tape and replace torn pieces with new ones and wrap the the whole thing together again.

Also keep in mind that horizontal and vertical taping keeps things together, otherwise the tape seam will just tear easily.

I hope this will be useful and check out this video on how to make finnish boffer arrows:

   • How to make Finnish style Boffer Arrows  

Also check out our annual Sotahuuto (Warcry) Battle event that has been going since 2005 from these videos:

   • Sotahuuto  

   • Sotahuuto 2018 - Kenttätaistelu #1 / Field...  

   • Sotahuuto 2015  

Here's some drone footage from Sotahuuto 2016:

   • SH16 - Kopterivideot (4K)  

Here's the official page for Sotahuuto:

https://sotahuuto.fi/

Official Sotahuuto forum:

https://forum.sotahuuto.fi/index.php

The official rules in finnish (use google translate):

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zjd5...