proof of concept waster for Montante Rule drills (draft)

My local practice has begun drilling the Rules (drills/katas) of Montante.  We've been using a variety of swords, some shinai, some oak wasters, some two handed swords, even a rattan greatsword.  The greatsword is too long and awkward for me (the grip is too thick for me as well), the oak waster has too short a grip, and the shinai have a slightly too short blade, and no guillons to differentiate between a revez cut from a talho.

I wanted one of my own, so I could work on this outside of the practice, but a commercially made wooden one was $100, and it was too long for my purpose (to use it within an SCA context, the limit is 60"), as well as being too long for me to use.  I'd rather not have a sword that's as tall as me, thank you.

I also wanted to have to stop having to use a borrowed blade at practice, and to have one that I could break down for travelling..

So, to the web to find out if the local big-box home improvement place had what I needed.  It did, but not in the correct size.  I wanted the option of a 45" "blade" the hardwood dowels were only 36" long.  Pine was available in 48" and cheaper.  If I was able to construct something usable, I could re-build it, providing I could find something the correct length (probably not from a big box, they're not specialized enough).

I went to the local big box this morning with my fencing gloves, and tested dowel sizes until I verified that the 1-1/8" dowel fit my hand (the 1-1/4" also worked, but going up much past that started getting too thick.).  I picked out the straightest available (not easy, another reason to go to a

Fittings came next, and I was destined for disappointment, the copper fittings wouldn't fit on the dowels, and besides, didn't have the 4-way joint I wanted.

pvc joint (the essential bit)

Off to the pvc boxes, there I found a 4 way joint, but pvc increases in quarter inches, and runs tight.  After some fiddling, I was able to pick out two dowels that would work, they could be wedged into the joint,  they weren't too badly warped, (some of the stock was) and I could fit my hand around them.

The total cost for the three bits was under $12.

Once home, I measured the dowels, 45" from the bottom of the joint to the end of the blade, cut.  The blade ended up being 43-3/4" (111 cm) long, although I would fit the wood to the joint before measuring it next time.

15" from the top of the joint to the pommel (the end of the grip).

I measured the quillons/cross guard pieces to match the approximately 3"-5" waste cut from the blade.

Partially assembled

Assembled, the blade looked decent, but there was nothing to hold it together.  Catastrophic failure of a sword is frowned upon, as is flying sword bits that might hit members of the practice.  I went to the garage and found some finishing nails, figuring I could hold the grip in the joint at least (the plan has always been to have the joint permanently attached to the grip).  I forced the grip into the joint until it entered  the cross opening, then considered how to place a nail so that the grip and cross guards would be held firm.  Eventually, I figured I could nail into the grip, with the end of the nail into the guard pieces, though it took 2 tries, and I ended up hammering the nail into the guard then pulling it so I could reverse it to nail into the grip.

It still wobbles a bit, but I think application of glue should fix that.

the assembled waster

Seating the blade was a bit harder, there was still the potential of catastrophic failure.   I placed the blade into the joint, and drilled a small hole through the pvc into the wood, and put a small nail/brad in.  This serves to hold the blade in place, and is removable. With version 2 I'll probably use this method to hold the guard and grip in place, but for the moment, glue and finishing nails will work

Ingredients:

2 - 48" long 1" dowels, or a size that fits your hand
1 - 4-way joint, probably pvc (make sure the joint will fit the dowels)
2  - nails (I used 2-1/2" finishing nails)
1 thin nail (I used a brass picture nail)
glue
tape measure and handsaw are givens