Percy's Forge -- The Lance Blade

Technically, this is something that Dana came up with, but I'm putting everything weapons related under the Percy's Forge heading anyways so that things stay orginized.

The lance blade is actually a weapon created by Dana used by the Phinearans, a race of wolf shape shifters from Xystia.

  Elgon turned his attention to the peculiar swords occupying the rack beside him. “With only our knives and the crossbow, would it be permissible for each of us to carry one of these?”

  “Of course. I will provide you with the proper sheathes.” William drew the blade off his own back with a metallic ring.

  Elgon heard the quick sound of metal on leather as Andras flicked a knife into his palm in surprise at the Meerinoran’s action. Jheslin chuckled. Elgon forced his expression to remain the same.

  William showed them the weapon. “Six hands high on the hilt, and the blade slightly longer. The crossguard here is wide enough to block incoming blows. It is meant to wielded dual handed, as we strap our small shields to our arms.”

  Elgon nodded. “Understood.”

  He resheathed his weapon. “We depart in an hour. My Pack will assemble by the South Gate.”
[exerpt from The Land Between Time, Outlander Trilogy Book 1)

After Percy started making all his PVC swords, Dana came up with the dimensions for the lance blade. Both he and Percy made a lance blade while we were at the MacDonald house. Though I knew what they looked like in general -- I sorta had to, considering I included them in my book -- it was still quite impressive to see the weapon in 3D.

Since this is Dana's original weapon,
I convinced him to model with it for me
rather than having Percy do it.

Here are the measurements:

Blade -- 26"

Hilt -- 20"

Crossguard -- 2"

 

So that's the lance blade, an original Xystian weapon created by Dana MacDonald.

 

Dia duit,

~Penny

Percy's Forge - Latest Inventions

Though I have done a miserable job of chronincling it, Percy has certainly not left his forge idle in the past couple of months. Indeed, quite the opposite, I'm excited to say. I always knew he was one for putting things together and so forth, and this PVC weapon making seems to have taken a firm hold of his imagination and creativity.

I bought him the red tassle from Jo-Ann's.

First he made the spear. It's a fairly easy design, which I have given the dimensions for in the post before this one, but cool noentheless. He and I actually started choreographing a fight scene between a spearman and a swordfighter. At present it is far too hot to go outside and continue it, but I'm sure we'll pick up again at a later date.

Then, a little bit ago we watched the 2002 version of The Count of Monte Cristo. I personally really like that version (minus a couple of scenes for obvious reasons). The acting, cinematography, and especially the swordfights are all great. Soon after watching it, Percy decided he wanted to come up with a PVC Rapier design, and spent quite a bit of time contemplating how to do this before we actually went to Home Depot and bought the pieces he'd decided he needed. I must admit the result impressed me more than I thought it would.

Percy's first rapier.



Blue crusader coloring.

Obviously the basket hilt was the only hilt Percy could make using PVC. At least at the moment, with the tools he has. The one in the picture has the one and a half inch rim on the hilt, but he made another one where he sawed that rim off. Unfortunately, that one sufffered an accident (*cough*Seph.*cough*) and cannot make an appearance at the moment.

So! While we were on vacation, Percy taught Dana how to make some of the basic PVC swords, and in the process forged a broadsword. Since none of us really needed another weapon, he decided to have fun with the duct tape design on it. At the same time, Dana got creative with his sword's coloring, as well. However, I haven't gotten pictures of Dana's sword yet (or the Lance-Blade, another sword variant I'll discuss later), but if I can remember, I'll do it tonight.

And now for my favorite. I was browsing pinterest some while ago when I came across a tutorial for how to make a "Brave Little Miss PVC Bow and Arrow." It consisted of a very small, simple bow made of PVC that fired dowel rods tipped with giant wads of foam in the shape of arrowheads. Yeah. I told Percy about it anyways, he did a very brief perusal of the how-to, then went off and came up with his own design. Once again, I confess to not have had as much faith in his abilities as I should have. The bow he made not only looks awesome, but actually fires. I have an awesome little brother.

He's still figuring out how to make arrows that will fly straight, but I've learned my lesson by now and have no doubt he'll have a working prototype soon. There's a video I found on youtube for how to make functioning arrows for a modern recurve, so he's going to look into that. Plus I need to figure out (or ask Lynn to) how to make a quiver for when he learns how to do the arrows.

Have no fear! If and when he makes another bow, I'm GOING to make a tutorial for it because it's too cool for me not to. I'll do the same thing for the rapier, as well. Promise.

The stack of PVC weaponry in the corner of the boys' chambers is growing in both number and diversity. When we move back up to Illinois near the forest preserve, we are going to have a full arsenal for our Imagination Games.

I can't wait.

Dia duit,
~Penny

Percy's Forge -- Sword Variant Dimensions

So, yeah, I've done an awful job keeping up with chronicling Percy's inventions. But at any rate, here are the dimensions for the sword variants that can be made using the tutorial I posted up here a while ago.

Claymore

Blade - 39"

Hilt - 1'

Crossguard - 6" each

Wanderblade

(large arming sword)

Blade - 32" or 33"

Hilt - 9"

Crossguard - 3" each

Straight Sword

Blade - 26"

Hilt - 5"

Crossguard - 3" each

Short Sword

Blade - 18"

Hilt - 5"

Crossguard - 3" each

Spear

(can be made the same way as a sword)

Blade - 1'

Handle - 5'

Crossguard 2" each

I'll have pictures of the spear in my next post, as well as pictures of some of Percy's latest weaponry inventions.

Dia duit,

~Penny