I was recently asked about ceremonial, imbued, and ritual weaponry. whats best to use, how to gauge power etc.
From my personal experience, The only way to accurately tell any of these is to know yourself then create your own weapon. for me this is easy, for most others its not. I've been a practicing weapon and armor smith for thirteen years. i have two separate weapons that i use for my rituals and combat.
For peace time ceremonies, and sparring i use a steel sheathed half stave with a red oak core. there is a slot inset into the head for the fixation of a blade, this would make it a Bardroche. For war time (I'm a soldier by trade) i use a Steel broadsword with a leather wrapped hilt and a blade breaker, i have war prayers and protection incantations engraved into the blade.
unfortunately i can provide no pointers for creating a blade if that happens to be your weapon of choice, however i can help with the creation of a staff.
When I build a staff i prefer to use red oak heart wood for its strength and residual characteristics/innate power. ALL WOODS HAVE DIFFERENT POWERS. that is very important to realize. If it is available to you select an old tree, i prefer 50+ years. from this you gain the residual knowledge from the parent tree while wielding the weapon. You may use a limb but i recommend that you use heart wood from the trunk, search for a recently fallen tree in a wooded area. please note that if you fell a tree just for the wood to build your staff you will anger the spirit of the tree and it will have a negative effect on your work. Always Always Always, ask the tree's spirit before taking the wood, an offering of natural tobacco or sage will often help to placate the residual spirit.
Cut a length of wood that is a length suitable for your height, you know whats comfortable for you. Cut away the bark, sap-wood, and into the heartwood. staves range any where from 1"-3" in diameter again you know whats comfortable to you. when you achieve the roughly desired diameter the finer work begins.
using a chisel & rasp refine the surface until smooth. While doing this recite the prayer of steadfastness, and the prayer of fortitude.
from here use a low temperature kiln to cure the wood, rotate occasionally to lessen warping and cracking. once dry finish out smoothing the surface and then if you wish you may inscribe prayers or spells on the weapon. return to the kiln to lock your inscriptions in place. the power of the inscriptions depends on the power of you. 5 minutes in the kiln should be sufficient to lock your inscriptions. from here you may stain the staff to the desired color. do not use a finish. for some reason it seems to nullify the effects of your enchantments. i have yet to figure out why.
i hope this post can help you along your path to furthering your pursuits in the craft.
Unique, very cool. I have studied many websites, articles, books on wand-making. After 5 years of study and learning off and on as a hobby, I crafted my own wand by using a dremel tool to wood carve a spiral shape and some symbols, using a wood-burning tool to inscribe symbols and encantations and, decorated it very slowly, took me about a year to complete, which was labor intensive, and a labor of love. My point is, some of your steps are the same for wand wood acquiring and crafting of what I had researched. From one craftsman to another, well done.
What do you mean, they don't use swords in the army. Other than firearms and unarmed combat, there is no other weapons training. Also, what do you mean by sparring? There are certain rules you have to follow. You can't just make a staff, or sword and spar with it. That's ridiculous. Most schools I've been to have rattan staffs and padded swords. Ours are wooded with a layer of foam
on it. If by soar you mean playing with your friends, I would suggest against it as it is really dangerous.
perrych;
Yes, the crafting seemed sound, the experiences he purported were rather vague. I am a US Military Vet. but, I didn't question his activities part as I have no knowledge nor training in this area. It's rather hard to determine fluff from real experiences sometimes. There's always something.
In my opinian, nothing this person says sounds legitamite. I've been studying martial arts for pretty much my whole life. I grew up in Hefei china and there, literally everyone knew a martial art of some sort. There was one main Kung Fu school in the middle of the city and every the other day, after school, all the children would walk there me included. Life was like this for 4 years until the cultural revolution started to take hold. When I came to America, I studied wing chun at a school in San Francisco and gradually became an
instructor. Then, I moved here to Pittsburgh. I travvelibg alot and i've visited many schools of all sorts of styles. This person really has no idea what they're saying.
You gave me a wonderful idea! I'm sure it's a different idea than 7o8 would have for a staff, but I need to go draw up some blueprints now...
I'm thinking of making it out of metal, lining the grips with rubber, and having it screw apart in the middle... Not sure if I should go rechargeable, something like a lithium ion battery in the core, or a replaceable power source.
I would constantly have a source of electricity to draw from, but I could design it to be charged with electricity for melee combat, that would be pretty cool, especially if I could design a hard to see set of barbs along the staff to make it more dangerous!
Would have to figure out how much gold I would need and figure out my preferred metal for the exterior, but this could be awesome.
