Hoof and Horn 0: Buying Gear
Last year I brought a few friends into Belegarth, and they discovered that all of our loaners suck.
Anyway, my partner Herc and I ordered single blues from just about every place we could find to compare and contrast.
TL;DR: the foam fighting weapon market is a mess right now. Smiling foam works Narsil bat was a standout, but hasn’t been available.
Note: I’m making a few updates since I originally posted this on Facebook!
We had five bats to compare between:
Gorg’s secret bat ($100, 34 or 36 inches, straight core) Cow’s overall score: 3.5/5
Optimum Armes’ Gram ($112, 36 inches, tapered core) Cow’s overall score: 3.5/5
Forged Foam Tourney Bat ($69, 35 inches, tapered core, passed on arrival) Cow’s overall score: 2.5/5
Grim Isle Arsenal’s Pride Bat ($85, 35 inches) Cow’s overall score: 1/5
Smiling Foam Works’ Narsil Sword ($50, 36 inches, passed on arrival, currently sold out (8/29/22)) Cow’s overall score: 4/5
Gorg’s secret bat has been my go-to weapon for a long time. I love the feel, and it’s been popular in my group. The durability has been okay, but I have seen many tip out. More concerning to me is that they are built too narrowly to template; Almost every Gorg I’ve ordered recently has failed template on the stab, either immediately on arrival, or else after only a few weeks of use. It’s hard to recommend that new players buy a $100 weapon only to have it immediately fail! Adding some cloth tape to bulk up the tip seems to work without making the hit or stab a problem, but I’d prefer if Gorg just added a half centimeter of foam thickness. One upside is that I know the Gorg bat has a straight core, which makes reblading much easier than with tapered cores used by Optimum and FF.
The Gram was not on sale when we evaluated this, but we had bought two just before that. I’ve used Grams regularly and they’ve been favorites of many of my friends. They have also been some of the most durable (minspec) weapons I’ve seen—I don’t think I’ve seen another competitive bat that has lasted years from any other seller. The biggest downside in my experience has been inconsistency. Since the switch from Warlord Sports to Optimum Armes, I’ve seen high variance in shipping times, changes to availability, differences in foams used, and poorly made covers that may fail template if cover sticking through makes things fail. They have also stopped selling the aethertube foam they use for blades, which combined with the tapered core makes repairs difficult.
The forged foam tourney bat is noticeably heavier than the other bats on this list. It also has a fat handle that’s a bit uncomfortable to hold (for most, I think one of the 5-6 people who tried it liked it) and it’s only 35 inches, an inch shorter than most of the bats on this list. It’s less expensive than many of the weapons we tried, and also easily passed template with a nice cover, and so far it has held up the best—though it’s also seen the least use since people don’t like it as much. If it continues to hold up reasonably well, this might end up being the best loaner weapon. Getting the extra edge the other bats have isn’t worth the time and money cost of repairs for loaners.
The Grim Isle Arsenal Pride Bat was the most disappointing for me. First, because they used to be called “sweet feet foam” and I like that aesthetic more than the Grim Isle aesthetic. Second, because it failed template on both ends on arrival. Failing template is a relatively easy fix, but again I hate to recommend buying something that will fail when it arrives. The cover color selection here is probably the best of the lot, and the weapon feels great in hand, but after I fixed it up a bit a friend took it to one day event and powdered the foam all around the tip. That’s the worst durability of any of the bats by a significant margin. It’s also only 35 inches.
Finally, there’s the Narsil Sword from Smiling Foam Works. This was by far the best buy of the lot. First, it’s the least expensive bat by a wide margin. The balance and feel in the hand are a little worse than most of the bats, but only a little (unlike the forged foam bat). It passed template on arrival, the cover was nice, and it’s a full 36 inches. It has held up well with a month of heavy use by a fighter who has failed 2-3 other bats recently. Amazing! Also they’re sold out now, I think Smiling Foam Works is sold out of everything at the moment, maybe they’re just not taking orders. So enjoy that :)
Overall the market is a huge mess right now. I think the low profile trends have gone too far, and I’d rather see more bats that are a little bigger and slower, but that last longer and more consistently pass. And I’d specifically like it if, when I discover a bat that I’d like to buy again, it didn’t immediately become unavailable.
If you find or create any other belegarth bats, let me know and I’ll happily pick one up to test it out!