Applying Tape Wraps
Techniques and advice for applying tape wraps.
Tape wraps are most often used for coverage, i.e. to make sure the surface of something is covered, and this is generally the Fabric Tape wraps used for incidental and courtesy padding, pommels, and guards. In some instances, more style can be added through braiding different colors of tape for these surfacing wraps.
Strapping Tape is also commonly used for tape wraps, though for skinning or structural reasons, where the inelasticity of the fibers in the tape are taken advantage of to constrain the movement of part of the weapon, be it preventing the stab tip from rolling over, the pommel from twisting, or a crossguard from flexing/tearing.
Surfacing
Spiral
Any instance of tape wrapped around something in a helix along its length.
Pick a starting point and place the end of the tape at that location, perpendicular to the thing to be wrapped.
Wrap the tape around once, without traveling down the length of the object, to create an anchor and have full coverage.
Continue wrapping, with the tape climbing/descending along the object at a steady angle, always slightly overlapping itself.
It can be helpful to use the initial "traveling" wrap to set this angle, by trying to make it an even slope as it comes around once and "travels" just under the width of itself.
Depending on the need, it can be important to have the tape taut, but not under tansion, to have it under heavy tension the entire time to stabilize or compress, or to need to dynamically adjust the tension it is laid down with as you go.
Braid
Any instance of interwoven spiral wraps of tape.
Purely aestheic. Can use whatever braiding technique suits your fancy, just remember that tape has a sticky side. Looks really nice on courtesy padding.
Below are two examples of braiding/weaving patterns that could be used.
Complex
Any tape covering that can't be made cleanly with a continuous helix wrap.
This is most common in our applications when it comes to things like putting tape over pommels, crossguards, and the stair-steps in thickness that occur at transition points between striking surfaces, incidental padding, and courtesy padding.
The Ends of Pommels
Lay a piece of Fabric Tape centered over the end of the pommel and lay the ends down the sides of the pommel.
These should not extend more than a 1/2" or so, to avoid wasting tape.
Do the same on either side of this piece of tape, just slightly overlapping it.
Repeat this process till you are at the edges of the pommel and are folding the Fabric Tape along it's length to cover both faces at that edge.
After this and any Stair Steps are covered, do a spiral wrap to cover the side walls.
Stair Steps
Depending on how large these are, it may take more strips to cover the perpendicular face, either because it is bigger around, or because the stair step is deeper.
For something like the junction between a pommel and handle, you can usually get away with four strips placed in a square on the perpendicular face.
If the perpendicular face isn't fully covered: add more overlapping the previous four, slightly further out, until they are folding over the edges onto the faces parallel with the core, and fully covering the perpendicular face.
When it is fully covered, do a spiral wrap to cover the parallel faces and the ends of the tape from the strips over the perpendicular face.
Guards
Some things are going to require similar treatment to the perpendicular faces covered above re: stair steps, where strips of tape are placed essentially side by side (overlapping) to create coverage.
It is key to plan the placement of these so that the ends of these shorter strips will be covered by other tape and anchored down.
This could be by successive layers covering the previous over and over, or just like with the stair steps and pommel ends, where irregular strips have their ends hidden and secured with a spiral wrap.
Ideally, other than the exposed end of a spiral wrap, all tape ends would be covered by a spiral wrap.
Anchoring
Instances where the tape is present for structural reasons, rather than to provide coverage or aesthetic.
Tip Application
There are multiple instances where you may need to secure something over the tip of some protruding item. For nearly all foam weapons, this will be the case for the tip of the weapon for the securing the biscuit and pommel, and is also needed for securing stab tips on weapons that have them.
The general idea is simple, in that you would take the foam piece you are looking to secure and put it in place, then take strips of strapping tape and lay them centered over it, so that they would have each half extend down opposite sides of the outer surface of what it is attached to, each separate strip would cover a different angle across the tip, and that the ends of all of the strips would be secured by a short spiral lap. The complications come the different applications and types of strapping tape available.
Biscuits
Best to use Strapping Tape under 3/4" wide, with thick or dense fibers, for this
To protect the biscuit: Before attaching the foam with Carpet Tape, put an "X" of Strapping Tape (two 3" strips) over the end of the core, laying the ends (taut) down the side of the core.
Place another over the foam, with longer strips, also under tensionm, so that the foam bridges between the edges of the folded-over biscuit and the surface of the core.
Take a strip of Strapping Tape and, starting directly below the foam of the biscuit, tightly sipral wrap down to the ends of the strips from the "X" placed over the foam, putting the bridged strapping tape under more tension to secure the biscuit in place.
Pommels
Best to use Strapping Tape under 3/4" wide, with thick or dense fibers, for this
After securing the pommel to the core with adhesive, use two strips of Strapping Tape to form an "X" and place it centered over the end of the pommel, laying the tape down the sides of the pommel, with no slack but not under tension, and following the contour of the pommel.
When you reach the end of the pommel, put the tape under tension and continue onto the exposed core for another 2-3".
Take a strip of Strapping Tape and, starting directly above the foam of the pommel, tightly spiral wrap halfway down to the ends of the strips from the "X" placed over the foam, putting the bridged strapping tape under more tension to secure the pommel in place.
Stab Tips
Less-dense Strapping Tape will add less stiffness/"slap" to the impact of the weapon where it covers, but it is not as strong, so more coverage can be helpful.*
It is important to not pre-compress the stab tip with the tape used to secure it. To an extent, this is unavoidable, but it should be mitigated.
When laying the tape across the surface of the stab tip foam, do so without slack, but not under tension.
Just before you get to the transition point between the stab tip foam and the foam of the stab tip's foundation, lay the rest of it down under tension.
This should extend 4-5" past the biscuit, down the sides of the weapon's surface.
When making a flat bladed weapon, using a strip that is 2" wide over the tip from flat to flat, and two 1/2" strips going over each corner and crossing ends on the flats.
The strip from flat to flat is there to prevent catastrophic roll over, while the other two contribute to this and also fight twist.
When making an omnidirectional striking surface weapon, it is often best to use three or four 1/2" strips of Strapping Tape, either in a 6 or 8 pointed star arrangement, centered over the tip.
After the securing tape is placed over the end and down the sides, use Fabric Tape to do a two-row spiral wrap over the ends of the Strapping Tape, and then do another that goes from 1" below the biscuit to just above the bottom of the stab tip foam.
Make sure to not overly compress the foam during this spiral wrap, as this will increase stiffness and make the weapon less friendly.
* As long as you aren't using too much, you can get away with using the same strapping tape for everything and just use whatever you can get your hands on, this is just a recommendation for a way to make the weapon friendlier.
Affixing and Stabilizing Guards
Last updated