My Experiences With Tire Pell Building
Dec 19, 2006 3:05:55 GMT
Post by ShooterMike on Dec 19, 2006 3:05:55 GMT
I would like to say a big thank you to Bill Tsafa for all the work he's put into his Tire Pell Website.
I stumbled onto it a few months ago and it certainly caught my attention. The idea was brilliant! Great creativity and ingenuity. I must have visited the site on a dozen different occasions before I had read everything there.
I initially sent the following to Bill in a PM to tell him how much I appreciated his work on putting together his website, to thank him for inspiring me to try my hand at pell building, and to share some pictures and information on my experiences. I did not feel it was my place to share any of this with the forum or anyone else associated with SBG, or even anywhere on the Internet. The tire pell is Bill's idea and he deserves the credit. I don't want to "steal any of his thunder". I am not a practicing martial artist with the sword, I haven't participated in SCA and I have yet to make time in my schedule to join the local ARMA chapter and really get involved there. I just wondered if he might want to post any of this stuff as "Bill Tsafa Inspired Creations". He was very complementary and encouraged me to go ahead and post this in the public forum. I really appreciate his encouragement and support.
Short background. I have been interested in all kinds of personal weapons since I was a small child. Swords have been one of my personal favorites. However, I was always frustrated that there wasn't any way to realistically use them as they were used during their period. I have been involved with firearms for most of my life, being involved in both competitive shooting and tactical training. My focus has been on designing reactive target systems that behave appropriately when hit. I tend to focus on engineering aspects of these endeavors. For a "fun event" I even designed a "Zombie" target system that takes a huge amount of abuse but only falls to the ground when receiving a proper brain hit with a bullet, sword thrust, skull smash etc.
In any case, my interest now is in designing and building sword targets that can be used for realistic training. And I have to thank Bill for inspiring me to begin. Below are a few of my first efforts.
Mark 1, Mod 0 is my first effort. I tried the rope thing but could never get it to stand up properly. I settled on drilling holes just inside the rims and wiring them together with bailing wire. These were all located in hidden locations so the wire could never be hit with a sword. This made the pell stand up well and still flex when struck. The tire sitting on top is not connected in any way. It just sits there and slides around a bit when struck. When thrust into, it slides off the back of the pell. It doesn't present much resistance as I can thrust hard enough to knock it off with my fingertips. I've pretty much given up on using that for thrusting. It takes too long and too much effort to chase down the tire and put it back on top. Now it's only used for cuts.
I was a little embarrassed building this thing so I positioned it in a secluded location. This was a bit of a problem as there wasn't enough room to move around. It was really obvious that it needed to be moved when some friends became interested and wanted to observe.
I moved the pell to a broader opening and added another large truck tire to the bottom to make it about 8 inches taller and added the dedicated left side uppercut stick. In these pictures the top tire can be seen resting on the back side of the pell. This tire is nylon cord belted instead of steel belted and can be used for a lot of different striking and thrusting positions. I call this one Mark 1, Mod 1.
Last weekend I went back to the tire pell website and reread everything on the site. I noticed the paragraph where Bill discussed suspending a tire on a rope and getting some reactive behavior out of the thing. Design mindset kicked in and I was off.
Shown here, Mark 2, Mod 0 is a first effort in the area of a "hanging pell." I am not totally happy with it. There will be a number of changes that I've already thought of. But overall it works pretty well. I went with two suspended tires to add a bit of mass and to provide more of a body-size target. The second tire gives a thigh target.
I've put three "wooden swords striking" on this one. They are coming from high right and high left, as well as coming from the pell's lower right in an upward swing. This thing is very agile and it doesn't take much to get it spinning. In the limited time I've had to work with it, I find it seems to promote the integral use of footwork much more than the standing pells.
There is a third tire on the ground in the picture. Not exactly sure what I'm going to use that for yet. I initially thought of it as "feet" but I'm not so sure now. So this is still pretty much a work-in-progress.
I hope you enjoy this post and it inspires you to take up the challenge and design your own pell!
I stumbled onto it a few months ago and it certainly caught my attention. The idea was brilliant! Great creativity and ingenuity. I must have visited the site on a dozen different occasions before I had read everything there.
I initially sent the following to Bill in a PM to tell him how much I appreciated his work on putting together his website, to thank him for inspiring me to try my hand at pell building, and to share some pictures and information on my experiences. I did not feel it was my place to share any of this with the forum or anyone else associated with SBG, or even anywhere on the Internet. The tire pell is Bill's idea and he deserves the credit. I don't want to "steal any of his thunder". I am not a practicing martial artist with the sword, I haven't participated in SCA and I have yet to make time in my schedule to join the local ARMA chapter and really get involved there. I just wondered if he might want to post any of this stuff as "Bill Tsafa Inspired Creations". He was very complementary and encouraged me to go ahead and post this in the public forum. I really appreciate his encouragement and support.
So here it is for your amusement...
Short background. I have been interested in all kinds of personal weapons since I was a small child. Swords have been one of my personal favorites. However, I was always frustrated that there wasn't any way to realistically use them as they were used during their period. I have been involved with firearms for most of my life, being involved in both competitive shooting and tactical training. My focus has been on designing reactive target systems that behave appropriately when hit. I tend to focus on engineering aspects of these endeavors. For a "fun event" I even designed a "Zombie" target system that takes a huge amount of abuse but only falls to the ground when receiving a proper brain hit with a bullet, sword thrust, skull smash etc.
In any case, my interest now is in designing and building sword targets that can be used for realistic training. And I have to thank Bill for inspiring me to begin. Below are a few of my first efforts.
Mark 1, Mod 0 Tire Pell Front View
Mark 1, Mod 0 is my first effort. I tried the rope thing but could never get it to stand up properly. I settled on drilling holes just inside the rims and wiring them together with bailing wire. These were all located in hidden locations so the wire could never be hit with a sword. This made the pell stand up well and still flex when struck. The tire sitting on top is not connected in any way. It just sits there and slides around a bit when struck. When thrust into, it slides off the back of the pell. It doesn't present much resistance as I can thrust hard enough to knock it off with my fingertips. I've pretty much given up on using that for thrusting. It takes too long and too much effort to chase down the tire and put it back on top. Now it's only used for cuts.
I was a little embarrassed building this thing so I positioned it in a secluded location. This was a bit of a problem as there wasn't enough room to move around. It was really obvious that it needed to be moved when some friends became interested and wanted to observe.
I moved the pell to a broader opening and added another large truck tire to the bottom to make it about 8 inches taller and added the dedicated left side uppercut stick. In these pictures the top tire can be seen resting on the back side of the pell. This tire is nylon cord belted instead of steel belted and can be used for a lot of different striking and thrusting positions. I call this one Mark 1, Mod 1.
Mark 1, Mod 1 Tire Pell Front and Rear Views
Last weekend I went back to the tire pell website and reread everything on the site. I noticed the paragraph where Bill discussed suspending a tire on a rope and getting some reactive behavior out of the thing. Design mindset kicked in and I was off.
Mark 2, Mod 0 Tire Pell Front View
Shown here, Mark 2, Mod 0 is a first effort in the area of a "hanging pell." I am not totally happy with it. There will be a number of changes that I've already thought of. But overall it works pretty well. I went with two suspended tires to add a bit of mass and to provide more of a body-size target. The second tire gives a thigh target.
I've put three "wooden swords striking" on this one. They are coming from high right and high left, as well as coming from the pell's lower right in an upward swing. This thing is very agile and it doesn't take much to get it spinning. In the limited time I've had to work with it, I find it seems to promote the integral use of footwork much more than the standing pells.
There is a third tire on the ground in the picture. Not exactly sure what I'm going to use that for yet. I initially thought of it as "feet" but I'm not so sure now. So this is still pretty much a work-in-progress.
I hope you enjoy this post and it inspires you to take up the challenge and design your own pell!