Three Section Bamboo Staff

Artisan Crafts> Woodworking is now "frequently used."

A "three section staff" is a chinese flail type weapon, supposedly originating from a martial arts expert who broke his bo staff in a fight and couldn't tie it back together very well. This may also be the precursor of nunchaku, though it's also believed that they were originally used to thresh rice (the medieval flail/morning star apparently originated from a threshing tool as well).

I couldn't get the materials I wanted (hazel or better), so this is just bamboo. Still, it's better to have the full size and poor wood than a hazel three section staff that's much too small.

I found also that bamboo doesn't work very well for gripping the rope links...which resulted in the demise of my bamboo nunchucks.

HOWEVER, I used a candle to melt wax into the rope joints, which seems to hold them much better. Thanks to this newfound knowledge, I may later be able to make a hazel chain-whip. That would be LOADS of work, though. I'm taking a break from the rope-link weapons for now, too, as tightening the joints is cutting up my pinky fingers. Ow.

~

I've recently become quite interested in martial-arts weapons due to writing Dead Air. Tribridge is basically what I imagine Venice would be like if it was in China- so I'm trying to include pleanty of lesser-known weapons from those areas (this is why palace guards are armed with stilettos, despite their main effectiveness against knights).