"Upgrading" Pocket Pikes - An Appeal

by Jason "Aeston" Rosa 

The concept of the "pocket pike" (sometimes called the sleeve pike) is not new. In fact, it's probably over a decade old, first conceived and implemented by Ashenmark. As soon as I experienced the original design, convinced of it's superior safety, I immediately made up three bamboo pikes that followed that schematic and for years used them at war events and questing events alike. Since that time, in 2018, the "pocket pike" design became Omnibus-mandatory for bamboo-core pikes, and rightly so.

Even though pocket-pikes are widely used, I believe they can be made to a higher safety standard to reduce the number of pike injuries that occur, especially at high intensity events. In order to help the Realms in that endeavor, Gilded Lion Ironworks will be producing pocket pike upgrade kits to help reach this elevated construction standard. 

First, a to-scale schematic of how a pocket pike is assembled using the Gilded Lion Ironworks Pocket Pike Kit. 

There are a couple things to highlight here that I believe are new "best practices" in safety without specifically being required by omnibus rules.

This section is mostly justification through arithmetic. Fair warning. 

TLDR at the end of the bullet points.

In all of these cases I am comparing the above schematic to a pike made to the minimum Omnibus standards which currently require: a 3" squish tip, a 1/4" thick foam disk, a 3" foam plug, and a 5" sleeve that starts beneath the foam disk (with no specific thickness requirement and not necessarily with the foam disk overlapping the sleeve by rule).

• The squish tip is overall larger in all three dimensions. It is an inch longer than the Omnibus minimum and also extends out to an expanded profile just like the 1/2" camp foam disk (more on that below). This increases the surface area of the tip from just under 4 square inches to over 8 square inches. This increases the overall volume of the squish tip from about 29 cubic inches to over 57 cubic inches. That is a lot more padding to hit with and a lot more foam with which to absorb force.

• The camp foam disk extends to the outer edge of the camp foam sleeve. This larger size foam disk increases the surface area (like above) from just under 4 square inches to over 8 square inches so the force that is transferred to the disk from the squish tip is distributed across a wider area.

• The force, once transferred from the larger foam disk to the rest of the weapon, is then transferred to not just the foam plug and pipe foam but also to the entire sleeve. Just in calculating the 3 inches of pike below the camp foam disk, thats an increase in foam volume from about 29 cubic inches to about 47 cubic inches, which is significantly more foam to absorb that force.

• More exactly, the percent of the force that is transferred specifically to the foam plug changes from 61% to a notably smaller 37%. This means less punishment to the weakest part of the weapon. 

• Stress points are created whenever surfaces meet and can push against one another laterally. There is, of course, a stress point where the foam plug meets the bamboo and is a notorious known break-down point in any kind of weapon. There is a lesser stress point where the bottom edge of the camp foam sleeve meets the pipe foam. By making the camp foam sleeve 3" longer these two stress points are moved further away from one another increasing the overall durability of the entire weapon head. 

TLDR: Increasing the length and size of these pike tip components creates more surface area and volume to distribute the force and is therefore safer and more durable.

I should take a moment to point out that this voluntary new standard of pike safety isn't something that's come entirely out of the blue. When bamboo pikes were voted into the game in 2018 we made the best decisions we could, informed by experienced builders and fighters, to maximize their safety. In the years afterwards we've gathered much experiential data. The changes above, made via the consultation with several pike-users across the community, constitute the next logical step in safety design. It's been long enough since the implementation of these weapons that we examine critically how we can do better and make a change.

I think it would be unreasonable of me to insist that we all rebuild our pikes without providing some significant help to those who want to try. So the newly introduced Gilded Lion Ironworks is now producing a Gilded Lion Ironworks Pocket Pike Kit to help anyone who wants to upgrade their pike or build a new one to these standards!

All of the components of that kit can be seen below.

This kit will be provided at cost for anyone who wants to use it to create or upgrade one of their pikes, we are not seeking to make a profit on it.

Notably, with this kit, you will receive the following sticker.

Building or upgrading your pike with an unmodified Gilded Lion Ironworks Pocket Pike Kit will give you the right to place this sticker somewhere near the base of the foam on your weapon. This sticker is a marshaling tool that will be used by combat marshals for Queen of Hearts going forward.

Starting next year, in 2025, all pikes used at Queen of Hearts must conform to the higher safety standards achieved by the Gilded Lion Ironworks Pocket Pike Kit. It would be nice if pikers could try to achieve this goal by this summer's Queen of Hearts but we know that it is too close to reasonably require it of everyone.

This does NOT REQUIRE that you specifically use our kit to upgrade your pike. As long as you are reaching or exceeding the standards specified in this article you can create all your own components and then ask for your pike to be inspected to acquire one of the above stickers.

For THIS year's Queen of Hearts (2024) Kyle (Killian) and Paul (Grindin) have extremely graciously volunteered to build and bring a number of upgraded pocket pikes to the event for both teams to use, though their use will be strongly requested it will not be mandatory.

We know that the increased amount of and intensity of combat at Queen of Hearts leads to greater injuries overall, even if everyone is doing their best to be careful. The close quarters, fatigue, and emotions can combine in unfortunate ways. This elevated pike standard is an attempt at increasing overall safety with very little appreciable downside other than some labor and material costs.

Please reach out with any questions.

If you would like to secure a Gilded Lion Ironworks Pocket Pike Kit in the coming weeks, please let me know. We plan to start distributing them in June. They will be available at Rowan's Rarities (fine purveyor of Gilded Lion goods) in limited quantities so to secure more than one kit at a time it's probably best to reach out to me directly.

In service,

Jason