Hi I was looking at buying this LARP Saber Dao – Wargear for the next event.
It looks to me from the picture that its moulded not hand made (currently there’s no point of contact on their website to ask them) and was wondering if people think it would pass at Empire and if anyone has had any +ve/-ve experiences purchasing from this vendor as I have not bought anything from them before.
Rob 
Hallo, welcome
And in time honoured advice
Don’t buy any weapon (even if one swears hands down it’ll pass Empire’s weapon check) until you hit field
There’s vendors in field who have a pretty broad selection of LARP safe weapons that are almost guaranteed to pass weapons check…and if they don’t, you can go back to the vendor in question and (usually) swap and/or figure something out with them
It’s very tempting to do the mad online kit buy. But genuinely, hold off until field.
(Sneaky bonus of buying in field is that you’ll get to feel how a weapon sits in hand, if you like the weight/lack of weight, and movement of it through space)
(EDIT because I am failing at reading comprehension and misjudged if you’d been in field yet or not)
Thanks, yeah that’s good advice for a newbie but Empire isn’t my first rodeo. I asked about this sword specifically because I am trained in the use of a Dao from martial arts study and I was hoping to see if I could apply it to LARP.
Advice still holds
I wouldn’t trust most of the mass “buy LARP kit here!” sites with a weapon buy for Empire
I believe a few of the standard vendors at Empire do online commission/first contact for getting a weapon made from them
(I know Daisy (Questing Beast) has done a few pieces for friends and comes recommended by them
Mike Light (Light Armouries) may still be making pieces on commission, but I can’t be 100% quoted on that)
Are the vendors who are confirmed attending the next event listed anywhere?
From E3, as E4’s list is yet to head up…but the traders have been fairly stable
Thank you 