If you have the leverage on an aluminium crutch, they should work fine. If you're holding them way on the other end, and swinging firmly, they can do damage.
Signed,
Has Smacked and Been Smacked with Light Sticks.
Aren't they something. They're like butterflies, or little pieces of wrapping paper blowing around.
Kaylee ,'Shindig'
The Great Write Way
A place for Buffistas to discuss, beta and otherwise deal and dish on their non-fan fiction projects.
§ ita § - Dec 07, 2004 12:12:59 pm PST #8561 of 10001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
Ginger - Dec 07, 2004 12:14:42 pm PST #8562 of 10001
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda
I have suddenly been overtaken by the urge to go whack something with a crutch and see what kind of force I can develop. When I was actually using them, I was working to hard to not whack something with a crutch.
Connie Neil - Dec 07, 2004 12:15:11 pm PST #8563 of 10001
brillig
Oh, aluminum crutches can pack a wallop. Hubby's used Crutch Fu on some football players (college) who thought they could hassle the crip.
edit: It's all in the snap of the wrist as you swing the crutch around. SCA sword training helps.
erikaj - Dec 07, 2004 12:15:17 pm PST #8564 of 10001
Always Anti-fascist!
Possibly. Cause I love the image...it's the Agatha Christie in me. Would that leave a skin impression?ETA: I love it when my instincts are right. But then, I wonder what sort of person I've turned into to turn my instincts to those types of questions.
Connie Neil - Dec 07, 2004 12:16:37 pm PST #8565 of 10001
brillig
re: skin impression
A lot of aluminum crutches have holes in the shafts for the adjustment bolts. So those could leave a mark.
§ ita § - Dec 07, 2004 12:17:50 pm PST #8566 of 10001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
Would that leave a skin impression?
More than a bruise? Where are you hitting? If you whack aluminium on shin or skull, for instance, you will definitely leave a mark. If you whack with the rubber tip it should still bruise, but more diffused. And perhaps with molding marks.
deborah grabien - Dec 07, 2004 12:52:32 pm PST #8567 of 10001
It really doesn't matter. It's just an opinion. Don't worry about it. Not worth the hassle.
erika, there's also the question: was the crime premeditated?
Because you could take a hollow crutch - say, bought at a Salvation Army or somewhere, paid for with cash, hard to track down that sale - and weight it with something, if you happened to have premeditated the crime, and wanted to draw the cops straight to you right off, so that they could examine your real crutches and see that the amount of damage done to the victim is not commensurate with the person allegedly swinging or the weight of the supposed implement.
Not to mention no hair or blood or brains on the real crutches. It would be a question of safely disposing of the real weapon, though.
If it's spur of the moment, of course, ignore above.
Topic!Cindy - Dec 07, 2004 1:01:36 pm PST #8568 of 10001
What is even happening?
Ericka, how about a nice walking stick of some sort, instead--possibly a shillelagh someone brought home for the victim from Ireland, or a monogrammed, handmade hardwood cane, or something?
deborah grabien - Dec 07, 2004 1:02:43 pm PST #8569 of 10001
It really doesn't matter. It's just an opinion. Don't worry about it. Not worth the hassle.
Cindy, thing about something that idiosyncratic is that is leads straight to the perpetrator, and there goes your novel.
Topic!Cindy - Dec 07, 2004 1:03:40 pm PST #8570 of 10001
What is even happening?
Deb, wasn't erika talking about the crutches belonging to the victim, though?
eta...
I'm thinking, if they were used as, well, a blunt instrument, could you tell they were the vic's? Probably not. They're probably gonna have to find it with blood on itand stuff. Nobody's ever gonna ask me what I'm thinking ever again, are they?