Longknife

Rougly a year and a half ago, I was preparing for a convention. I was going as my original character, and I have a tendency to add something little to it each time I wear it someplace. I drew a picture of a long knife, with a bayonet-esque blade, yet with the certain cobbled-together-feel. I never got around making the knife, as I was on a tight schedule back then. About a week ago, I decided that itis time.

 

I googled for knives similar to my drawing, and added little elements from them into my design(Namely the arabic Bichaq and Karud knives).

 

I drew the shape on a thin pine plank, and sawed it first to lenght, then to shape.

 

The blade profile was planed, and refined with disksander, dremel, and finally by hand. The blade was primered at this stage too.

Thinner pieces of pine were used to build the "crossguard".

 

I wanted the handle to have organic and natural look, so I sawed myself a suitable lenght of rowan in suitable thickness. Why rowan? I wanted to use something more expensive-looking wood to implicate,that although crudely handcrafted, this was a weapon of significance. Also, because I happend to have it.

 

The grip was stripped of bark and stained to a deep walnut color, and later waxed to seal the stain.

Also, a hole was drilled inside the grip to attach the blade into it.

 

At this point, while tring toseparate the grip from the blade, I managed to shatter the blade. So, I had to remake it.

 

The process was the exact same. In picture is also the original drawing I made.

 

Makin' dust.

 

Back where I was, sans the primer. The blade breaking was almost a good thing, as I was able to refine the blade even further when remaking it.

 

Some more pine was used to make a scabbard for the blade.

 

The blade sits snugly inside, with a little play, sothat the fit would be tight once I glued a felt-fabric inside th scabbard to protect the blade

 

Before that, small slots were chiseled to the scabbard's throat to accommodate the decorative pieces at the base of the blade.

 

With the felt glued in.

 

After that, the scabbard was glued together, and planed thinner. I gave it a gentle taper towards the chape.

 

The chape and locket were heat-formed out of thick ABS plastic. A little too thick, in retrospect. The shaping was left a little rought, as if the pieces would ahve been forged. (Also, because I grew tired of burning my fingers)

 

The new blade primered, sanded, and finally painted in silver. The scabbard was also stained in walnut, and sealed with a mixture of beewax and wood oil.

 

The chape and locket were also painted silver, pictured in the middle stage of weathering process.

Again, I the painting and weathering porcess went in the flow, and I forgot to take pictures along it.

 

The finished scabbard, with faux rust painted to the chape an locket.

 

...And the finished blade. The blade itself was also painted with faux rust.

 

Here also pictured the decorative iece on the blade.

 

Fits into the scabbar like so. The grip was wrapped witha piece of bedsheet given the approppriate weathering and dirt. That's genuine blood there, the prop-gods demand their sacrifice every now and then =)

 

A picture showing the rust accents on the chape.

 

Picture showing hte weathering at the blade's base. I found a picture of a bayonet with two rivets on the crossguard, so I decided to add similar ones to my knife too.

 

Final shot with the blade and scabbard side to side.

 

 

 

 

 

Tools used:

-pencil

-brain

-bandsaw

-discsander

-various gritted sandpaper

-diamond sponges

-wood filler

-drill press

-wood plane

-knife

-PVA glue

-superglue

-patience

-dremel

-heat gun

-brush&paints

 

Thanks for reading!



Suigintou's sword

Sometime, that feels like ages ago, I was commisioned to build Suigintou's sword, from Rozen Maiden.

 

 



 I like making swords. 'Nuff said, movin on..

I made the blade out of pine, but I resent that I didn't have any harder wood at my disposal, as the blade is only 2cm wide for the most part, and hence, quite fragile.

The tip&edges were shaped on a disksander, and refined further by hand.

The curves ath the root ob the blade were Dremeled, though.

Here is the reason this build took ages; believe me or not, somewhere in that pile is my lathe. It was disassembled some time back for maintenance&refinish, but I didn't quite get around putting it back togeter again.(Or refinishing it)

...And here n turn is pictured what I came up with. The handle was lathed with a custom, rigged together ghetto-lathe. I told my father about the lathing problemI had, and he told me that my grandfather once built a lathe out of scrap, but it was disassembled at some point. So I started looknig for the parts and piecing the machine back together, and behold, works like a charm.

Then I started making some dust. The "wings" of the crossguard were first sawed to a rough shape with the bandsaw, and shape refined into finish with a lovely set of chisels, and finally finished with sandpaper. The wing in front is a nearly-finished, and the one on the back is rough-cut.

Parts done so far mocked together in their places. At some point I painted the blade for some reason.

The handle was primed, and I inserted a steel nail with the top cut off to secure it to the blade somepoint further along the way.

The wings were to be sandwiched between two pieces of wood. There's a channel in the middle where the blade passes through.

Mocked in place with the mightiest power in the universe, the G-clamp.

The crossguard side pieces were dremeled to a rough shape.

...And crossguard glued together. At this point it and the blade weren't glued together yet.

Some wood filler was used to blnd the pieces better together.

Some 1cm x 1cm rod was sanded to form the "head" piece that rested on the blade.

The crossguard in place. The tolerance between he crossguard and the blade were tight to begin with, but when the crossguard was primed, the paint glued the pieces together O______o

At the bottom, where the blade comes through is a hole to receive the al affixed to the handle. The curve to meet the round head of the handle was made by glopping on some filler, waiting for it to semi-harden, and squeezing the handle in place, and carefully removing in. Bam, perfect fit.

After this, the only thing to do was paint.

And finished. It's a very elegant sword.

My prior experiences with gold paints has been pretty bad, but here it turned out great. The piece hasn't been polished at all.

A detail shot of the "head".

I intentionally left the wood grain visible on the blade, so that no con-security would consider this a real weapon after closer inspection.

Final artsy shot. Shiny!


Tools used:
-bandsaw
-sandpaper
-lathe
-various chisels
-superglue
-PVA glue
-disk sander
-dremel
-drill

Thanks for reading!

Yuki Kuran's Artemis Rod

Although I have been quiet for awfully long, the rumors about my death are higly exaggerated.
This build was pretty boring, but I'll be posting something more exiting in near future.

But into business:

I was commisioned to make Yuki's Artemis Rod from Vampire Knight (The non-scythe version)

Pretty straightforward design. I bought the longest broomhandle I could find for the rod, and eventually forgot to take  photo of it.

Rings were cut of 3cm PVC pipe for the zig-zag details along the shaft. (pictured as raw cut)

I drew a pattern of the zig-zag shape on paper, that I rolled around the rings, traced on, and cut off triangles. With what? Scissors. Just your plain ordinary household scissors. I'm almost dumbstruck myself that it worked out.

Cap details were made in the same fashion.

Parts done so far laid out

Details on the tips were first drawn on and then traced with hot glue to for a ridge. (Will look far better once painted)

After the details, only thing left to do was to shoot it with some silver paint.

Painted tip details.

And finally, a shot of one of the zig-zag detail bands.


Tools used:
-backsaw
-scissors
-x-acto knife
-superglue
-hot glue


Thanks for watching!