Medium: Costuming
Supplies: rough wooden swords, acrylic paint, brushes, sanding block/paper, Dremel tool (optional)
For about six years now, I have found swords rather attractive. It all started when I saw the Hobbit movie trilogy. The weapons were sick, and yes, I instantly started saving up for a sword of my own. My all-time favorite weapons in the movies were Tauriel’s daggers. Usually, I’m all for stick to the book, no deviating from it, for goodness’ sake! But Tauriel was awesome and so I accepted her into this fandom. The main reason for doing so was because of her daggers and their incredible wickedness. I started looking up videos on how to use swords and became obsessed with learning the different tricks, twirls, and tosses. My ever-growing sword collection soon followed.
The very first daggers I made were from a wooden dowel and looked pretty cheap, so when I found already pre-cut swords at Scheels, I walked out of the store that day with at least four different blades. I’ve never actually tried to cut my own sword out of a wooden plank before, and I do have a reason for that! I’m impatient. The pre-cut swords were faster 😀
Tips & Tricks: What I wanted, was for my swords to have double-edged blades. Doing so with a sand block is so incredibly time consuming and not worth it. Using a Dremel tool, on the other hand, went so much faster! The sand block/paper worked very well, however, to get in the smaller places where a Dremel tool couldn’t.
Pitfalls (aka, what I learned the hard way): Like I said before, I don’t have much patience at times during my crafting endeavors. Taking time to draw out an idea before jumping into the project is always a good idea. And even though sanding sometimes sucks, and you don’t want to do it, take the time to do it well. It’ll be totally worth it!
Outcome: I have made many more swords since that fateful day when I decided to be a “swordsmith.” *Wistfully looks off into the middle distance, probably dreaming about more swords and all the twirling that could be done with them, hoping one day your weird skill set will come in handy and maybe you’ll go on an adventure* Take total control of your creative license in the most uncontrollable way! I love painting and decorating my swords to look either old and worn, or a total fantasy design that is just so strange to everyone but me. An easy way to make a sword look worn is to paint the entire thing black and dry brush some silver paint over top when it’s dry. Or, when the black paint is still wet, rub a handful of twine/burlap into it.
A tutorial on sanding/painting swords will come later!