#sword tutorial

Step One:

I got a lot of cardboard, tape and scissors and a pole. The pole acts as a central support to the sword. I went and outlined the shape of the pole on what my central piece of cardboard would be. As you can kinda see at the top, the pole will not run the cardboard all the way through, instead the pole will be inside of the cardboard, almost wearing it like a hat. Try to give yourself about an inch of cardboard at the top of the pole!

Step Two:

Cut out the shape of the pole using scissors or a box knife. Remember: always cut away from you! Try to keep the central pole as snugly in there as possible. (I didn’t quite do that and it’s okay!) Give yourself a decent sized hilt too! You need to be able to hold onto your sword, duh!

Step Three:

It’s time for tape, and a lot of it! I used scotch tape, which is pretty sucky, but I made it work. Any type of tape will do, but packaging tape is preferred. With the pole resting inside of the central cardboard piece, begin to apply many pieces of tape to the pole to keep it secure like the picture. (don’t mind the cheeseburger rug) Make sure to do both sides!

Step Four:

Now it’s time to start building your sword! Take a piece of cardboard that’s just as long as the central piece (only slightly wider) and center it on the backside of the central piece. Make sure to apply even more tape to keep it secure! Remember that inch of cardboard at the top of the central piece that the pole doesn’t go through? You can attach the second piece of cardboard there too!

ended up running out of scotch tape and had to break out the duct tape rip

Step Five:

Now your sword is starting to take shape! Take two large pieces of cardboard that are longer than the second piece (the piece you just attached) but are the same width. They must be the same width as the second piece on the pole otherwise it might be weird to tape. These two larger pieces will become the outside layer of cardboard and will be the blade of your sword. Make sure to tape the sides together well so that the cardboard doesn’t fly open when you start to swing your sword!

Step Six:

Time to start the hilt, or handle, of your sword! To begin the hilt, find small pieces of cardboard like a box flap or something similar. Wrap the small pieces of cardboard around the exposed pole very tightly and secure them with tape. The pieces of cardboard will slide around and they’re supposed to do that. Once all of the exposed pole has had cardboard wrapped around it, use more tape to secure the individual sliding pieces to each other. Maybe even add a strip of tape to the end of the hilt to keep it from sliding off the end?

Step Seven:

For finishing touches and to secure your finished hilt to the blade, apply tape to the top of the hilt and bottom of the blade like in the picture. It will be heavy and will look ugly until you decorate, but for now, your sword is finished.

Materials for this, from beginning to end, were:

- Wood - one board, 6′ long by 3″ by 1″. I used softwood, as it’s easier to work and cheaper, but hardwood would probably help make a smoother blade.

- Acrylic paste. I used Golden.

- Paperclay. Regular air-dry clay would probably work, too.

- A Screw + screwdriver or drill

- A strip of leather. I was fortunate enough to have a scrap strip that worked almost perfectly.

- A good, strong glue. I used Wellbond, but a wood or Gorilla glue might have been better.

- Access to a woodshop, particularly a skillsaw and belt sander. One could theoretically use a handsaw and hand sanding block, but it would take much longer. 

First thing, I found some good reference images for scale and to break the sword into basic shapes:

This is, too be frank, a big-ass sword. I am very tall. In order to figure out exactly how long to make it, I took a stick I had lying around and played with it - held it above my head and at belt level, to get an idea of how big would look ‘big’ on me. It’s also important to note here that Gramr is a two-handed sword, at least for Senua, which for me means the hilt must be around 10 inches. After some research and some consideration of what’d be feasible for me, you know, standing, I settled on a 34-inch blade, for a total length of 44 inches. I went to some effort to find a 3″ board because I wanted the blade to be 3″ across, and 1″ in order to cut down on shaping time without sacrificing strength.

However, the shape isn’t super distinct. It’s helpful to look at a variety of sources to find references - the best image I found of the shape was actually the icon for the “Gramr Released” achievement:

Here we can see the shape clearly. I also marked down those lines to show equal lengths - so the crossguard is just as wide as the hilt is long. From there, I moved on to drawing the shapes onto wood. Here you can see the drawn shape of the crossguard. I marked the relative positions of the circles (based on the width of the sword), used the bottom of a shotglass to trace them, then drew the connecting pieces:

Here’s another picture showing both the hilt and blade outline. It gives a better sense of scale. Tips for drawing the blade: mark out the center of the blade from base to tip, make marks an equal distance from that center at regular intervals, and trace between them. For example, measure to 2″ wide of center 15″ from the base, then 1″ at 25″, and use a straight edge to trace between them.

After everything’s been drawn, it’s time for a trip to the woodshop. I used a skillsaw to cut out both the blade and crossguard. If you’re not familiar with the equipment, please get help - skillsaws aren’t quite as scary as tablesaws, but they’ll still take your fingers, and the blade can snap and and fling metal everywhere. On the plus side, this is where we can start to see a sword!

Note that at this stage I have two copies of the crossguard. The idea is to use one on each side of the blade and sandwich them together. Instead of trying to draw the exact same thing, I simply traced the first one after cutting it out.

That done, it’s time to shape the blade. My first attempt here I tried to use a hammer and chisel, but I was afraid I’d overcut and destroy the line of the blade, which I really Did Not Want, so I went with the slower but more precise method of using a power sander. I think a belt sander would be ideal, but I didn’t have access to one, so I ended up on an oscillating drum sander. Either way, I eventually ended up with a passable approximation of a blade:

After that, I finagled the crossguard pieces - I cut them each in half longways, so I had the original shape 4 times. I then sanded out the center of two of the four, so I had room for the blade, and cut another into thirds. I discarded the center piece and used the outside two to fill in the gap between the two outer pieces.

Unfortunately, I completely forgot to take pictures of... the rest. of construction. sorry. However, I can still provide some step by step instructions:

- Secure the cross guard pieces to each other and the blade using glue. I placed a pencil under and atop each outer circle, then stacked a barbell weight on top to make sure they stayed, and left it overnight.

- For extra strength, use a screw or nail through the intersection of crossguard and blade. Be careful, as this may splinter the  thin crossguard, especially if you’re using softwood.

- Acrylic paste to fill in the gaps between the pieces and create a cohesive surface, including smoothing out the screw or nailhead. I also layered some over the circles, to make them stand out more. These circles also have designs on them, which facilitated one of my favorite uses of acrylic paste. I spooned some into a ziploc bag, clipped the corner off, and... essentially frosted them on. Wait for it to dry, plunk on some contrasting paint, and viola:

Not as finely detailed, I concede, but I was quite happy with it. Illustration aside, before painting:

- Paperclay is used to form the larger, stiffer pieces - the pommel and the band around the base of the blade. Once all those pieces are dry,

- Wrap the leather strip around the handle. I did a few test wraps, then glued down one end, wrapped tightly, and secured the other end also with glue. If possible, staple gunning one or both ends would make a stronger grip, but it frankly won’t go through the same amount of stress as say a hand tool.

- Paint! I used a mix of gold and brown to get the bronze look, and pebeo moon in a dark metallic in an effort to get that marbled iron look. I also used fabric paint on the leather, to help the grip look cohesive, and backed up to that achievement icon to get a handle (heh) on the pattern that’s apparently inlaid and sketched it out.

- Not really a part of the sword proper and I don’t have a ton of pictures, but I did also make a sheath. To make the base, I just laid the sword down, traced one edge of the blade, flipped it over, and traced the other edge. Sew down middle. Sheath. However, I did wet form the sheath when I was done to make it more structurally sound,, and I wanted to provide a Warning: when wetforming a sheath, consider inserting something small to bulk up the blade so that it can be extracted easily. I slid a paint mixing stick in with the sword, and if I hadn’t drawing and sheathing it would be a whole lot clumsier.

That’s about all I got! Have fun, and happy swording.