Sylgian's Elucidator (Sword Art Online)

I did some Star Wars in the past and I am coming fresh off of my Warhammer 40k costume. It's time to change hats yet again. This time I am going to do some anime. I recently started watching a few series and found some of them really enjoyable.

Perhaps it was is my prolific MMO addiction, but Sword Art Online really resonated with me (The first half of season one, anyhow). So I have decided to make myself an Elucidator. If you are familiar with the series, "Elucidator" is the item name of Kirito's main hand sword.

In keeping with trying new things, and learning new skills, I will also be venturing into mold making and casting. I figure this will be a great project to cut my teeth on. A hand prop, not too sculptural, not too large. So, if all goes well, I may be doing a limited run of these, and having a few casts for sale. We will wait and see what kind of results I can achieve before jumping that hurdle though. I couldn't sell anything I wouldn't be proud to own.

Here are a few reference pics and my initial trace of the sword.







This is my initial trace. As this is an animated series, there are no official specs, just screen caps and rough math. MY overall length will be 43". The Blade being 35" long and the grip around 8". It seems to be a nice size for a hand-and-a-half sword. I am still tweaking things though and the blade will be made a bit wider than this on the final version.





Stay Tuned!

Re: Sylgian's Elucidator Sword (Sword Art Online)

Supply shopping has also begun. I took a trip to a magical place called Reynolds Advanced Material already and picked up my Silicone and Smooth-on 320, and other mixed bits. They wont be used for a little while yet, but I am excited to give them a try. I will be taking a trip up to Home depot this weekend for my wood. Its almost time to get cutting!

Re: Sylgian's Elucidator Sword (Sword Art Online)

Reynolds Advanced Material - we have one of those out here. LOVE that place!

Re: Sylgian's Elucidator Sword (Sword Art Online)

Out buying more materials again. This time it was harbor freight and lowes. I think we are ready to begin! I'm financially obligated to finish now. Can't wait to start building.

Looks like you're off to a fun start...
Can't wait to see how long it takes to start buying ALL.THE.TOOLS!!!
Seriously...I can't even walk past a Harbor freight without picking something up.

Still perfecting my Elucidator template. Printed it out full scale but it felt a touch too long. Easy fix. Sawdust should start flying this weekend.

Starting to lay down some patterns. I really hope to get cutting this weekend. But it's a busy one. I've got a shed to purchase and a helmet to paint. Fingers crossed.

looks great so far!

I learned a lesson today. That lesson is: If you cut .080 acrylic with a jigsaw.... It shatters like glass, and costs you 20 bucks. We are now using wood

Anything under 0.100" (I've been told you can do it with 0.125 but I personally can't seem to get it right) can be scored with a razor knife and snapped off like styrene. It doesn't leave the super clean edge like styrene does, so leave yourself a little to sand out. 500 grit wet paper on a sanding block leaves a decent enough finished square edge.

Just out of morbid curiosity, why'd you use something so thin? I'd think for a sword you'd want at least 3/8" thick polycarbonate.

Bayouwolf said:

Anything under 0.100" (I've been told you can do it with 0.125 but I personally can't seem to get it right) can be scored with a razor knife and snapped off like styrene. It doesn't leave the super clean edge like styrene does, so leave yourself a little to sand out. 500 grit wet paper on a sanding block leaves a decent enough finished square edge.

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Using an acrylic cutter which is basically just a sharp hook, you can score 1/4 way through and if you have a hard table edge you can just snap it off rather clean. The break line will leave (usually) a 1mm or so bulge out at the far edge toward the snap off point. I recommend keeping the part you want to keep on the table as any snaps will happen in the waste part.

But yeah not the best stuff some times.

Bayouwolf said:

Anything under 0.100" (I've been told you can do it with 0.125 but I personally can't seem to get it right) can be scored with a razor knife and snapped off like styrene. It doesn't leave the super clean edge like styrene does, so leave yourself a little to sand out. 500 grit wet paper on a sanding block leaves a decent enough finished square edge.

Just out of morbid curiosity, why'd you use something so thin? I'd think for a sword you'd want at least 3/8" thick polycarbonate.

Click to expand...

The blade will be a sandwich of a few layers. The thin acrylic will just be the outermost "cutting" edge. It will be much thicker once its all layered together.

Okay! Time to catch this thread up to reality.

Much undocumented progress has been made and, forgive me, I shared very little of it here. This project has been on the back burner for a while, but I recently picked it back up and look forward to frequent sword building progress photos.


Last I left off, my acrylic panel shattered and I switched to a wooden middle panel. Here is what that looked like once cut out:


After that I cut out my two outer layers from 1/4" thick MDF. These are slightly smaller than the thin middle piece. The gap left behind will be filled with Apoxie Sculpt (one of my new favorite things). This will form my bevels. Here are my MDF outer layers, and what they look like cut-out and sandwiched onto my larger, inner layer. These were then glued onto each other with wood glue, clamped and left to dry overnight. I used some temporary pins to keep the layers in-line as well. The three small holes will be covered once the detail bits are glued in place.




The smaller detail panels that adorn the lower part portion of the blade will be accomplished in a similar manner to the blade. One 1/8" layer stuck to a slightly larger 1/8" layer, and a bevel then made with Apoxie sculpt. Check out the pics!



Now that hose are cut out and glued together, it's time for the bevels to be added. As I mentioned above, this was done with Apoxie Sculpt. It's magical stuff! I started with the blade embellishments first and then the blade itself. You can smooth Apoxie sculpt really well with a little water, but a good amount of filing, sanding and finishing was required to get the bevels looking good. You will also see some markings for the small X detail that will be added to these detail pieces in just a bit.




Now for some detail work. I purchased some 1" wooden domes and cut wedges out of them to form and "X" shape from them. I then recessed a hole into my lower blade detail pieces with a 1" forstner bit. The plugs were then dropped into the holes and glued into place. Once the "X" plugs were dry, I added more Apoxie Sculpt around the edges to soften the transitions as well as make an inner bevel for the hole we drilled with the forstner bit.





Finally, last night I glued the decorative panels onto the lower portion of the blade. There is still a great deal of finishing work to do on the blade itself, but before we get to that I will be tackling the handle. Once that is together we can polish everything to a high gloss before CASTING. More updates on the way

Great work on the handle portion! Are you planning to do any form of the detailing (of which there are many incarnations) near the tip of the blade?

I have that same saw, its a great little tool. Nice build

tmorrow182 said:

Great work on the handle portion! Are you planning to do any form of the detailing (of which there are many incarnations) near the tip of the blade?

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Indeed I am. They will be laminated on soon enough. In fact, those little filigree cover the small alignment hole I drilled to help align the blade during gluing.

I cut out the small details for the end of the blade from a board of sintra. These were then super glued in place. After the pictures were taken, I sanded them down a good deal more. I wasn't liking them being so tall. They are lo longer quite so raised.




I also paid Harbor Freight another visit. I mean, how could I possibly create a pommel for the elucidator without a lathe? I had no choice. It took me a few tries to get the hang of the new toy, but I am pleased with the results. The handel components are all done and don't look too shabby. The pomel hides to jam nuts in an interior recess and covers them with a small end cap. I will be doing more finishing work before I epoxy the threaded rod in place. Once that it set in the blade I can bolt this thing together.

Awesome work! I remember seeing this page a long time ago before it went cold for a while. One question, what's the outer diameter of your PVC pipe handle? I ask this because I'm helping my mate build one of these but I'm unsure about the thickness of the handle.

Yesterday I got the threaded rod epoxied in place and was able to secure the handle. IT'S FINALLY A SWORD. Totally was not humming the theme song while taking these. Not at all.




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drjag said:

Awesome work! I remember seeing this page a long time ago before it went cold for a while. One question, what's the outer diameter of your PVC pipe handle? I ask this because I'm helping my mate build one of these but I'm unsure about the thickness of the handle.

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I dont have it front of me, but I an 99% sure the PVC for the handle is 1". I do, however, plan on adding a wrap to it.

Sylgian said:

I dont have it front of me, but I an 99% sure the PVC for the handle is 1". I do, however, plan on adding a wrap to it.

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Thanks. As luck would have it, I recently found a length of 1" pipe so I guess I'm off to a good start on the handle. Good luck with finishing your sword!