Atlas
Well-Known Member
Hi guys,
The hyperborean sword has been on my To do-list ever since I first read Witchfinder, and when my current studies put various methods of metalworking at my disposal, of course, I instantly started thinking props. Since this was pretty much a pet project I worked upon while running between other things, I couldn't take as many pictures of the process as I would have liked, but hopefully they illustrate the build process well enough =)
View attachment 432366
I based my build off of this particular pic. In Hellboy-universe (which Witchfinder is a part of), the sword later appears, but the design is slightly different. I like the idea of a broken swordblade being repurposed into a smaller sword/knife, so I wanted the shattered edge look for my blade.
View attachment 432365
Since I was going to cast the blade out of bronze, I needed to make a master sculpt. I built a "skeleton" of the blade from scrap steel, and filled the voids with wax.
View attachment 432369
The sandmold (well, a half of it) with the fresh cast blade still in it. Sand molds are good for things you don't need multiple copies of, since the mold is destroyed in the process. Since I needed just one, that's the way I went.
The cast blade next to the master sculpt. Sand casting generally doesn't have very good fidelity, but most of the flaws were easily sanded away.
Some time passed without process pictures, but basically I spent a few evenings at the belt sander smoothing the thing up, slowly getting to finer and finer grits, until I finally polished the blade into a mirror sheen. Some casting flaws in the blade were too deep to be sanded off, but they're nothing I couldn't live with. Below the blade here is a piece of birch I made the handle from.
After sanding the handle into a more user-friendly shape, I mocked it into place.
I stained the handle with two different shades of woodstains to get a dark, almost exotic color to it. After the stain dried, I sealed it with a double layer of carnauba wax.
And finally finished. I will re-wrap the handle and blade together with thinner, wider leather strap that I bought from a friend of mine.
And finally, on my way home, I stopped in a nearby forest to snap a few pictures. Wintery fir forest works well with the intended Hyperborean origins of the blade. =D
The hyperborean sword has been on my To do-list ever since I first read Witchfinder, and when my current studies put various methods of metalworking at my disposal, of course, I instantly started thinking props. Since this was pretty much a pet project I worked upon while running between other things, I couldn't take as many pictures of the process as I would have liked, but hopefully they illustrate the build process well enough =)
View attachment 432366
I based my build off of this particular pic. In Hellboy-universe (which Witchfinder is a part of), the sword later appears, but the design is slightly different. I like the idea of a broken swordblade being repurposed into a smaller sword/knife, so I wanted the shattered edge look for my blade.
View attachment 432365
Since I was going to cast the blade out of bronze, I needed to make a master sculpt. I built a "skeleton" of the blade from scrap steel, and filled the voids with wax.
View attachment 432369
The sandmold (well, a half of it) with the fresh cast blade still in it. Sand molds are good for things you don't need multiple copies of, since the mold is destroyed in the process. Since I needed just one, that's the way I went.
The cast blade next to the master sculpt. Sand casting generally doesn't have very good fidelity, but most of the flaws were easily sanded away.
Some time passed without process pictures, but basically I spent a few evenings at the belt sander smoothing the thing up, slowly getting to finer and finer grits, until I finally polished the blade into a mirror sheen. Some casting flaws in the blade were too deep to be sanded off, but they're nothing I couldn't live with. Below the blade here is a piece of birch I made the handle from.
After sanding the handle into a more user-friendly shape, I mocked it into place.
I stained the handle with two different shades of woodstains to get a dark, almost exotic color to it. After the stain dried, I sealed it with a double layer of carnauba wax.
And finally finished. I will re-wrap the handle and blade together with thinner, wider leather strap that I bought from a friend of mine.
And finally, on my way home, I stopped in a nearby forest to snap a few pictures. Wintery fir forest works well with the intended Hyperborean origins of the blade. =D
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