savagesword
Active Member
I thought I would start a thread that shows my complete scratch build of the Conan Movie Sword #2 (ATL style).
I made my first one about 7 years ago and I was very happy with it. But when I was checking out the movie sword pics again this past year, I realized that my hilt langets weren't as long as the movie sword... almost by 2 inches. After reading a lot of posts here and seeing the level of professionalism here...I was inspired to tackle this again and go for ultimate accuracy!
I gathered as much info as I could about the sword (pics and dimensions) and drew the plans for the blade as accurate as possible. I spent a lot of time deciding how I was going to make the blade... whether to work with a machine shop again or grind them all myself. I'm leaning towards doing as much as I can myself because the machine shop route has taken way, way too long in the past. The only feature that is holding me up is the 6.75" of inscription on the blade. I can go electro-chemical etch or work with a machinist and milling machine. Again, the old 'do it myself' or 'work (wait) with someone else' ... -- :love ...I just had a thought... I do know someone that could help me out ... and wouldn't make me wait for months. ... we'll see. ... as I'm contemplating the blade...let's move to the sculpture.
The first thing I did was to design the 'handle blank' to sculpt on. This blank will serve as the 'hole maker' for the wax castings and ultimately the final bronze castings that encase the sword blade. I need to account for shrinkage of the bronze...so I make my blank handle just a bit bigger than my blade dimensions. I checked the coefficient of expansion for Bronze type material and chose to make the blank about 1/32" larger on each side. This has worked in the past.
I made the handle blank out of aluminum. I actually had the opportunity to see a demo of a CNC machine and we made this part as part of the demo. The CNC only cut the profile...so I had to finish it up by hand using a heavy duty angle grinder and a heavy grit Flap wheel.
The next step is the sculpting material. I have used Super Sculpey in the past with a lot of luck...cause I like working a bit and baking it...so I can handle it easily. I decided to try the new Super Sculpey Professional for better detail work. We'll see how it works.
That's all for now!
I made my first one about 7 years ago and I was very happy with it. But when I was checking out the movie sword pics again this past year, I realized that my hilt langets weren't as long as the movie sword... almost by 2 inches. After reading a lot of posts here and seeing the level of professionalism here...I was inspired to tackle this again and go for ultimate accuracy!
I gathered as much info as I could about the sword (pics and dimensions) and drew the plans for the blade as accurate as possible. I spent a lot of time deciding how I was going to make the blade... whether to work with a machine shop again or grind them all myself. I'm leaning towards doing as much as I can myself because the machine shop route has taken way, way too long in the past. The only feature that is holding me up is the 6.75" of inscription on the blade. I can go electro-chemical etch or work with a machinist and milling machine. Again, the old 'do it myself' or 'work (wait) with someone else' ... -- :love ...I just had a thought... I do know someone that could help me out ... and wouldn't make me wait for months. ... we'll see. ... as I'm contemplating the blade...let's move to the sculpture.
The first thing I did was to design the 'handle blank' to sculpt on. This blank will serve as the 'hole maker' for the wax castings and ultimately the final bronze castings that encase the sword blade. I need to account for shrinkage of the bronze...so I make my blank handle just a bit bigger than my blade dimensions. I checked the coefficient of expansion for Bronze type material and chose to make the blank about 1/32" larger on each side. This has worked in the past.
I made the handle blank out of aluminum. I actually had the opportunity to see a demo of a CNC machine and we made this part as part of the demo. The CNC only cut the profile...so I had to finish it up by hand using a heavy duty angle grinder and a heavy grit Flap wheel.
The next step is the sculpting material. I have used Super Sculpey in the past with a lot of luck...cause I like working a bit and baking it...so I can handle it easily. I decided to try the new Super Sculpey Professional for better detail work. We'll see how it works.
That's all for now!
