epilepticsquirl
Sr Member
Hey all,
First I want to thank those of you who voted for me in the last custom weapon contest. I can't tell you how happy I was to see votes. I had such fun with the build that I decided to do a second one! I even had the foresight to snap a couple of pictures with my camera.
As some of you may have noticed, my gladius as seen here had a bone handle. Everything else was wood.
I found both my bones at Petco. Ya gotta search for the right one but you're bound to find one.
This is probably one of the more smellier builds I've done. If you don't know allready, sanding bone smells really bad. Thankfully my trusty belt sander makes quick work of the bone. I loaded up some 50 grit sand paper and went to work leveling and squaring off all the sides.
and the beautiful mess it makes
You can see the two files I used to make the grip grooves on the handle. Yulp, all those grooves are hand carved!
For the blade itself I used a Pine craft board I got at lowes. It's the perfect width and thickness for my needs. After getting intimate with the Compound Mitre Saw, I got the basic shape cut out. I used a scroll saw for the tang portion.
Armed with my plunge router I made a groove down the center of both sides of the blade. It just makes it look cooler.
I then scribed the center thickness of the blade and got to work again with the belt sander. Armed again with 50 grit I went to work making oh such sweet love to the wood.
This is actually a profile shot of the blade. Top hand portion isn't shaped as much as the bottom portion. Just to give you a general Idea of how it went. Just gotta be careful with the 50 grit. It's like feeding cookies to cookie monster, damn thing just gobbles it up!
Here I got the profile roughed out. Notice the deep gouges the 50 grit does to the material.
and after I hit it with 150 grit!
To further shape the blade and make that sexy curve on the gladius, i simply sanded it away with my orbital sander. Here it is after as I'm test fitting the block.
The hole through the block was chiseled by hand for that perfect fit. To round it out I turned yet again to my trusty belt sander to get this.
Of course at this point I just have to test fit everything!
Once all the pieces are sanded smoothed and wiped clean, it's time for stain! Here you can see three of the four components of my gladius waiting for me to stroke it.
But since Pine is a softwood, it blotches easily when you stain it. To prevent that, I slapped some pre-stain conditioner onto the parts and let dry.
I applied the stain and let it set for about 15 minutes before i let it dry. I'm using a red mahogany stain and just love the look of that deep rich color. Once that was dry I slapped on the first coat of gloss clear.
Pretty aint it? Not after i sanded it smooth with 250 grit.
Don't fret, I coated it again with another layer of clear and got my awesome mirror finish that I love.
Unfortunately I couldn't leave well enough alone and decided to sand and coat some more. didn't come out the way I wanted but oh well. At lease it's time for final assembly! Here's everything ready to be put together.
I took some scrap wood and made some shims out of it. This is so I can get a real nice tight fit. Once you get it hammered in there you'll be surprised how little to no wiggle there is. I applied
Same technique was done with the handle, except I used bigger shims.
Once I got the handle in a position I was happy with, I gently beated the shims into submission with a rubber mallet. Again, the fit i superb and no wiggle! Then I cut the shims flush with the handle.
I got this wooden ball from lowes. It's got this metal screw for mounting, but if you take the screw out and reverse it, it's got a gnarly self tapping screw that's allready centered. :thumbsup I made a pilot hole in the center of the shims and screwed that sucker in.
And voila! A custom made display piece! I had a lot of fun making these things. lemme know what you think! Thanks guys and gals!
First I want to thank those of you who voted for me in the last custom weapon contest. I can't tell you how happy I was to see votes. I had such fun with the build that I decided to do a second one! I even had the foresight to snap a couple of pictures with my camera.
As some of you may have noticed, my gladius as seen here had a bone handle. Everything else was wood.
I found both my bones at Petco. Ya gotta search for the right one but you're bound to find one.
This is probably one of the more smellier builds I've done. If you don't know allready, sanding bone smells really bad. Thankfully my trusty belt sander makes quick work of the bone. I loaded up some 50 grit sand paper and went to work leveling and squaring off all the sides.
and the beautiful mess it makes
You can see the two files I used to make the grip grooves on the handle. Yulp, all those grooves are hand carved!
For the blade itself I used a Pine craft board I got at lowes. It's the perfect width and thickness for my needs. After getting intimate with the Compound Mitre Saw, I got the basic shape cut out. I used a scroll saw for the tang portion.
Armed with my plunge router I made a groove down the center of both sides of the blade. It just makes it look cooler.
I then scribed the center thickness of the blade and got to work again with the belt sander. Armed again with 50 grit I went to work making oh such sweet love to the wood.
This is actually a profile shot of the blade. Top hand portion isn't shaped as much as the bottom portion. Just to give you a general Idea of how it went. Just gotta be careful with the 50 grit. It's like feeding cookies to cookie monster, damn thing just gobbles it up!
Here I got the profile roughed out. Notice the deep gouges the 50 grit does to the material.
and after I hit it with 150 grit!
To further shape the blade and make that sexy curve on the gladius, i simply sanded it away with my orbital sander. Here it is after as I'm test fitting the block.
The hole through the block was chiseled by hand for that perfect fit. To round it out I turned yet again to my trusty belt sander to get this.
Of course at this point I just have to test fit everything!
Once all the pieces are sanded smoothed and wiped clean, it's time for stain! Here you can see three of the four components of my gladius waiting for me to stroke it.
But since Pine is a softwood, it blotches easily when you stain it. To prevent that, I slapped some pre-stain conditioner onto the parts and let dry.
I applied the stain and let it set for about 15 minutes before i let it dry. I'm using a red mahogany stain and just love the look of that deep rich color. Once that was dry I slapped on the first coat of gloss clear.
Pretty aint it? Not after i sanded it smooth with 250 grit.
Don't fret, I coated it again with another layer of clear and got my awesome mirror finish that I love.
Unfortunately I couldn't leave well enough alone and decided to sand and coat some more. didn't come out the way I wanted but oh well. At lease it's time for final assembly! Here's everything ready to be put together.
I took some scrap wood and made some shims out of it. This is so I can get a real nice tight fit. Once you get it hammered in there you'll be surprised how little to no wiggle there is. I applied
Same technique was done with the handle, except I used bigger shims.
Once I got the handle in a position I was happy with, I gently beated the shims into submission with a rubber mallet. Again, the fit i superb and no wiggle! Then I cut the shims flush with the handle.
I got this wooden ball from lowes. It's got this metal screw for mounting, but if you take the screw out and reverse it, it's got a gnarly self tapping screw that's allready centered. :thumbsup I made a pilot hole in the center of the shims and screwed that sucker in.
And voila! A custom made display piece! I had a lot of fun making these things. lemme know what you think! Thanks guys and gals!
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