I've been busy the last few weeks working on a commission of an Iron Man flight stabilizer arm piece (seen here). However, the other day my wife told me I had a "very important commission to do." My four-year-old nephew wanted to be Leonardo from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for Halloween! My wife is going to make the costume, so I was in charge of the hard goods. That meant katanas, throwing stars, and sheath and straps that hold the swords.
Quick backstory: About four weeks ago, my nephew Zach was diagnosed with a form of leukemia. It is ALL type B, which is completely treatable and curable, and children his age have a 90.7% cure rate. Within a couple of days of his diagnosis, he began his chemo therapy. In the last four weeks he has undergone several chemo treatments, including a daily regimen of pills and shots, and a weekly visit to the clinic for his chemo injections. He began losing his hair in clumps, so they shaved his head. This news flipped our close-knit family upside down, but we have all grown because of it. We are all participating in the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Light The Night walk this coming Sunday night to raise money, a foundation has been created in Zach's honor to help pay for medical bills (if anyone is interested in more information, please PM me
), and my wife even designed and organized a t-shirt run at a local print shop to help raise money. So my wife wasn't lying when she said this was an important commission indeed!
On to the build.
This is just a quick, less detailed build, especially since it is just for Halloween. I wanted to make the katanas very lightweight since Zach has grown weak due to the steroid treatments. I thought I could carve the blades and then mold and cast them, but my wife thought that was a bit much :lol Instead, I turned to my old friend balsa wood! I haven't worked with balsa in years, and I had forgotten what a dream it is to shape and sand. I started with a couple pieces of 1/4" x 3" x 36" balsa, and drew out my basic shape. Once I came up with something I was happy with, I trimmed it to size.
Next I started to sand everything into shape. Since these are for a four year old, I didn't want to have a sharp edge on them (even though it's just balsa), so I left about a 1/16" edge on the "blade." After sanding, I coated the pieces in a diluted wood glue solution to help hide some of the wood grain. I gave each piece 3 coats.
For the handles, I cut some 1" PVC pipe to size, and popped an end cap on one end. I sand them down a little, primed them, and then sprayed them gold.
Once the wood pieces were dry, I gave each piece another quick sanding, and then hit them with some primer. Then I sprayed them with a quick coat of some silver spray paint.
Lastly, I just hot glued the handles on to the blades. All that is left is to get some leather to wrap the handles! :thumbsup
Quick backstory: About four weeks ago, my nephew Zach was diagnosed with a form of leukemia. It is ALL type B, which is completely treatable and curable, and children his age have a 90.7% cure rate. Within a couple of days of his diagnosis, he began his chemo therapy. In the last four weeks he has undergone several chemo treatments, including a daily regimen of pills and shots, and a weekly visit to the clinic for his chemo injections. He began losing his hair in clumps, so they shaved his head. This news flipped our close-knit family upside down, but we have all grown because of it. We are all participating in the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Light The Night walk this coming Sunday night to raise money, a foundation has been created in Zach's honor to help pay for medical bills (if anyone is interested in more information, please PM me
), and my wife even designed and organized a t-shirt run at a local print shop to help raise money. So my wife wasn't lying when she said this was an important commission indeed!On to the build.
This is just a quick, less detailed build, especially since it is just for Halloween. I wanted to make the katanas very lightweight since Zach has grown weak due to the steroid treatments. I thought I could carve the blades and then mold and cast them, but my wife thought that was a bit much :lol Instead, I turned to my old friend balsa wood! I haven't worked with balsa in years, and I had forgotten what a dream it is to shape and sand. I started with a couple pieces of 1/4" x 3" x 36" balsa, and drew out my basic shape. Once I came up with something I was happy with, I trimmed it to size.
Next I started to sand everything into shape. Since these are for a four year old, I didn't want to have a sharp edge on them (even though it's just balsa), so I left about a 1/16" edge on the "blade." After sanding, I coated the pieces in a diluted wood glue solution to help hide some of the wood grain. I gave each piece 3 coats.
For the handles, I cut some 1" PVC pipe to size, and popped an end cap on one end. I sand them down a little, primed them, and then sprayed them gold.
Once the wood pieces were dry, I gave each piece another quick sanding, and then hit them with some primer. Then I sprayed them with a quick coat of some silver spray paint.
Lastly, I just hot glued the handles on to the blades. All that is left is to get some leather to wrap the handles! :thumbsup
