Lovecraft's Budget Sword Blade Tutorial ^__^

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I hope this brief tutorial can help aspiring cosplayers who wish to make their own swords but do not have access to wood or technical workshops.

This tutorial is more applicable to traditional western swords with straight blades. You may not be able to use the steps for more complicated ones. I used this method for my deedlit sword and it turned out ok. On to the tutorial !

PS: My elf ears and amour tutorial can be found here ^^

http://forums.sgcafe.com/showthread.php?t=51787

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Materials you need:

1) Paper. You may need to buy something harder than vanguard sheet but is easy to fold
2) Wooden rod. You can find wooden rods of varying thickness from Art [email protected] Bras Braseh. Get one that is not too thin and can support your blade. The one shown in the photo is one of my prototypes and not the actual wooden rod ^^;
3) Aluminium tape. You can get one for $10 from hardware stores
4) ruler
5) small piece of cloth

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1) Cut out the paper according to the length of your blade. Divide into 3 parts, with the shaded part around 1 cm thick

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2) Fold along the lines. Use a ruler and rub along the lines to make the folds more pronounced

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3) Fold the front into 2 parts and back into 2 parts. Your paper should resemble a 5 sided box

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4) Cut a strip of aluminum tape and stick it on the paper. Don't worry if it looks fugly with the wrinkles

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5) Cover the ruler with a piece of cloth and rub out the wrinkles from top to bottom. Repeat a few times if necessary

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6) Now the sides looks smooth and shinny ^^

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7) Cut out another strip of aluminum tape and stick it on the other side of the paper. Don't worry if it overlaps the existing strip of aluminum. Repeat step 5 to smooth out the wrinkles

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8) Use the cloth-covered ruler and re-fold the lines. It should resemble a 5-sided box. Your product should look something like the one below

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9) Pour glue on the shaded area and join the parts together

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10) Cut out the tip of the blade and join the ends with glue as well. Stick the wooden rod into the blade and you are done.

The wooden rod I have used is too thin as I do not have a thicker one on hand. Use a thicker wooden rod so that it can support your blade and make the folds more outstanding

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11) And you are done !

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12) Close up view of the blade

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To make the handle of my deedlit sword, I went shopping at daiso and was lucky enough to find a toy with a hollow wooden handle attached to it. I bought the toy, detached the handle and joined it to the wooden rod.

The center of the blade was made of jumping clay because it is light and the handles were actually the hollow plastic tubes inside click erasers.

I painted the handles using gold acrylic paint