Neither rhyme nor reason

Toy Wooden Sword Construction from a pro!

Posted by Martin Visser on October 14th, 2007 — Posted in kids, shed

  Tags: kids, shed

My youngest son has for a long time had a fascination with all things to do with combat. Most of his make-believe time is concerned with sword-wielding warriors or gun-toting aliens. A few times we supplied him with plastic armaments that are available in two dollar shops and even your quality toy store. However at hour place, these never last more than a few tournaments. Also, swords seem to be about 1/4 scale – not much fun for real play fighting. So a few birthdays ago under cover of darkness, I spent a few evenings putting together a sword and shield. It certainly has stood up to the rigours of combat , as well as impressing a few other kids and their dads. After a bit of a lull on the battlefront, the son has renewed interest of late – however having only one sword has meant his combatants have been at a disadvantage, often having to use regular sticks or cardboard rolls for their weapon. Also, because these inferior weapons don’t have guard or hilt, the other party often gets a good whack on their hand – mum was the latest casualty. I succumbed to the pressure this weekend, and below is a bit of a photo log of the construction of a second sword.

Basically, it is constructed from standard plywood, 5 ply 12mm for the sword base, and some 3 ply 7mm to add some strength and thickness for the hilt and handle. You will need some construction glue to laminate the pieces together. Tools are just a jigsaw, an angle grinder with a flap wheel (to tidy up the edges) and a rotary tool with grinding wheel (to do finer smoothing) and a possibly a ball cutter to make the fullers (or “blood grooves”).

Any way, basically this might be something to make for your kids for Christmas – hopefully it might even last a little while and become a family heirloom!

I made a template in Inkscape and traced this onto the 5 ply.

Make another two hilts from the 3 ply and glue, sandwich and clamp these. You can also screw them – I used chipboard screws with a square drive for good effect.

You will want to use grinder with a flap wheel and a rotary tool for finishing it off

After adding the blood groove and sanding it smooth all over it is ready for painting

The shield is also made from 3 ply. I cut up an old belt and used brass screws and nuts and a large washer to make the handles.

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