Easy Soft Sword

OK, I am quite sure anyone here could make this without much difficulty, and I am also quite sure there are better ways of doing this. But, this is very a very simple way of building a fun sword, and the big thing is that is was something that really let my 6 year old daughter and I work on a project together. And they are a lot of fun after finished too.

Also note these are all of the tools I used. Knife, saw, and measuring tape.

I used a hack saw, typically thought of more for cutting metal, because I wanted my 6 year old to help. It is "her" saw. It actually does a great job of cutting the wood, and quite safe for her. Much safer than the utility knife, which I was quite scared every time she used! (but still let her, she is quite safe and careful; and, has to learn.)

I also have made these in the past with 1/2" dowels, but they eventually break under the force of my nephew! So I now do the largest dowel I can fit in the noodle! Which is 5/8" in these noodles.

As for the duct tape. I have some 357 high quality duct tape, but mostly just used colorful tape I bought from Home Depot. Whatever you have will work great.

5/8" wooden dowel

Pool noodle

Duct tape

Also needed:

Knife

Saw

Measuring tape

For the most part I was wanting a "arming sword", "broadsword", or "long sword", something like that. But how big were those things!??! And what size would work best for my kids!!?

What I started out was a sword with a 30" "blade". This turned out to not only be on the long end of things for this type of sword, it was also a little too big for my kids. It turns out long swords were made with blades between 18 and 30". So I should have known 30" was too much, this is why you do your research.

With this knowledge I went back and made a few more. One with a 22" blade, and another with a 15" blade. (OK, the 15" was just because that was the left over parts I had, it's really more a long parrying dagger. (it's also the favorite for inside play).

All this to say... I WAY over think this sort of thing (but hey, thats why I enjoy it!). Basically take a stick, see about how long looks good for you, and cut your sword to that size! (really, use the yard stick, duel with those a bit. Figure out what feels right.)

So I am mostly going to focus on my 22" blade. It is the one that is the best for my kids. It's on the short side for me, but really not that bad. Much more wieldable than the 30" ones!

So let's start with the dowels from Home Depot are 48" long. I cut them down to 28".

Wait 28"!?!? You said you were going to make these 22" blades?!!?

Well, there is more than the blade, and the point of these blades is that they are soft foam, you don't want the dowel to go all the way to the tip. You want to make sure that there is about 2" of pool noodle past the end of the dowel.

In addition to that also have to account for about 2.5" in the cross guard.

Finally you have the handle. This needs to be about 5 to 6" in size, This allows for a pommel on the end as well. The more I made the more I was more like 5" or less is fine. The 6" basically allows a you a hand and a half sword, or two handed sword for my kids. I used 6" for the 30" monstrosities, 5 and 4.5" for the 22" and 15" sharks. basically 2 handed, half and a half, and single handed for my kids.

One thing you will also notice is that I rounded the ends of the dowels with a belt sander. This is not needed as the ends of the dowels are well covered, but I had it so I did.

The foam was quite easy to cut, just use a sharp knife. This one was really not all that sharp! Still made me nervous to let my 6 year old do it, but she does great.

The blade lengths has been determined already, but the cross guard was not. Just eye ball it. Hold it up there, and cut where it looks good. For me the longer blades used 8" cross guards, and the smaller ones used 7". They look about right.

The noodle just slides on the stick (the noodles I have were tight on a 5/8" dowel, which is great). Also, don't forget to leave about 2" in the end so you don't have the dowel sticking out the end of the sword. Sticking your finger in the end of the noodle will help determine how much noodle is left.

The cross guard will need a hole to slide on. Just measure the center of the cross guard and cut a 1/2" hole in the noodle. Don't worry if it goes all the way through, and don't worry about the size. Just get it close. Do a hole on both sides, that way the dowel will go through OK.

Also I notch the "blade" so that the cross guard will better fit. Nothing fancy, just cut a chunk that is about the size the cross guard will fit into.

Now, just slide it all together.

The first strip of duct tape is the big high quality 357 tape I have, but anything you have will be fine. I do one big strip from end to end to help hold everything together.

Also note that there are a lot of cuts in the duct tape where it wraps around transition areas. That is just to try and get it to lay down nicer, but don't worry, you will have plenty of wrinkles. If not, you are not letting you kid help enough!

The next wrap I start with is some of the strength wraps.

You want to make sure you have tape covering all of the pool noodles. You also want to have some long lengths, but also some spirals around the blade.

The first few of these I made I did mostly lengths of tape down the blade, so it didn't have the spirals. This looked better, epically as I make some smaller lengths of tape along the top of the duct tape. the issue is that it took very little before the tape stared to come off. The spirals stay on much better.

Also make some passes around the cross guard. It is also important to wrap some on the handle and the cross guard. This helps hold everything together better, esp for the smaller blades.

Next I do a few decorative wraps. You can see I ether start them at 45 degrees off the cross guard, or even better extended it and do a wrap around the cross guard. This will hold things together better.

These wraps do provide some strength, so you do need some, but they are mostly decorative.

For the handle I think I have been watching "Forged in Fire" too much!

I start my handle by wrapping around the cross guard, and then one wrap high on the handle. This helps tie the cross guard to the dowel. From there I wind the duct tape into a twisted "cord", and wrap this around the dowel. This wrap forms finger holds for better gripping the sword.

At the end of the dowel keep wrapping the duct tape to form a pommel. Wrap and twist and wrap. This will build it up as a ball (the twits will build the center, the flat wraps will hold it all in place).

Once this is all done a few lengths of duct tape will make the handle smooth (comfortable) but with a grip (something the slick side of duct tape does not have much of), and a pommel that will help you keep a hold of it. (AKA, help to keep it from flying across the room into the TV!)

There you go. They are a lot of fun. You can get whacked pretty hard by them and not do any real damage.

But for me it was more fun to have a project my daughter an I could do that was more than "sit there and watch".