MK: DIY Mace

Ever since I was a little kid, I always wanted to be a knight. Knights have weapons, shiny swords usually. However, my favourite weapon was mace. It looks so raw, yet so beautiful. I always wanted to have one, and now I do, and you can too.

Materials: M6 (1/4") threaded rod, ⌀80 (3") alkaline polyamide, chain, ⌀30 (1") dowel, metal scraps, black paint, glue.

Tools: angle grinder with rasp and grinding disc, orbital sander, welder, drill.

To make a ball I first intended to use belt sander with jig. This didn´t work very well, because the polyamide just kept overheating and it went very slow. I used angle grinder with rasp wheel instead. It went significantly faster and the surface wasn´t that bad. It was however little tricky to achieve roundness, so this may require some experience and knowledge of safety rules.

Then I drilled and tapped 18 holes. Again polyamide is sensitive to overheating so I kept the speeds low and used water as coolant and lubricant.

Next I sanded the head with orbital sander and finally I spray-painted it with my favourite matte black paint.

I cut the threaded rod to 20 5cm (2") pieces. I chucked these pieces in a drill press and created the spikeness with angle grinder with grinding wheel. It was little tricky to properly chuck them because if I tightened too much I destroyed the threads, if too little they kept flying out on me. This would go much nicer on a lathe, but I don´t have one, so if anyone of you has one laying around, feel free to send it to me :-).

I cut a piece of steel tubing around 30mm (1 1/4") in length and diameter. Then I welded piece of steel on top of it to create a cup looking thing. Then I cut one link of chain in half and welded it to the "cup". Later I spray painted it black.

This created nice and genuine looking medevial look.

I just glued the dowel in the metal "cup". I probably should used some pins or whatnot but since this isn´t really a weapon, more just a prop, the glue will do. Next I drilled two small holes in the head and bent piece of wire into a U shape. Then I hooked the wire to the chain and hammered it in the head.

Both this joints holds just fine for their needs.

This project turned out really nice and I am very happy with it. I decided to not paint the spikes and that created nice yet not disturbing contrast with black head and brown handle.

This was fun build for me and now all my friends want to play with my mace :-)