Wooden Fantasy Knife

Hello my intrepid adventurer friends! Thank you for reading

this Instructable. Have you ever had that moment, when you’re sitting in the back seat of a minivan on a road trip, incredibly bored, and you doodle a funny looking knife, and you suddenly realize, “hey that looks cool” so you take a picture of it, and then promptly forget about it for a year? If so, my friend, then this is the Instructable for you! I’m going to take that old drawing I made in the back of a minivan and make it into a slightly simplified wooden dagger, and I am pleased to have you along for the ride. Now, Further up and further in! Let’s get started.

A drawing to base your knife off of (If you aren’t good at

freehanding drawings, I recommend having a paper copy)

Wood (Mine is not high quality, and yours doesn't have to be. I've done this with paint sticks before)

Gray paint, or black and white paint.

Silver paint

A bead, marble, rock, or similar object about the size of a Jolly Rancher for the pommel stone (if you have a smaller or bigger hilt, adjust the size of the stone to match. Jolly Rancher size was good for me.)

Scrap corrugated cardboard. (chipboard won’t work, you need the thick kind boxes are made from.)

Thick, stiff leather (this is for the tiny little guard. If you don’t have tough leather, sturdy cardboard would probably work.)

Thinner leather (mine is excess from a shoe company. You use this to wrap the hilt, but if you don’t have it, bias tape, ribbon, fabric, or even hockey tape should work, though it would be a different look.)

Equipment:

Scroll saw

File

Sandpaper (if you want a really polished look)

Paintbrushes and a pencil

Hot glue gun.

Tape measure or measuring tape (or calipers, if you want to be fancy)

Exacto knife or similar cutting tool

Scissors

To start, we need to do some research and development. Go to your kitchen and try all your knife handles. Find the one that you like holding the best, in other words the one that fits most comfortably in your hand. To quote many, many adventure books, your weapon should be an extension of your hand. Once you’ve found one that feels right in your hand, use your tape measure to measure the height of the handle. Not from one side to the other, measure from the top to the bottom. Write this number down. You will need it for the next step. I can just freehand this part, because I have made knives for myself before, but if you haven't, this is a useful step.

Get your picture and your piece of wood. Find the flattest part of the wood, and sketch or transfer the drawing onto that part of the wood. Nobody wants a warped knife. I have a warped sword and it drives me crazy, so trust me on this. Now, here is where that measurement comes in. when you draw your hilt, make sure the hilt is that wide. So, if your measurement was ¾ of an inch, your hilt should be ¾ of an inch from edge to edge. This means that when you cut it out, it should be the same thickness top to bottom as the knife that you liked. This means your wooden weapon will be easy to hold onto.

Now it is time for the scroll saw. Carefully cut outside the lines of your drawing until you have the silhouette of your knife. Please be careful, as knives are small and your fingers may get close to the saw blade. If you’re inexperienced, ask someone to help you. Now that you have your silhouette, you’re halfway done!

Get your file and sandpaper. If you want your knife to be the best it can be, sand the entire blade. I didn’t bother, as the surface of mine wasn’t that bad by my standards. If you’re like me, skip that sanding and get a file. Holding the file at an angle, use long strokes to bevel down the edge of your blade. I have done this bit by whittling it thinner with a knife and then using a dremel to sand it, but the file works very well. Flip your knife over and bevel the other side to meet the already beveled side. Now you have a knife edge. My knife has only one sharp edge, as well as a sharp tip, so after doing both sides of the one edge, I was done. Leave your hilt alone, as nothing you do to it will matter at this point.

Now it is time to paint the blade. I have a kind of thin silver paint, so I prefer to paint a grey basecoat on first so it looks better. If you have higher quality silver paint, you shouldn’t need to do a basecoat. I recommend testing your paint on a scrap or on your hilt (remember, nothing you do to it matters). Once your basecoat has dried, do however many coats of silver as you want. It is a good idea to paint a little ways down the hilt, so you don’t have to touch up the join between the hilt and the blade later.

Time to make the little guard piece. Use your ex-acto knife to cut a slot in your thick leather or cardboard that your knife can slide into. Make sure it fits before moving on. Once the slot is the right size, cut out the shape of your guard. If you want your guard to go all the way around, you’ll need to cut a hole in the leather instead of a slot, so you can slide it up the hilt. The slit style means that there is no guard on the top of the knife, which is ok because that side of the knife isn’t sharp. Either way, shape your guard as you like and then move on the next step.

Take your corrugated cardboard, and cut strips or chunks that are a little narrower than the hilt. These will glue onto the hilt to make it thicker and more comfortable to hold. Once your chunks are cut, get out your hot glue gun. Make sure you glue the GUARD onto the knife FIRST. If you glue on the chunks first, it will be really hard to get the guard on. So glue the guard first. Make sure you use a lot of glue, as this part is really the part that breaks easiest. Trim off any excess, and then glue your cardboard chunks on, all the way down the hilt.

Time to start wrapping things up. Literally. Get your thin leather, and cut strips from it. It should be a half inch wide or thinner. Put a blob of hot glue just under the guard and stick the end of the strip on, and then add glue around the hilt and wrap the leather around, securing it every step of the way with more hot glue. Add more strips as needed. Stop about a half inch from the end of the hilt.

Time to put an end to this! Get your bead, marble, or rock and have it ready. Wrap the leather around again until it gets almost to the end of the hilt. If you can’t do a wrap around without reaching or going over the edge, stop. Cover the end of the hilt in hot glue and stick your pommel stone on. Make sure that it’s straight! Nobody wants knife if the pommel stone is too far to one side. It just doesn’t have that fantasy cool factor. Then wrap the leather up around the bottom edge of the stone. The pommel stone is one of the parts that is most likely to break off, so wrapping the leather around it will help keep it attached. Trim your leather strip off and glue down the end.

Your knife is done! Hopefully it’s pretty enough to rival the daggers of fellow LARPers and D&D players. Mine ended up looking a bit like it should belong to a pirate, but other daggers I have made from this method look very different. It all depends on the colors and shapes you use. Thank you for reading, and May Your Swords (and knives) Stay Sharp!