Wooden Sword

This wooden sword is a great present or toy, especially for young boys. It is hand crafted out of pine, cherry, and leather.

Materials:
• Pine (3/4'' thick)
• Cherry (3/4" or 1 1/4'' thick)
• Leather
• Boiled Linseed oil (or some other finish)
• Hot glue
• Wood Glue
• Glue Stick

Tools I used (you could do it with others):
• Tablesaw
• Planer
• Router
• Drum Sander
• Disc Sander
• Chisel & Hammer
• Chop Saw
• Hot Glue gun
• Bandsaw

If you would prefer to watch a tutorial video rather than read each step, check out this video

I drew a template in Inventor drawings so you could print it out and glue it to the wood, then cut it out. I printed it out using a teacher's banner printer, but you could also print it out at Staples for pretty cheap.

The first one I made was WAY too big. Before you print it, make sure it seems like the right size, 24'' inches wide and about 37'' long. If you wish to replicate my sword exactly, you can print the finalspatula.pdf.

My cherry was rough and too thick.

I planed it down to 3/4''. Then I cut it in half lengthwise, glued the two halves together, and glued the template on. I glued the template on with a glue stick so it would come off easily when I was done with it. Let the glue dry while you work on the next step.

If you bought/have 1 1/4'' thick wood, you don't need to cut it in half and glue it back together.

*If you have a crack in your wood, mark it with a Sharpie. When you glue the two halves together, you may not be able to see where the crack is; but you don't want your parts to have the crack in them.

Cut out the blade part from the printed template. Lay it on the pine and mark where you need to cut it so it is close to the same length as the template.

Transfer the location of the ends of the blood groove from the template to the pine board. I did this by laying the template on the wood and poking a pencil through the paper onto the wood.

Find the center of the board and set up a guide on your router so it will cut down the center of the board. Raise the bit up 1/10 of an inch and cut from the blood groove where marked.

Glue the template to the board so the blood groove on the template matches up with the one on the wood.

Using the templates as a guide, use a bandsaw or jigsaw to cut out the 3 parts (blade/handle out of pine, the cross guard, and the pommel).

Using a 45-degree router bit, router an edge onto the blade of the sword (pine), and the pommel (cherry). I put the pommel in a clamp to router it, as it was quite small.

Mark where you need to chisel out the cross guard and the pommel so it will slide onto the rest of the sword. Start by drilling out as much wood as you can, and then use a chisel to make it cleaner. Go slow as you chisel, don't take too much off in one pass, and work it from both sides. If follow those basic outlines, you should not have blow out (as I did)

After chiseling, sand all the parts very well. I only used 220 as it started out pretty smooth, and 220 was smooth enough for a sword.

Glue the cross guard first, and then add then the pommel. If you try to do it the other way, the cross guard won't fit over the pommel. Clamp the wood together while it dries.

Still using 220, re-sand parts that got dirty or messed up.

Soak (wipe on a lot) the sword in boiled linseed oil for 10-15 min and then wipe the excess off.

Cut a strip of leather and use hot glue to attach it to the handle as you wrap it around.

*Disclaimer: I have never worked with leather before, I did some research to figure out the basics, if you are a leather expert and I did something wrong, please comment.

1. Cut your leather into a rectangle with a long notch on one side.
2. Soak your leather for half an hour.
3. Wrap the part of your sword that will be covered in leather in aluminum foil.
4. Wrap the leather around the sword and tape it.
5. Once it is partially dry, you can take it off of the sword and sort of bake it in the fireplace.
6. When it is dry, and somewhat rigid, sew it together, to make it even more rigid. I used an awl to make holes that the needle went through.

*Disclaimer: I have never worked with leather before, I did some research to figure out the basics, if you are a leather expert and I did something wrong, please comment.

Thanks for reading this Instructables, I hope you like it and found it helpful.

Shoutout to my dad for helping with the table saw and routing the blood groove.

Another shoutout to my friend Willy, who is always helpful.

Comment anything, and vote for me!