Grim Reaper Scythe

As part of my costume this year I built a scythe.  I didn't take pictures as I was going for a full instructable since I was making it up as I went along, but here are some pictures of the finished product.  hopefully they can serve as inspiration to some others.

They scythe is made from an old 8' length of wooden curtain rod I had lying around and a plank of pergo flooring I grabbed out of someone's trash after a remodeling job.

I cut the pergo into the shape of the blades with my rotary saw, sanded everything smooth,  and then attached them to the handle by cutting a slit into the top of the curtain rod, drilling holes through all the pieces, and bolting them together.  Once all pieces were attached I spray painted the blades and top part of the rod silver.  NOTE: It would help to sand the smooth pergo surface before painting.  I didn't and the paint scratches off easily =(

Once it was all painted I decided it needed some decoration.  I used a silver acrylic artists paint mixed with a little black to paint the details on the blades, including the 'sharp' edge effect.  Then I found some random stuff lying around the house to give the top some coutour.  I used a few pieces of pipe insulation, a strip of rubber welcome mat (pieces left over from making home made bases), and pieces of foam bowling pins from my sons' old kiddie bowling set that they don't use any more.  After all was positioned, I hot glued them all in place and then spray painted them all silver, masking off my already painted blades and the top part of the staff.

After all the silver paint was finished I did some light coats of black and brown to give the metallic pieces a tarnished look.  I also heavily painted the staff with black spray paint and then wiped it off lightly with a rag.  This left the grooved in the curtain rod darkened and just slightly darkened the rest of the staff.

I still needed a bit more to get the look I was after, so I added some fake leather strips and fringe.  I did some rough sewing with jute twine and fake leather (mine had a white, fuzzy back, so I hit it with black, brown, and red spray paint) to stitch the pleather together.  Then I tied a bunch of natural raffia (again sprayed darker with black and brown paint) to the top.  I finished the look with a bead, wood, and human tooth garland.  Of course I couldn't use real human teeth, so I cut small pieces of foam rubber (again from an old baby puzzle mat toy that my boys outgrew years ago).  Then I spray painted them white and added some detailing with different shades of brown and black acrylic artists paint.  The wood is just a few branches from my yard broken up into 4-6" chunks with holes drilled in them.  The beads are the only thing I purchased.  I had my wife pick up a bag of red plastic beads that were about $2 for 500 beads.  I only used a few dozen.

With the entire thing put together I think it looks pretty good and it cost almost nothing except time!