Plastic Pirate Sword Mod

This instructable will show you how to take a $12 Prince of Persia plastic prop (say that three times fast! Ha!) sword and turn it into something you might actually want to accessorize your pirate costume with.

I had most of this stuff in my crafty closet. You may have to make some purchases. This whole project cost me about $20, but if you have to buy everything, it may look more like a $50-$75 sword/dagger/cutlass, in which case, you might do better to buy a replica anyhow.

The inspiration for this came from TribalDancer and her turorial on modding a pirate gun. Check out her 'ible here: http://www.instructables.com/id/Steampunk-Pirate-Gun-Mod/ . If you want to know what kind of awesome costume either of these accessories could adorn, you can check out a story about my pirate costume on my website, www.ericayoung.com. I'm pretty new around here, but I just finished my first Instructable here so check it out, too: A steampunk necktie corset dress for all (okay, maybe several) occasions!

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Step 1: Gather Supplies

1. Gather your supplies. Unless you're like me and you'd rather just start something and then figure out you need this other thing before you can do that next step and so you run around the house, search the tool box, the craft closet, the couch cushions for that thing that you're pretty sure is around here somewhere...

Or, if you're not like me, you will need:

• coarse & fine sandpaper (100 & 220)
• 1" trim brush - the wispier, the better
• detail paint brush
• scissors
• small file - a metal nail file works fine
• nail clippers
• screwdriver
• strong tape/glue
• masking tape
• some weights - heavy machine screws & fishing weights worked for me.
• pewter & Grecian gold Rub n' Buff paint
• orange, beige, & brick red acrylic paint
• black, brown, & red spray paint
• gold spray paint for fishing weights
• matte acrylic sealer
• newspaper
• terry cloth towel
• spray adhesive
• fabric glue - I used Aleene's
• scrap of red velvet*
• sewing scissors
• needle and thread
• plastic pirate cutlass
• rubber or latex gloves (**optional)
• beer (also optional, but delicious)
• patience

*The red velvet was an afterthought. I will take you through the steps needed to make your scabbard look wooden, and then I will show you how to cover it in velvet or other fabric.

**If you elect not to use latex gloves, your hands will look like this at a minimum. I, personally, do not like to work in gloves because I think it's harder to feel what I'm doing. If you work in a service profession--especially food service--you may want to think twice about this because these paints will hang out on your skin and under your fingernails for a couple of days.