Steampunk tennis rackets

Step 7 Face the bat with clear plastic

The vertical vanes are clearly not good as a batting surface. the Victorians took great pride in their engineering. Detail and finish were important to them, as it happens polish and finish also make the product last longer and help materials perform at their optimum. Polishing removes surface scratches which mean that the product is less prone to fatigue fracture. It also means that the working were often proudly put on display. Our steampunk bat is no different, those strengthening vanes are going to be displayed.

Cover the vanes using a thin sheet of plastic cell. I got mine from the top of an old Christmas cracker box that was left over from Christmas and waiting for next year I guess, but you could also use an overhead projector slide, some OHP inkjet media, or some clear drawing cell.

This is quite a tricky step and I recommend that you line the glue carefully along the top edges of the strips over about half or one third of the area, depending on how quick and steady you hand is, and then lay the cell over that and stick it down and let it set. The bend it up and line in a bit more of the top edges with glue and let it stick down and so on until you have stuck the film as neatly as possible on to the tops of the scroll work vanes.