Wolverine Costume with Retractable Claws

Step 4 Retractable claws (claws)

Now take your wooden dowels down to the workbench and have at them with the course sanding tip of your Dremel tool. This is where the artistry comes in -- I started by flattening the bottom and bringing the top to a point, then smoothing out the edges until I had a kind of oval animal-claw shaped top. Then I brought the tip down to a rounded point, with a curve to the end to give the illusion of a slight curve to the claw even though it was actually straight until the tip. Here's the illustration that was my main inspiration.

As for technical details, you want the claw to just fit inside your arm tubes after you've added the stoppers to the back and the metal end tubes to the front. That will allow the claw to slide freely without having the front of the claw catch on the metal end tube, which is a smaller diameter and thus creates a slight ridge. Make sure the claw slides freely through the tube and end tube up until the last couple inches (you may have to sand it down so it will slide freely, and don't forget to account for any paint or foil you'll be adding). You'll want the last inch-and-a-half to two inches of the claw to be of larger diameter, big enough to pass through the main tube freely but too small to fit through the end tube. The transition should be abrupt, with a lip that will strike the inner tube head on. You can wrap electrical tape around the end of the claw until you get the necessary thickness.

Finally, make the claws silver. I used metal foil tape, which is kind of a pain to work with but makes for a great shiny finish. You can also use silver spray paint, though that doesn't give as nice a metallic look. (There's probably a good chrome paint out there that would also work, though I didn't look.)