For our practicum final the class with tasked with creating a project out of wood. We were given the restraints that any material or tool used had to be readily available for public use which means no specialized tools. (cnc machine, plasma cutter, laser cutter, etc, etc.) We decided to make the Master Sword from The Legend of Zelda but from multiple changes in dimensions and shape from our original idea we actually just changed the final product into a standard wooden practice sword.

Step 1: Materials and Tools

We used the materials and tools below however many of them can be substituted for something similar in your own design.

Materials:

2x4
MDF (Or decent sized scrap wood at least a inch in thickness)
Metal dowel or rod

Tools:

Wood Glue
Belt Sander
Table Saw
Wood Stain

I very much recommend the belt sander if you are using hard wood for the blade. We used a 2x4 so it wouldn't be impossible to hand sand but good luck not wanting to be done with the project after you have been sanding for 5 hours.

Step 2: Design and Cut Your Sword.

We used inventor to draw out dimensions for the sword, originally we used the dimensions of the Master Sword from Legend of Zelda but we did make small changes to better fit the tools we had at our disposal.

We didn't have any 1x4 so we used a table saw to cut a 2x4 in half to make the piece we needed.

Once we got the sword drawn out we used the table saw to cut out the lines we drew to create our final design without the edges.

Step 3: Sanding, Sanding, and More Sanding

The way we created the edge was drawing a line down the middle of the blade on all four sides of the rectangle piece and make all 4 edges meet on each side to create a "sharp" edge. As sharp as wood can get at least. I would recommend starting from the top and finding what angle you want with one side so you can mirror the exact angle on the other sides. We actually finished off a entire belt by grinding down a 2x4 with this method and had to get a new belt for the sander. If you really wanted to you could try to hand sand the piece but I doubt you would get very far in your endeavor.

Step 4: Creating the Guard and Hilt.

We designed the guard in inventor and used a cnc machine to cut out the piece. If you don't have a cnc lying around you could always use a table saw, dremel, angle grinder, etc to make make the cuts.

The hilt was just found from a scrap wood pile and cut down to size to make some adequate to hold.

Step 5: Dowel Rods and Wood Glue

We decided to use a metal rod to attach the 3 pieces together and wood glue to make it hold. We found the longest drill bit we could and drilled as far down the hilt and blade as we could and straight through the guard. We accidentally drilled at a angle with the blade so we had to bend the metal to adjust so be careful to cut a cleanly and straight as possible.

Test fit your parts then cut off any excess rod you have to get the right length then get ready to use wood glue. We actually used too much glue and it all fell to the bottom of the blade so we had to force the rod in place to get it to hold in. With enough force we got everything to hold and after drying overnight we had a somewhat finished product.

Step 6: End Product

To touch up we used duck tape on the hilt and we stained the guard poorly which got onto the blade so with hindsight it may be batter to stain or paint your pieces before you put them together.