Hammer and Sickle Wall Plaque

Intro: Hammer and Sickle Wall Plaque

One of my friends is slightly obsessed with Soviet history, so she asked me to make her this plaque to hang in her apartment.

The plaque is approximately 18" in diameter, and hangs from a wall screw.

Costs about $10 in terms of primer, paint, and assorted wood, and the installation is a cinch.

STEP 1: Find a Template

To find a good pattern, I just Googled "hammer and sickle," and found this.  Then I just scaled and printed it out in Word.  Pretty straightforward I'd say.

STEP 2: Trace It Out

I used a piece 1/2" thick plywood I found in my shop.  I cut out the paper template, taped it to the wood, and traced it with a sharpie.

I did the same thing for the star, which isn't a vital part of the plaque, but still an aesthetic add-on.

STEP 3: Cut It Out

Best tool for this is a jig saw.  Scroll saw could work, but the piece is a bit too big.  

I just clamped it down and cut around carefully.

STEP 4: Sand It Down.

I used my power sander for the surfaces (no more than 120 grit), and mixed-and-matched filing and sanding (with sandpaper sheets) by hand.

The wood had a really ugly color before, and sanding made the grain patterns stand out really well.

STEP 5: Make the Hanging Attachment

I used a 3/4" thick piece of hardwood to make the hanger (1"x1.5" wide), and then glued and clamped it directly to the back of the plaque, approximately 2/3 of the way up, allowing the center of gravity of the whole body to fall a few inches under the hanger attachment.

To make the hanger, I drilled a hole slightly larger than the hanging screw.  Then I used a special router bit that makes hanging slots to make the slot that the screw slides into.

So that the plaque wouldn't wobble on the screw, I stabilized it with the dowel shown below.  I used a 1/4" dowel, so I drilled a shallow 1/4" hole down the line of the center of gravity, and glued/inserted the dowel so that only 3/4" would stick out.

STEP 6: Paint It

I used generic spray primer and yellow spray paint (Home Depot), two layers each, dry time as per directions.

Because my shop has no ventilation, I spread out a small tarp and painted the plaque and the star outside.

Now, after finishing, I contemplated attaching the star to the body using Plexiglas, but that would look fake and tacky.  The star can stand on it own in the angle between the hammer and sickle, but again, its optional. (The original symbol actually doesn't have the star in it, but its a nice Soviet touch).

Since the plaque is pretty light, I just drilled a hole in my friend's plaster wall, inserted a plastic screw anchor, screwed in the screw, and hung it.  Simple installation.

Comments

[spiderobert]

an interesting addition to this would to be to add leds to the bad of it, since it stands off from the wall it would give it a very nice back glow effect :)

[josefu0]

Communism is not that bad. as an idea it heaven but if practice it will not work out well. ppl are different. the point of communism is equality in race, no religion, and have no rights to say what u want. but to improve it split the race and religion to a different place. give them enough food. that my seeing of communism. but i dont want to be one. even the creator of this saids he wasnt a communist.

[skiedra]

Try telling this "Communism is not that bad" to dozens of nations that had the misfortune of living under different communist regimes all over the world.

[tinker234]

wow i have a german coat wore it out got attacked by a liltle mexion boy wow brought that back

[Derin]

"If you do not miss the Soviet Union, you have no heart. If you want it back, then you have no brain." Vladimir Putin

[Phocian]

Sick.

[NutandBolt]

Vell done comrade....:-)

[rocketsurgery]

Hey guyzo35 - love how it turned out... simple technique and really effective... thanks for posting!

[Phil B]

I am glad you explained why you wanted to make a hammer and sickle. You did well on your project.