Introduction: War Club

About: Amateur Inventor.
I vaguely modeled this off the Native American Gunstock War Club (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunstock_war_club) without the metal spike of course.

Materials-
• Hardwood (Dimensions 54 cm x 15 cm x 5cm)(Hardwood is preferable because it looks awesome and when bashing things it’s much less likely to dint)
• Decking oil (I used Cabot’s two stage decking oil just because I had some, you could use varnish with a lacquer)
• String (possibly twine)
• Wood glue
• Turps (depends on what oil you use)

Tools-
• Bench or angle grinder
• A work surface that you can cut on (I used a two saw horses)
• F clamps
• Drill (and appropriate drill bit)
• Eye and hearing protection (When cutting/sanding/planering)
• Vice
• Paintbrush
• Scissors
• Pencil
• Ruler
• Power planer (or normal plane, it’ll just take longer)
• Sander (Sand paper descending in roughness)(e.g. 80 grit, 120 grit, 160 grit)

Note- I'm sorry for the lack of good build photos, I don't think they were exactly needed because it seemed a bit straight forward

Step 1: Marking Out and Cutting

Wear hearing protection when cutting

Take your desired piece of wood and mark out the rough shape of what you want with some pencil, use a ruler to keep it straight.
Cut along the lines and get a rough shape. Remmeber to keep it secure.

Step 2: Power Planering and Grinding

Wear hearing protection and mask when grinding/planering

Plane to your desired angle. Remember to keep the wood secure when planering. Try not take off too much, but don't leave too much (otherwise you'll be doing a lot of sanding), just find a nice equilibrium.

Once you've got it all planed, move on to getting the fin rolled in at the bottom. I used a bench grinder because my angle grinder is broken at the moment. Be careful when using either because the wood will smolder (and possible catch on fire). There is most likely a better way to do this but I'm a dodgy carpenter.

(leave a comment if you have any ideas)

Step 3: Sanding

Wear hearing protection and mask when sanding

Start with a rough grit and work down the sharp edges and try to roll in any flat surfaces, don't do too much with the rough grit as it will make it harder to work out the deep scratches with lighter grit sandpaper. Try and work it back too atleast a point where you can run your hand along it and it feels smooth.
With the ends that will most likely be hard to roll in, make sure you don't apply heaps of pressure otherwise you'll tear through the paper and damage the sander.

Step 4: Wrapping the Handle

This is easy but takes a little bit to-do. First, find out how long you want your string grip to be, mark it with masking tape. Pick two points, one at either end of the length of your grip and drill straight through to the other side. Thread the string through and tie it off (I put some glue in the holes to make it hold, if youre going to thread the end of your wrapping into one of your holes then don't fill it up yet).

Put a centremetre strip of glue around where you're going to start and get wrapping. When you've reached the end thread it through the hole and add some glue. There're probably better ways of doing this but this is just my bit of workshed engineering.           

Step 5: Oiling

Because I used hardwood,  decided that it's be best to use decking oil. I used Cabats decking oil, which is like a two stage sort of thing. Some tips when it comes to oiling, get it sanded down smooth but don't spend heaps of time sanding it before you're first coat because the first coat will make it a bit rough again. When you've finished oiling, bake it in the sun for a while than give it a rub down with a clean cloth to give it a shine

Step 6: Smash Some Boxes

As the title says, get smashing. If you use hardwood, I cannot think of a box that will survive the smashery that can be induced by this awesome ornamental club. Remeber people aren't boxes so don't smash them .

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