Leftover Pictures from Last Year

trailer trash

I found a bunch of pictures that I had never posted last year I thought I would put on the blog.  The first was a small garbage can (not my original idea) that I made for my dad’s camper.  I teased it here.

routing mastersword

mastersword carnage

Next were two process pictures I took while making the wooden Zelda masterswords.  One was routing the blade edges and the other was the carnage that resulted from their production.

Christmas tree bracing

The final picture is of the repair job I had to do for our Christmas tree.  My initial build was sturdy enough for me to gently move it about, but did not survive so well from our movers last summer.  I took the whole thing apart and added a brace to the entire length of every level, plus a handle to pick the thing up with.

Mini-Master Swords

Mini-Master Sword

Last weekend I had some rare unaccounted for time and was able to crank out a project I’ve been meaning to do for a while.  I took the design my youngest and I put together for his Legend of Zelda Master Sword, and shrunk down quite a bit from the blade and two inches from the handle.  Instead of painting and staining details, I decided to try my hand at chip carving them instead.  (Check out this sword!)  I think for my first foray into that skill it came out ok, but I can definitely use some practice to improve.  I left one of the swords uncarved.

 

Carved and Plain

Chip Carved Cross Guard

Chip Carved Tri-Force

Master Sword Painted – Day 3

Master Sword Painted

We finally finished up the master sword with stain, paint, and a clear coat.

Master Sword stain mask

Master Sword detail paints

Master Sword Painted

Zelda Master Sword – Day 2

Master sword finished

This afternoon after church, we finished the master sword!  Well cutting and assembling, we still need to stain some parts and paint on some details.

I decided that while the jig idea I found would probably have worked, I would just cut the parts on the scroll saw this time to get it done this weekend.  I still have the templates if I want to make any more and build the jigs.  Pictures of the final steps and assembly below.

pieces cut out and “sharp edge” routed

The sled setup I used to dado out the recess that wraps the blade

Gluing on the the crossguards

Cutting triangles for the Tri-Force. I cheat too often and use the computer to draw angles, so I thought I should resort to some 8th grade math.

This was how the sword compared to the cardboard mock-up. We decided to make it longer after we’d cut out the mock-up.

Master sword finished

Zelda Master Sword – Day 1

Crossguard template cut

Blade and handle template cut

Templates screwed to production boards

Quickly trimmed on scrollsaw and ready for first trim bit attempt

Yesterday we got started building my son’s Master Sword from Legend of Zelda.  We started with paper templates to cut some wooden templates from.  The idea was to then screw the templates to the final boards and reproduce them with a router trim bit.

Holding them by hand on my router table caused a ton of chipping, tear-outs, and throwing the wood around.  I’m gonna have to try a jig similar to this or just scrollsaw all the pieces.

Designing a Master Sword

Master Sword

Almost 2 1/2 years ago I built my oldest son a Dwarven Axe to his specifications and now my youngest has decided what he would like me to make him.  He’s been playing lots of Zelda lately, though we don’t have a Switch, and wanted me to build him a wooden Master Sword.  The design above is what I planned out and finally settled on based on pictures and a cardboard mock-up we made to test the scale and measurements.  We bought the board for it last weekend and should be cutting on Saturday.  Hopefully I remember to take pictures throughout the process.  I still haven’t gotten my oldest to decide what he wants to do with his axe.   Teenagers…

sword cardboard mock-up