Datamancer.net - Technical Art and Steampunk Contraptions

*Handle Construction*
After a few days of hunting I was able to find some 3"x4"x12" blocks of balsa wood to prototype the handle, and some latex to make my fiberglass mold. No larger pic on this one.....it's wood...you've seen it.
I figured the best way to get a roughly symmetrical cutout of the handle was to first trace and cut the design along one axis (side cut), then draw a few guide lines from key structural points on the handle, down and around, and then sort of imagine a silhouette of what it would look like from the front (I had no solid front view image to work from), and use the guide lines to draw it on, then cut the front. In this picture you can see the blade from the cheesy novelty Katana I bought on EBay for $20 (shipping included). It's layed in place on the template so I can see where I need to weld.
After about 3 hours of whittling and sanding, I finally got my (almost) finished product. I drew the "grips" on with pen, trying to decide on a shape for them.
Extreme Closeup!!
Now for the fiberglass handle mold... First I cut the handle in half and layed it inside an old drum head. Then I started covering the pieces in latex rubber. After about the 4th layer, I cut strips of gauze and layered them on top of it to give strength to the mold.
This is after the gauze was applied and coated again with a THICK final coat.
Damn, this rubber takes FOREVER to dry. After a day and a half, the latex had hardened in a shell around the outside of the mold, but the inside was still really soft. I flipped the mold over, and cut some slashes in the drum head to let some air into the bottom of the mold. So as I'm cutting, I say to myself, "self,", I says, "why dont I just cut a larger opening into the drum head and make that the top of mold?", so thats what I did.
Next i poured the mold, and when it dried, it looked terrible..The balsa wood was too porous and the rubber stuck to it, so when I peeled the latex off the mold, it was pulled way out of shape, so the fiberglass was horribly misshapen.
Not to be daunted, I layed a few heavy coats of wood sealer onto the balsa handles and made another mold, this one with more meticulous care and attention (damn im starting to run out of old drum heads)
..and it came out perfectly. The sealer kept the latex from sticking, and the molds kept their shape nicely. Now I just have to sand the bejeezus out of them and carve out the recesses for the blade.
After some sanding and Dremeling, the handle looks exactly like the balsa prototype.

Head on over to the BLADE
Click here to see the finish work and PAINT
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