I've had a number of requests
to post a tutorial of some sort about how I made my
Kubikiri Houcho, more commonly known as the giant sword
wielded by Zabuza in the anime "Naruto". I
took pictures during most of the process, so hopefully
this will be a help to those of you looking to make
some sort of sword on your own. You should be able to
adapt this for making other swords.
Please excuse the rough look
of the page--it was done quickly and posted, until I
have time to clean it up.
Tools and Materials
Materials
More Information
Rigid Insulation Foam
This is used to form the
actual bulk of the sword. The best place I've found to buy it
is at a lumber yard, but there are certainly other locations.
Your local hardware store will probably NOT carry this. The
sheets I used came in 2'x8'x2".
Fiberglass cloth
Fiberglass cloth is a "cloth"
made out of strands of fiberglass, woven together. Combined
with epoxy, it will make a strong, yet very light coating.
It is commonly used on surfboards. It comes in rolls of varying
length and sizes. There are primarily two types of fiberglass
cloth. The first is a "plain weave". This is more
suited for large flat surfaces with fewer curves and "hard
to reach" places. You can see what it looks like below.
.
The second kind you'll probably encounter
is a "satin weave". It is more pliable, and useful
for complicated contours, or spherical shapes. If the object
your building has a lot of curves or rounded bits, this may
be a better choice. You can see what it looks like here.
Ultimately, check the details on whatever
you do buy, as there are variations. You may want to shop
around online for this stuff.
Epoxy
Epoxy is a coating used
to cover and seal the fiberglass cloth. It comes in two parts:
a resin, and a hardener. The mix ration depends on what brand/type
you use, but is often 2:1. Depending on what sort of fiberglass
cloth you use may determine what type of epoxy to use. You can
probably get suggestions from the retailer. System Three makes
a general purpose epoxy that they say works in most applications.
Wooden dowels
These are pretty simple.
One large, long wooden down, and one smaller one. One will be
the handle, the other will go partly inside the larger dowel,
and partly inside the sword, to hold it together.
Spray paint
Pretty simple, comes in
a can. You can find different metallic spray paints at a hardware
store. NOTE: The result you achieve will be different based
on the surface you paint on! Some surfaces will look shiny and
mirror like, some will be just a shiny gray. If you want better
a "shiny" or "metal" look for your blade,
try using a "chrome" spray paint.
Duct Tape
Buy it at the hardware store.
I used black.
Sand paper
For use in smoothing out
the foam and later for the epoxy/paint. Sandpaper runs from
"coarse" (40-60), to "super-fine" (360-600).
For smoothing out the insulation, you will probably want a medium
sandpaper if you don't have a powersander (80-120), and a fine
or very fine sandpaper for dealing with the epoxy (150-240).
Tools
More Information
Hand saw
Pretty standard hand held saw. I would
recommend a small one, one that is suited for making curved
cuts. It'll be easier to handle, and will produce better results.
Power sander
If you don't have one, you can do the
sanding by hand. It'll just take a LONG time.
Drill
Power drill, or a hand drill. You'll
need a big bit (7/16")
STEPS
Photos
1. I recommend you do your
work in a place which is well ventilated (like a garage). The
steps to epoxy and spray paint will require this for your own
health. Get your materials together. Refer to the quick guide
above for materials. This building process will take a week
or more, because of drying times for the epoxy, so you don't
need the paints right away. But you do at least need your rigid
insulation foam. Decide how large your item will be. Few cases
will require you to bind multiple pieces together. You can see
that my board was pretty large.
2. Shaping/Cutting
Trace out the outmost edges of your
sword. If there are any other cuts you're going to need to
make (like the hole in the middle for this sword), draw those
lines out as well. Using a saw, make your cuts, leaving about
1/4"-1/2" extra outside the lines. This is incase
of any chipping/breaking. You will be sanding this down, which
will be smoother and more precise.
3. Sanding/shaping
Time to use the powersander (or sandpaper,
if you don't have one). I recommend wearing goggles, or you'll
end up with bits of foam in your eyes. As is, don't wear nice
clothing--it will be covered with foam dust. As you can see
in the picture to the right, I'm carving away the edge of
the blade. This is pretty straight forward--once you get the
hang of using the sander, you'll be able to work quickly.
Don't press too hard, or you'll "dig" an unwanted
deep mark or curve into the foam. When you've got the sword
to the final shap you want it should be pretty smooth. If
it's not, take some fine sand paper and lightly go over it.
This is not overly important, but will help with the fiberglass
cloth and epoxy.
Just an image of what my
sword looked like when I was finished with the sanding. (I believe
I touched it up a bit more after this photo.)
4. Additional Pieces
For my sword, there was an added section
near the handle. I had another section of the rigid insulation
foam, so I cut and sanded two of those. I attached them to
either side with super glue. Don't worry if the edges where
the foam comes together aren't 100% smooth--the epoxy will
cover that up. You can make these shapes as you see fit--mine
weren't quite accurate to Zabuza's sword.
(ignore the coat of epoxy that's already
been applied... that's in two steps)
5. The handle
I used a long dowel of 1" diameter.
The length is up to you, depending on how long you want it to be.
A second dowel, of 7/16" was also used. I believe it was about
20" long. Using a drill, make a 7/16" hole into the center
of the larger dowel, 8" deep. Fit and glue the smaller dowel
inside this hole securely, so that the longer end is sticking out.
Now, drill a 7/16" hole into the base of the sword where you
want the handle to be. This hole should be 12" deep (the remaining
length of the smaller dowel). It may be difficult to make this deep
of a hole, and may require some improvising. It doesn't have to
be too precise, but you don't want it any bigger (diameter wise)
than the dowel or it won't hold, but you need to get the material
out of the space all the way down. If you try to jam the dowel down
in, you risk cracking or buckling the insulation foam.
No image folks. Sorry!
6. Applying the cloth and the epoxy
Read the instructions for your epoxy. Remember
to be in a well ventilated space. Keep in mind that once you combine
the resin and the hardener, it will only stay fluid for a short
time before it is unworkable. So layout your cloth first on the
surface of the sword, mix the epoxy, and apply it. You can work
in stages. You may want to practice first on an extra piece of material
so that you have an idea how it will work. When the epoxy is applied,
the fiberglass cloth with go clear, though it might have a colored
tint to it (mine looked yellowish--you may notice that in the image
for the preceeding step). I used three coats of epoxy, to make sure
it would be strong enough and not chip off. Give the epoxy enough
time to dry between each coat, probably overnight. Also, a little
epoxy around the base of the handle wouldn't hurt as a bit of security
to hold it in place.
Sorry, don't have
a photo of this. No one was around to take one, and I had my hands
full.
7. Post-epoxy sanding
The epoxy job is probably not going
to be perfect, so we're going to sand it down next. I used
the powersander, but you can use regular sandpaper as well.
The idea is just to smooth down the bumps, not remove the
whole coat. Using some black spray paint, I've demonstrated
what I needed to do on my sword to smooth it out. Areas that
were bumps before were sanded down, and so no longer have
the black paint on them. You don't need to use paint for doing
this on your own sword, as it should be visible enough if
you look closely.
8. Painting
This is pretty easy to do, if you've
gotten yourself some decent spray paint. Read the instructions
on the can for the best spray technique. I've forgotten what
the pattern is, but the instructions will prevent you from
leaving clumps of paint in spots. I used a silver-metallic
paint for most of the sword, and gave it a second coat after
the first one dried. I then used a chrome spray paint for
the blade edge, which made it shinier than the rest of the
sword. The effect is a bit subtle, but a nice touch I think.
After it's dry, if you want, you can take a bit of sand paper
and scuff the sword up for "battle damage". Just
a few cris-crossing marks is all--you don't want to take all
the paint off.
9. Finishing the handle
The Zabuza sword actually has handle
grips, but I didn't apply those. I was attempting to look
for some sort of plastic/pvc piping that I could fit on the
handle, but didn't find anything. It's an addition I will
make if I do find something that works right. What I did do
was wrap black duct tape all the way around the handle. I
started at the base, near the sword, and worked outward towards
the end, making only small advances each time around. This
prevented the tape from bunching up (which would happen if
you try to stretch it out). I also like the look of the close
wrapping.
There you have it, that's how
I made my sword. It stands at 7'1", a good bit taller than me.
Good luck making your own sword. You can contact me at my e-mail address
(I'm going to anti-spam it here), avatrix at hotmail dot com. I'm
fairly busy, so you may or may not receive a quick response.
