Wooden Toy Sword

Wooden Toy Sword I Made For My Son

Painted with an Acadian flag for the heck of it :P

Anyone can make this as long as you have the tools around. Surprisingly simple but looks cool! This one is small (for my son) it's only about 15". But I've made others with the same method with up to 28" in length! So here we go.

What You'll Need:

-SafetyGlasses

-Work Gloves

-Face Mask (for sawdust...there will be plenty)

-Pine Board

-Jigsaw (or coping saw or band saw)

-Belt Sander (w.40grit, 80grit, 120grit & 220grit)

-Pencil

-Ruler

-Paint (optional)

-Shellac (recommended)

Step 1: Draw out your piece

I don't have a picture because I sortof jumped the gun on this one but basically just draw out whatever shape you want your sword/dagger to be. 

Step 2: Cut it out

Here you can still see the lines I had made to keep everything symmetrical. Most errors after cutting can still be fixed by sanding so don't worry too much about it if your cuts are a bit rough or a little wavy.

Step 3: Sanding it to your liking!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=668kBrSKj3c Is a great tutorial on how to sand this down.

Basically, all I did was turn my belt sander upside-down with 40grit and used it like a bench grinder. Take your time and go with the grain. Make sure to use safety equipement here. Lots of debris!

Step 4: Painting!

 

 I used painters tape to make sure everything was straight and looked nice. Wasn't 100% but turned out ok. I chose to put the Acadian flag on it cuz we're Acadian and just felt fitting :P

Step 5: Shellac

 

Applied basic clear shellac (3 coats) so seal everything up and avoid splinters, etc. Looks great, feels great and my Son has lots of fun with it =)

Out With The Old, In With The New!

New Toys for New Beginnings

So I decided to start the first day of Spring with a replacement of my power tools. They were basically from the 70's I believe so they needed an upgrade for both safety reasons and straight out ease of use.

 As you can probably tell by the photos below they were very old. But they mean the world to me.

My grandfather is the one who passed these down to me and I honor them for it. He could have given it to his son or even cousins, anyone at all really. But he chose me so that meant alot.

They have been very usefull thus far. The tools I believe are a 4-in-1 Black & Decker tool set from the 60's-70's era. They are incredibly well kept for their age and still work nicely. Alas, there are many security features that have been improved upon since then and it's starting to show its age quite a bit. My other main issue was that the circular saw blade was only I think a 4 1/2" blade meaning it couldn't go through a 2x4 on one cut, and had to turn the wood over to finish the cut or use a handsaw which was a pain.

But here we are in the present day and I could not be happier with my new tools! They look great, sound great and feel great in comparison to my old ones. These tools were all sold in one pack and have served me well since yesterday even.

 

We have the circular saw with a 5 1/2 blade (finally enough to cut 2x4's lol), a power drill...

...a multi-tool that includes 2 Flush blades, sanding attachement and saw attachement. As well as 2 Lithium Ion batteries that hold a charge very well I find and the fact they are cordless tools is a major bonus!

Showing here how they all fit very nicely into the duffel bag that came with it. Room for everything! Even some extra clamps and measures I had lying around!

I couldn't ask for more. This was a great buy and is the beginning building block of all future projects to come and will make it much easier and safer to do!

The old jigsaw might still come in handy though.