smelly flower (xianghua), meet my father (part2)

I had to separate the process into more than 1 post because I had too many photos! My dad insisted that the procedures were too easy to put into a video, but I uploaded 50 photos yesterday just for this part... if I'm going to have to make an animated .gif I might as well make a video! So for the remainder of this sword-making project, there will not be video. However, there WILL be video for Zephie's wand.

Now that my dad connected the blade to the hilt and secured it with a screw and glue, our next step was to create the "guard". This part my dad asked me to sketch on the computer and make 3 copies, so he could create the base with plastic.

Finished sketch on Adobe Illustrator

Cutting the shapes out...

Taping the paper stencils onto the plastic sheet

0.5mm sheet of plastic, to be used as the base of the guard..

Cutting the shapes with the saw again...

All shapes done!

Applying glue...

There are multiple layers to be used for the guard, so here we are marking off where
to cut to fit the blade...


After we cut the 2nd layer in half, we placed it on top of the 1st layer to ensure fit

My dad realized that 3 layers would not be enough, and instead of cutting another layer
to accommodate, he simply filled in the spaces with leftover pieces...

Letting the glue dry...

Drilling the hole for the tassel at the end of the sword

Tools laid out for the next part