Sword play

[scdub]

Hello knife people!

Yesterday I was fortunate enough to attend the first birthday party for a son of a buddy.

When I RSVPed and asked about his kid, he surprised me by saying “he already likes sharp things and boom sticks”.

Not totally surprising as my buddy lives in TX, but I was still very tickled at the idea of an 11 month old BABY that liked knives and guns, so I politely asked (both parents) if I could make a wooden sword for a present.

“He’d love that!” was the answer. So I got to work.

I’ve made a few wooden swords in the past and I still had some red oak left over for one I made for my kid when he was about 5.

I sketched a quick design and started cutting. Used a band saw for the long cuts, then shaped it with a 4x24” belt sander, then files, then sanding blocks with sandpaper.
Tapered tang and spine, nice thick rounded edge to reduce impact a bit, finished with tung oil.
Easy and fun project. Best part: The baby recognized it as a sword, was wielding it immediately, and has already bonked his mom with it.

 

[scdub]

Also, please post your wooden sword pics - would love to see some other designs…

 

[SimplyMinded]

Nice work. If he's getting started with that at 11 months he ought to be at Sho Kosugi level by the time he enters Junior High.

 

[Alberta Ed]

Cool. I have one my mother whittled in 1917, which may explain my lifelong interest in sharp stuff.

 

[Triton]

Neat! I've made some, let me see if I can find a picture.

 

[bdcochran]

Beautiful. Much nicer than my Cold Steel Bo. You should make the larger one commercially.

 

[MarkN86]

Very cool little designs. Toys like that will likely outlast the kids' interest, unlike the mass produced plastic garbage they make today.

I made a 3 foot long by 1.5" wide sword out of oak, it was about a half inch thick, distally tapered with a hand planer down to a little under a quarter inch near the tip. I sharpened the edges with the hand planer and it actually had some limited cutting ability on soft targets like water filled milk jugs. The real threat was the tip, it didn't have any trouble piercing a heavy moving blanket, but of course neither the edge or the tip lasted very long on impact. The crazy thing was that it was so light and nimble, you could feel the vibrations in the blade when you hit something, similar to how a real sword feels.

Unfortunately my destructive testing lived up to its name and it ended up in the burn pile, I wasn't aware anyone would have any interest in wooden swords or I'd have snapped a few pictures.