Latex swordmaking... step one

You will need:

To watch the video at ...http://juniorrollespil.dk/gor-det-selv/. Click on the picture that says 'Lave dit eget sværd' and the really nice guy will tell you what to do in Danish. NB if you have bought the 'starter kit' sword, you can skip the first of the three videos.
We'll explain with captions under our photos below, but the most important things he says are:
1. Precision is not too important. What's important is that you're making a sword.
2. Don't use latex indoors unless you have a ventilation system or stand under an open window.
3. Wear old clothes.
4. Silicone spray (at the very end) makes swords watertight. It has the same effect on your lungs if you breathe it in!

You will also need:

• rubber gloves - not latext or they'll melt.
• an adult
• a utility/hobby knife - be careful!
• a readymade sword shaft - unless you make your own as shown in a previous post
• latex with a low amonia content
• black cotton material
• newspaper to cover the table. The Danish guy says the latext peels off the table afterwards but better safe than sorry
• acrylic paint if you want a colourful sword 20% paint mixed with 80% latex
• plastic cups for the latex

Now take a deep breath (before you get anywhere near opening the latex) and here we go... 

The photos below will take you through to the part where you cover the sword in fabric. That was as far as we got then suddenly it was time to leave for a guitar concert featuring the lead guitarist of Fuld Effekt :o).

First lay the sword flat on the table and draw a line where you want
to cut the point. 

Now turn the blade on its side and cut the corner off to form a point.

Like this.

Mind your fingers and ALWAYS CUT DOWN onto an old surface
like our garden table, or CUT AWAY FROM YOU.

This design is not meant to be symmetrical.

Here we are cutting grooves down near the handle, which you
can see poking out of the foam (bottom left).

We had trouble getting a clean cut and resorted to a kitchen knife.
Professionals use a kind of electric saw or mini sander like a dentist has
but we reckon that when it's all covered in  material, the saw marks
won't be too visible. Otherwise we'll paint them to look like a feature.

We sliced away all the square edges at an angle...

...cutting chunks out to give an interesting pattern. Wonder how we'll cover those in fabric...

Then we got to the part where we were going to start cutting out
the material to fit...

...and that's when we ran out of time...

The concert was good though.

TO BE CONTINUED...