Sword of Gryffindor

I made the Sword of Godric Gryffindor by cutting off the blade from a flimsy plastic toy sword I already had, some wooden dowel, plastic conduit (used for cabling), some glass cabochons that I painted with a transparent red paint, and some transparent red gems from Poundland (usually used for arts and crafts).

I originally tried to use a bouncy ball that I cut in half but it didn’t work as they needed to be translucent or transparent.

Once I cut the length of wooden dowel to what I thought looked right, I sanded 2 of the sides mostly flat but having the wood taper slightly on the handles on all 4 sides.

I then marked the centre of the length of conduit I cut to use as the crossguard so I could then measure the width of my aluminium bar that I used to reinforce the toy sword blade. I drilled holes and then cut a slot through the conduit and carved a slot into the wooden hilt for the aluminium to be epoxied into place.

I also cut some pentagons out of UPVC sheet and and stacked 2 together before I realised that it was too thick so I only used 1 on each side where the hilt meets the blade. I blended the join together with some epoxy and caulk. I also filled in the indent in the centre of the blade using some lightweight deep gap filler.

I used the pommel from the original toy sword as it was close to the shape of the pommel on the Sword of Gryffindor. I used some of the rings from the scabbard of the toy sword to add the rings that have the slight raised spots. To create the rings on the crossguard, I glued on some O-rings. I then printed a template and carved the engraving into the blade using a scalpel and toothpick.

I then applied several coats of grey primer and then some metallic silver spray paint. After that, I masked off and sprayed a gunmetal silver colour onto the handle. After that dried, I re-engraved the text on the blade as I was slightly filled with spray paint. After that, I used some Pledge Future floor polish as I read it is a good sealant to use that won’t dull the finish on metallic spray paint.

Once that was dry, I glued on the glass cabochons I painted in transparent red as well as the smaller gemstone which were using the arts and crafts gemstone from Poundland.