Man of La Mancha Crooked Sword

Yet another prop for the school play. This sword has more function as a wine opener than a sword but oh well. The sword was a little more difficult than I thought it would be because of the cork swirl, but it was still pretty easy.

It took about 5 hours to make and cost me about $20.

I apologize for the quality of the photos in this tutorial, the lighting in my house screws with my phones focus.

• 2mm craft foam
• a dowel
• Worbla
• Leather scraps
• Acrylic paints

I started out by cutting two 1.5 inch strips out of the 2mm foam. I cut a point into one of the strips. Then I sandwiched the foam pieces in black worbla. I used black worbla so I would not have to deal with smoothing out the rough texture of normal worbla.

At one point I messed up the worbla by getting my finger stuck in it. When I moved my finger it ripped some of the worbla away, and burnt my finger. But per usual with any project I make, I weathered it later on so it didn't matter, and added to the piece rather than disrupted it.

To make the curve of the sword, I heated the blade and wrapped it around my arm. The sword was not sturdy and kept wobbling so I used worbla to secure a thin dowel down the bottom of the blade (before the corkscrew). I used hot glue to add rivets to the worbla that secured the dowel. This made it look more intentional.

I used worbla to secure two dowels (one on either side of the blade) onto the blade.

To make the rain guard I cut a oval out of foam, cut a slit in it and slid it onto the blade. I used hot glue to glue it in.

I wrapped a strip of foam around the dowels. I added a smaller strip of foam (about an inch wide) around the end of the handle to create the pommel.

To begin with I painted a base coat of grey. It was patchy because I was painting over black, but that didn't matter because I painted a layer of silver over it.

To weather I lathered the sword in a wash of black, and wiped as much excess off as I could with a paper towel. Remember that worbla mistake from earlier? I used a mixed of orange paint and salt to create a rust spot there there.

I painted the rain guard and pommel a sheer gold.

I cut strips of 1 inch leather and wrapped it around the handle (I used hot glue to secure it).

And we're all done! A truly useless sword for any knight.

If you have any questions feel free to message me or comment below :)