Items Needed:
- Mold (I used a 2 part mold from Hobby Lobby)
- Mold release or vaseline
- Resin (I used a 2 part resin from Hobby Lobby)
- Glitter (optional)
- Blue food coloring
- Dowel/walking stick
- Threaded rod
- Epoxy
- Duct tape
- Leather or pleather wrap
- Twine wire
- White spray paint
Spear
For the stick itself, I just used an old walking stick I had lying around that I didn't actually use for anything else. If you were to buy a dowel, you would want to rough it up, make it look old and used. Dent it, stain it, make it look dirty and maybe subtly bloody.
Spear Head
For the spear head, I made a mold and did a resin cast. This is my first time doing this, so I'm sure there will be lots more information out there than what I can provide. However, it wasn't as scary as I initially imagined, and nothing went too horribly wrong.
I picked up a 2 part mold and a clear drying 2 part resin from Hobby Lobby. I wasn't sure how much I would actually need, but I ended up with left over resin, and only bought one package of it.
Spear Head - Mold
For the mold, I was lucky to have a training sword I could use. If you do not, you may be able to carve one out of foam. I wrapped my training sword in saran wrap and formed the mold around it on one half. The saran wrap ended up making these sort of ridges in the surface of my mold, which ended up as really cool cracks in the surface of my resin. It was perfect for an icy material, though I ended up covering them with another layer of resin (which I'll explain later).
I created the mold so that it only formed half the blade. I planed on making two halves, then adhering them together.
It is recommended to use either a mold release or vaseline or some other product that will prevent your resin from sticking to your mold. I did not do this. I did not have trouble getting the resin out of my mold, but I did end up with a very cloudy surface where it had been against the mold. I don't know how much the type of mold played into either of these results. But, it is usually recommended to put some sort of mold release into your mold before you pour the resin.
Spear Head - Resin
It is also recommended to work in a well ventilated area. I did all my casting in a carport outside. You may want a dust mask too. Resin fumes are considered toxic. Whenever working with strange materials for crafting or any other project, be sure you research for safety.
Any time I wanted to test something on a small part of the blade before fully committing to it, I'd test at the base because I knew that would be covered after I attached it to the staff.
Any time I wanted to test something on a small part of the blade before fully committing to it, I'd test at the base because I knew that would be covered after I attached it to the staff.
I was using a 2 part resin, so I'd pour out an equal amount of each bottle, then mix them together. It's important that you use equal amounts and that they are mixed evenly. If you do not, your resin will not cure properly and may be sticky instead of hardened. I also added a hint of blue food coloring (less than a drop) to most batches. Even though the resin was clear, it tended to have a yellowish hue to it by itself.
I did not pour all my resin at once, but instead worked in layers. I would pour an ounce of resin into my mold, cover it (to keep bugs and dust out), and let it cure for about 4 hours. Then, I would apply thin layer of that glitter glue stuff, and add another layer of resin. I think this helped to create a sense of depth in the final product.
Here is the mold with one half:
And the first half removed:
Once I had two halves of my blade, I trimmed the excess resin at the sides using an X-acto knife. I then put a layer of resin on each side, and pressed them together, and tied them at each end with a rubber band. Try to have a way to set your blade vertically, so that the excess resin comes out the base, and doesn't create artifacts along the side of the blade. I did not set mine vertically, and did get artifacts which I had to fit later, especially along where the rubber bands were.
You may noticed the resin surface is cloudy where it was against the mold. I researched several suggestions on fixing this, including extremely high grit sand paper and car waxing techniques. What I ended up doing was putting another coat of resin on the surface of the blade. This is why I lost the cracks created by the saran wrap. I would suggest doing this after attaching it to the stick. I will explain why then.
If you do get any artifacts during the process, you can use an X-acto knife to cut them off, then resurface them with fresh resin.
Here is the mold with one half:
And the first half removed:
Once I had two halves of my blade, I trimmed the excess resin at the sides using an X-acto knife. I then put a layer of resin on each side, and pressed them together, and tied them at each end with a rubber band. Try to have a way to set your blade vertically, so that the excess resin comes out the base, and doesn't create artifacts along the side of the blade. I did not set mine vertically, and did get artifacts which I had to fit later, especially along where the rubber bands were.
You may noticed the resin surface is cloudy where it was against the mold. I researched several suggestions on fixing this, including extremely high grit sand paper and car waxing techniques. What I ended up doing was putting another coat of resin on the surface of the blade. This is why I lost the cracks created by the saran wrap. I would suggest doing this after attaching it to the stick. I will explain why then.
If you do get any artifacts during the process, you can use an X-acto knife to cut them off, then resurface them with fresh resin.
Spear Head - Attaching
Once you have your two halves stuck together, you will want to get a threaded rod (like a bolt but with no head) from a hardware store. The length should be long enough to go into each 1.5 inches. The shorter it is, the more pressure there will, and more likely it will be to break. The diameter should be plenty smaller than either your stick or the blade so that it doesn't end up cracking either.
Drill a hole into the stick and screw the rod in. It should form threads into the wood as you screw it in.
If you made the hole in the stick too large, add epoxy, and let it cure.
Drill a hole into the resin. Be careful drilling, as the friction of the drill will heat up the resin. Put epoxy inside the hole and put the rod in. Set the spear sideways with something under it (newspaper, plastic bag) to catch dripping epoxy. Rotate it occasionally to help even out the epoxy.
Once the epoxy was fully cured, the blade seemed to be pretty firmly attached.
However, I wanted to give it more support, and if you don't want something to move, you use duct tape. I wrapped duct tape around the circumference of where the blade met the stick, but then also did short vertical strips, as well as some diagonal strips. One thing I learned with sparring weapons, is that if you only go horizontal with the duct tape, it can snap in half.
After I was satisfied with the duct tape, I wrapped the area with a wide pleather belt I had found in the hardware store. I used fabric glue to hold the belt into place. This both provided more support, and hid the duct tape. Finally, I used a twine covered wire over the pleather. Again, this added support as well as looked good.
Spear - Color
Once everything on the spear was attached, I sprayed a light dusting of white spray paint over the handle, and just a bit at the base of the spear head itself.
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