Backlash cosplay: Dagger

     After seeing me work on Thor, the gentleman decided he wanted to build a cosplay as well, albeit in a slightly different manner. I like looking at things and then seeing how I can make them. The gentleman does not believe he has crafting skills, but he can network like crazy, so he recruited various crafters he knows to do the different parts. Naturally, he came to me for the outfit/ sewing parts, but that's a different post. Rather than have a real dagger made (which would cost goodness knows how much), he asked if I had any ideas. Here's a reference picture:

     I have not yet had much experience making weaponry, but some google searching led me to the idea of making the blade out of a lightweight wood, then building up the handle and guard around it. First things first, though: come up with a pattern so I know what size wood to get. Drew up some sketches, got approval, and cut a rough draft out of an eva foam mat that was too chewed up to use for actual cosplay.

     The gentleman approved it, so I went to Michaels (this was before the pandemic), and picked up a couple pieces of basswood and a dowel. Some intensive work with an x-acto blade and a mouse sander gave me a pretty decent first draft.

     I wanted to give it a pretty decent tang (the bit extending into the handle) for stability. I know it's just lightweight wood, but if it breaks off of the handle while just waving it around, that won't look good. Unfortunately, I had to cut it down to about an inch and a half because I couldn't drill the handle out any further with the tools I have. 

     I'd had the idea to paint the blade with a nifty chrome paint I'd found before putting it together, but the gentleman wanted to send it to the leatherworker he'd commissioned for other costume bits so he could build a sheath for it at the same time. Painting is not one of my higher ranked skills; in haste, I oversprayed it and made drips, then found out you can't sand off shiny paint easily. Rather than hold up the leather items, I decided to just put it all together and finish painting later. I formed a guard out of a couple layers of worbla, then ridiculously overglued everything with the best adhesive I had and left it to dry for a bit. Learning from my mistakes with Mjolnir, I found a candle lid that was the same height as the handle to brace it on, so the blade would dry straight.

     Once the handle dried, I put a screw into the non-blade side of the handle/ guard, then made some cones/ spikes out of scrap worbla and attached them to the handle. That covered the screw nicely, and finished off the construction side of things. I sanded off the edges of the guard and added several glue coats so it would be ready for painting when it returned.

     The gentleman sent it off to the leatherworker, right around the time the pandemic hit, so things got delayed a bit. Luckily (from a crafting standpoint), the con that this outfit was going to debut at was also delayed, so time was no longer of the essence. Five months later, he got all the leatherworking pieces, and the guy had been nice enough to wrap the handle of the dagger with strapping made out of leftover leather (turns out not many people want white leather items, go figure, so it would have been wasted otherwise), and paint the handle while he was painting other metal bits. All that was left for me to do was tape off the handle and repaint the blade, much more carefully this time.

     Turns out the chrome paint doesn't need a topcoat, and it actually got fairly reflective, despite being just a few thin coats on top of wood. Current cosplay trends toward having weathered or used-looking costumes, but the gentleman decided he did not want to go that route - he wanted everything shiny and new-looking, so that completed this piece! Calendar time to complete: almost 1 year. Overall time, not counting the leatherworker's (very much appreciated) additions, 11.67 hours.