Thread 64389430

Bonkanon here. Today we'll be making ceremonial Mesoamerican weapons. This project is a bit different than normal--instead of whatever I had lying around, I sourced nice materials.

The board at the back is Leopardwood. The one in front with the purple tint is a really nicely figured piece of Katalox. These are both extremely hard, dense, wood. Three blocks at the back are bloodwood. The 1/4 log next to it is Snakewood, which is even harder and denser than the above. The two long pieces are Bocote.

Inspiration came from picrel, posted by anon on this board. I'll be making both a Tepoztopilli and a Macuahuitl. I'm imposing a few rules: Central/South American woods only, no metal, and the blades must be secured with natural, removable, adhesive like the originals were.

first steps for making a fancy pommel for the Tepoztopilli. I need larger blocks but I have long thin ones, so I cut them up and glued them together.

>>64389448
Those pieces are then cut again and glued to make bigger blocks.

>>64389465
Then layered to make this. Adhesive is marine epoxy

>>64389471
I squared up the resulting block and cut it into slices

>>64389479
Which can be stacked together to look like this.

>>64389481
alignment holes drilled for thin dowels to hold everything in alignment while it is clamped together

>>64389487
clamping setup using some 2x4 scrap as clamping cauls

>>64389491
Laminated with marine epoxy; wax paper to keep the work from getting stuck to the 2x4's.

>>64389494
Got this thing when the epoxy set

>>64389502
I sliced it up a second time, and I think you can see where this is going now.

>>64389506
second glue-up done. It is not perfectly square from the end; it is deliberately rectangular so it matches the finished handle.

>>64389515
Now I need to make a long strip of Bocote. I ripped the other piece (which had nicer grain) into a few thin strips and cut scarfs so I could join them together.

>>64389522
Gluing scarf joints. I only got one in frame, there's another one just like it to make this strip which will be going up the center of the handle.

>>64389526
I used the leftover to make this block, same clamping method as >>64389494, in fact I was even able to re-use the same cauls.

>>64389537
Then cut it at an angle. This will also be part of the pommel.

>>64389541
This photo isn't the greatest so it's hard to see what's going on. Ignore the right half for the time being. On the left, I've got two pieces of Leopardwood ripped from the long board, and I'm epoxying the angled pieces I just made to one end of each.

The right side of the pic is part of the handle for the Macuahtil which I'll get to later.

>>64389549
Here is the long Bocote strip I scarfed together in >>64389526
This will form the center detail of the handle. To really offset the grain I am laminating it with some 0.3mm dyed black veneer. However, my veneer isn't long enough so I have to join that together too. Here I'm cutting some strips.

>>64389559
Cutting angled joints for the veneer. These will be easily hidden.

>>64389567
And now the whole thing is glued up. The Outside pieces are the leopardwood with bocote on one end, then the thin black veneer, then the bocote center strip. Adhesive is marine epoxy with black pigment mixed in to emphasize the black line.

I promise this crazy shit will make sense soon.

>>64389577
And here's what we've got once it's out of all those clamps. This will be the butt end of the handle.

>>64389580
Once the gunk is sanded off it looks really nice, I love those thin black lines next to the bocote.

>>64389584
Butt end cleaned up.

>>64389584
Butt end cleaned up, and I remembered the photo this time.

>>64389598
I wanted to put a subtle angular taper in the handle, so I used a router & a pattern bit to cut the taper.
What I did not know at the time is that leopardwood acts just like poison ivy, and I managed to get the sawdust all over me.

In this pic the cuts are halfway done, I've cut the long taper on the left side but haven't yet cut the short ones on the right.

>>64389607
Next step is to join the decorative pommel to the end of the handle. I used a Dowelmax jig for this purpose.

You can see some dark wood glued to the end of the pommel piece. That is a lamination made from some pieces of Ziricote, same method of gluing strips together I've been using.

>>64389621
Before gluing it on I decided to do some rough shaping, so I marked out where I wanted to cut it...

>>64389627
...and then used masking tape and super glue to attach it to a piece of scrap so I could safely run it through the table saw without my fingers anywhere near the blade.

>>64389627
...and then used masking tape and super glue to attach it to a piece of scrap so I could safely run it through the table saw without my fingers anywhere near the blade

>>64389642
When all 4 cuts are done...

>>64389650
Then the pommel is glued onto the end of the handle, there are two long oak dowels inside this joint.

>>64389657
doing some rough shaping with a block plane

>>64389659
Final shaping of the pommel tip using a piece of sandpaper hot-glued into some scrap to get a perfect consistent radius

>>64389665
Now to make the hilt, or whatever else we should call the transition between the blade and the handle. I'm using strips of Ziricote, same thing the pommel tip was made from.

>>64389672
More of the same, laminating small pieces together to make larger ones. I haven't bothered to mention the details but I am sanding everything on a known flat surface so all the joints come out perfect before each section is glued together. It's tedious.

>>64389678
In the drawing anon shared (>>64389439) you can see some decorative lines on one of the Tepoztopilli's hilts so I figured I'd go with that idea. This is 0.6mm thick red veneer being cut.

>>64389687
Here's what my glue-up will be, I'm doubling up on the veneer so it is a bit more obvious.

>>64389693
finished. In hindsight I should have used some red pigment in the epoxy but I forgot that I had some when I did this.

>>64389698
Last step: the blade. I made a paper pattern and marked out a nice piece from the Katalox board.

I need to go AFK for a bit, will resume dumping once I'm done eating.

>>64389703
I cut out the blade blank, trying to get some cool figure in the wood. It would be boring to use another straight joint so I decided to make the transition to the hilt a bit more interesting.

>>64389839
Drilling dowel holes now, while it's easy, before cutting out the V-shape.

>>64389843
Scrap glued in place to act as a guide for the router

>>64389849
Cutting out most of the material with a saw. This wood has really screwy grain so I'm concerned about the router catching.

>>64389852
routered

>>64389864
Carefully finished with a chisel

>>64389867
And here's how the hilt (now trimmed) and the blade fit. Looks perfect....

>>64389874
And here's how the hilt will join the handle: two large dowels, and a homemade jig to drill the holes.

>>64389880
Back to shaping the blade. I wanted to have nice, fair, curves so I decided to make those edges using a spline. I cut a bunch of strips of scrap wood to glue together to make the spline.

>>64389886
Making the spline template by gluing those strips together

>>64389886
Gluing strips together to make the spline.

>>64389893
Spline finished. Planing the edges flat so I can double-stick-tape it to the blade and use it as a router guide. This will make both sides perfectly symmetric.

>>64389897
Spline template in use. It's super-glued to the masking tape to hold it in place. Once this side is cut I'll flip it over and do the other.

>>64389900
The big question: what will the blades be? I thought about this for weeks, then I stumbled across zirconia ceramic utility knife blades. They're not metal, they're sharp as hell, and they're about the right size. Layout in progress...

>>64389906
Careful marking so I can cut the pockets for each blade...

>>64389909
I made a template so I could use the thinnest router slotting cutter I could find, 1/16-inch, to rough out each slot. This template had to be manually double-stick-taped and glued for each pocket, so 10 separate operations for this.

>>64389918
First cut made. 9 more to go. Don't fuck up.

>>64389918
No fuckups. Yet.

>>64389929
At this point I need to get the blade attached to the handle so I have something I can clamp it by to continue working on it, so time to get it ready for epoxy.

>>64389933
I made this thing from scrap to act as a clamping caul for the blade so I don't damage the tip.

Nance a bonk

>>64389938
Assembly of hilt to the blade using black-dyed epoxy.

>>64389947
That, however, was a fuckup. Somehow I got it slightly crooked while clamping, it's hard to see in this pic but the blade is crooked by about 2 degrees.
FUCK.

>>64389951
No choice but to cut the joint apart and do it again. I made the cut into the hilt trying to preserve the blade as much as possible.

>>64389953
That was my first time using that particular saw, which really impressed me. anyway, joint is apart, I then had to re-do all the crap I did several steps ago, only now it's harder to drill the dowel holes because they are on angled surfaces.

>>64389959
Redone. And it's dead nuts perfect this time.

>>64389966
Now that we're right about ready to put the head on the handle it's time to finish the handle.

>>64389972
I roughed out the curves with a router and fine-tuned it with spokeshaves, a block plane, and a sanding block.

Neat project. I'm a bit of a hobbyist so this was interesting to read, thanks Anon.

My only issue though is your choice of blades
>>64389906
>>64389909
Couldn't you have bought a chunk of slag glass and experimented with doing some knapping to make blades?

>>64389976
Cutting off excess of the hilt.

>>64389982
Point ready to mount on handle


>>64389980
I considered glass, but:
a) My knapping skills suck, and I don't really feel like spending the time to develop them, when I could learn a lot more useful skills instead.
b) stone or glass blades would be necessarily quite thick unless you are really good at making them (which I am not), and that would make the resulting weapons clumsy.

I am still kicking around the idea of making one with proper stone or obsidian blades, but I would be buying the blades in that case.

>>64389985
Gluing head on; marine epoxy with black pigment again.

>>64389991
Looks real fucking nice

This is cool. Thanks random DIY /k/ommando.

>>64389995
Fine shaping the blade with a rasp and spokeshaves

>>64390003
Shaping hilt the same way

>>64390008
Real nice grain

>>64390010
I sanded the bevels at the edge of the blade pockets to get them looking as sleek as possible while still being strong.

>>64390010
That is actually some nice grain, goddamn

>>64390019
Adhesive for mounting the blades: 30 grams shellac, 10 grams Dammar gum.

>>64390019
Adhesive for mounting the blades: 30 grams shellac, 10 grams Dammar resin. this is basically nature's hot glue.

nice project bonkanon
cant wait to see the final result
you seem to have a well equiped workshop, work or hobby ?

>>64390031
Melted in toaster oven.

>>64390034
It turned out to have much too short of an "open time", so I cut it with about 3ml of turpentine and 10 mL isopropanol. That did the trick.

>>64390032
>work or hobby ?
both.

>>64390041
Blade installation. The two blades at the tip are glued to each other with CA glue and then the resulting assembly is glued to the wood with the stuff I just made. The glue can be removed with either heat or alcohol.

>>64390047
Blades installed
This pic is not quite finished, you can still see some tiny bits of black veneer that I glued to the base of the blades to fill the slots completely.

>>64390052
forgot pic

>>64390062
The Leopardwood looks pretty sick too, it has some really cool looking grain as well. I will post more pics tomorrow, it's getting pretty late and I have other stuff to do.

I will also post the Macuatil tomorrow, which is fancier....

>>64390065
sweet project, I liked this pic best >>64389959

>>64390065
This is really cool, how long did it take you to plan this out and get it put together?

>>64390088
There wasn't much planning, honestly. I picked what boards I would use for the handle and the blade and that was about it. I kinda winged the rest of it based on what my hardwood supplier had that looked good and was reasonably priced.
I did the work over about 2 months but it's not like I was working on it every day. There was an awful lot of waiting for stuff to cure.

>>64390047
What kind of glue would they have traditionally used and do you think it worked better or worse?

>>64389439
>mexicans honestly believe that a plank with some rocks glued into it was some kind of wunderwaffe
They do look interesting, though

Bump for interest

>>64390273
I don't claim to be some expert on what glues they might have had, but I think their options would have been one of three categories:
-resin, which is basically what I used. Dammar is tree sap, and shellac is tree sap that's been processed by insects.
-protein glues, which are basically really strong gelatin. you make them by boiling animal parts in water for a really long time. This would be stuff like hide glue, rabbit skin glue, or fish glue. I thought about using all of those but decided against them. Those all shrink as they dry. That's actually a great thing if you want to glue wood together and why people still use fish glue and hide glue for building high-end furniture, musical instruments, etc. However, I needed something that would fill gaps, and I thought the protein glue might shrink from the gaps as it set.
-asphaltum/bitumen, which they might have found from naturally occurring deposits in the ground.

I think my adhesive was probably quite close to what they could have used in terms of strength. It worked really well actually, I had only a few seconds to get each blade set but it grips super hard.

Anyway, moving on to the Macuahuitl. I'll be using the snakewood to make this pommel. I didn't need a piece anywhere near this big but Snakewood is rare and this was one of the smallest pieces I could find that was big enough to make the pommel in one piece.

>>64391498
Marking
Snakewood is dense as hell, it actually sinks in water. It's really, really, hard as well, good for bashing in skulls. And it has a really cool grain pattern.

>>64391501
Roughed out into an octagon in preparation for turning on the lathe. I hammered a 1" dowel through the center hole to use as an arbor for turning.

>>64391503
Finished turning. Looks real nice....

>>64391505
Strips of Ziricote laid up to become the handle

>>64391509
The first glue-up can be seen on the right side of >>64389549
And this is the handle blank at this stage.

>>64391513
Additional pieces glued on. The handle will be slightly tapered so I need more material near the butt end of the handle.

>>64391515
Excess trimmed off with a router & a flush trim bit

>>64391518
We need to attach the pommel to the handle but right now the parts do not fit.

>>64391524
Dowelmax again

>>64391527
The pommel won't be so easy to drill, so I had to make another jig. This will also be useful for clamping later.

>>64391530
Drilling in process. Hope nothing slips.

>>64391531
Perfect!

>>64391534
The usual drill: double-sided tape & superglue to hold the guide for the router

>>64391537
And that's how they will fit together.

>>64391539
Now on to the blade....marking out from that piece of highly figured Katalox. Katalox is also known as "Royal Mexican Ebony"..seemed like a good choice for this.

>>64391540
Cutting out most of the wood where the handle will fit with a Japanese saw folded 10,000 times.

>>64391544
Masking tape & super-glue again for guiding the router

>>64391546
Ready for cutting.

>>64391547
After.

>>64391548
The handle socket corners were cut square with a chisel and I used a router and a flush trim bit to cut the sides of the blade as well.

>>64391550
For extra strength I decided to put floating tenons in the handle to blade joint. Here I am roughing out the material with a trim router. What I didn't realize at this moment was that I needed to cut the tenon slots all the way to the end of the handle because as it stands it couldn't be assembled. I didn't get any photos that showed me fixing this, sorry.

>>64391553
Shaping the handle...

>>64391556
Checking handle-to-blade fit. Right now there are no tenons in that joint, it is so tightly fitted that it holds itself together with friction alone. I will be putting red veneer in the joint for visual contrast.

>>64391557
The veneer has to be cut to allow room for the tenons. You can see here that I fixed the tenon slots on the handle and they are cut all the way to the end now.

>>64391558
I wanted to do the handle-to-blade joint in one glue-up, however I realized I had to do it in two because otherwise trimming the veneer afterward would be very difficult. So, I assembled the joint with no tenons and wax paper wrapped around the handle. This way the only thing I am doing is gluing the red veneer to the blade. Adhesive is thickened epoxy with red pigment. This will give a stronger red line vs. using clear epoxy.

>>64391560
Clamped and curing

>>64391563
After. This worked perfectly! There was just a little excess epoxy that was easily chiseled out of the slots, and it was easy to cut the veneer flush.

>>64391566
Blades. Zirconia ceramic again, but these are black and are serrated. That looks quite a bit like obsidian

>>64391568
Laying out blade position so I can figure out exactly how long this thing needs to be.

>>64391572
this rube goldberg contraption is an improvised "compass jig" for my router. I double-stick taped the blade to a scrap board, and drilled a small hole in some scrap exactly where the pommel would be. The purpose of this is to put a subtle radius on the end rather than having it just be cut off square. I've got some scrap clamped to the exit side of the cut so there's no splintering when the bit comes out.

>>64391576
ready for cutting

...going AFK for a bit, will resume shortly...

>>64391577
after cutting. worked perfectly!

>>64391597
Blade slots cut using the same method as above

>>64391600
Edges beveled on the table saw.

>>64391601
end looks nice too

>>64391603
Gluing handle and blade together

>>64391607
While that's setting we can worry about the pommel, which has a giant hole in it. We're going to fill that. The original dowel I used as a turning mandrel happens to be a perfect fit for the center hole. I'll use that to fill most of the hole, and then the final decoration will be these two pieces of turquoise. No, it's not fake either, I got the real stuff.

>>64391610
dowel fitted and CA glued in place. Filling the hole in the pommel also means we can now glue it in place since it's safe to clamp on it.

>>64391614
glued to handle, the adhesive is epoxy thickened with silica and a bunch of Ziricote sawdust.

>>64391616
Excess glue wiped off leaving a nice little fillet in the joint

>>64391621
Now for the little details. There's this tiny speck of light-colored wood near the pommel. Normally I wouldn't care, but here it's distracting.

>>64391623
A drop of ebony colored stain on a toothpick sorted that right out

>>64391626
Finished!

More pics later when I have good light outside

>>64391631
>>64391633
>>64391637
That's cool as hell man.

>>64391637
Now all you need is a matching outfit and you're set for halloween this year.

>>64391631
Based OP. Best OC thread on /k/ right now.
Thank you for sharing.

>>64391577
Background looks sandy. And propane tank in upper right. Florida?
>>64391637
That's dead sexy.
brb setting up google news alert for "florida man goes Aztec on intruders, film at 11"

>>64392021
>Doorbell cam shows several future astronauts hooting and grunting to each other in a parody of human speech
>biggest one kicks in the door to demonstrate Newtonian physics to the newest member of the troop
>proceed to enter so they can take deflection and deformation measurements
>aztecdeathwhistle.wav
>sound of screaming and wet thumps
>one is visible running back out the door covered in the blood of his colleagues
>more wet thumps until the screaming stops
>chanting in Nahautl and the sound of a ribcage being cracked open
>recording ends

>>64392437
>>64392443
The finish on those is gorgeous.

>>64392266
>>64392266
double dubs confirm ability to see the future

>>64390032
He kills people.

Cool work anon. Not that this might be your area of expertise but in light of the really hard and dense wood you encountered I've wondered why we didn't see wooden armor more frequently, as either scales or as just plates like a plate carrier or char aineh four mirrors.

Seems like it'd be a nice cheap and doable way of protecting your tummy.

Excellent work

Likely among the best versions of this made ever on this planet.

Awesome thread OP

Really neat, thanks for posting and keep up the good work.

>>64391631
Fucking awesome work, love your choice of south murrica timbers and patterns
The priest kings will be very happy with the captives you bonk and bring back to the temple for choppy chops later on, may your maize grow well this season