Anybody have any ideas for crystal sword prop?

[luciusad2004]

My friend is looking for a relatively simple and affordable way to make a "Crystal Sword" from the show Adventure Time. I told her I would throw up a post here since I Know there is a lot of creativity floating around.

The sword would look like this.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-FDPXv-BMel4/T_o1rxtuIWI/AAAAAAAAAO8/a00scAdzoG8/s500/tumblr_lesfg8aAMy1qdxi7no1_500.png

I think she said she was looking to make it, like, 24 to 30 inches long.
Ideally she would like it to look someone transparent or to actually seem like it could be "crystal."

So far these are the idea's she's come up with.

*Wood - Probably wouldn't give her the look she wanted
*Resin - Appear to be super expensive for the size that she wants
*Plexi - ???
*Fiberglass - Probably not easy to work with.

[TLHarrell]

Cast from acrylic resin, or make from plexiglass.

[xr4man]

^^^what he said.

[Luke122]

If you cast it hollow, it'll be much lighter. Otherwise it'll be pretty hefty!

[TLHarrell]

At 30" long, it should be hefty but not unbearable to carry if cast solid. And optically it would look a lot nicer that way.

If you do it from plexiglass sheet, the best way would be to miter all the joints and polish them up really well before gluing. If you butt join, it will look strange optically. Hollow would be cheaper. Do remember that acrylic both scratches and fractures fairly easily.

[CrazyTeaPot]

Order a custom piece of acrylic (http://www.tapplastics.com/product/plastics/cut_to_size_plastic) or some other such material, then shape it through various means, which would be whatever your preference is. Once done, flame polish or buff it with a powered buffer tool.

Personally, I'd just cut it down to the basic shape you want and then sand it down the rest of the way using progressively finer sandpaper until you reach the point where you can start to polish it by either flame or with a buffer of some sort or another.

It's going to be rather expensive however you look at it, I think. Let's say you go with normal acrylic, just extra thick and custom cut. Measurements would be what? 3 inches wide by 24 inches long and 2 inches thick? It would cost you $80 + S&H. That's pretty much the cheapest I could get it, too. Just a bit more here and there and it really jumps up in price.

Edit: Using Google Image Search, the sword doesn't seem to be crystal clear. Is this implied in the show or by some other reputable source? Either way, I would say that so long as the color matches, it's not going to matter too much whether you make the sword out of acrylic or out of wood. Wood would be easiest. Slap on a bit of paint and voila. Maybe even have the paint glow a bit, since the sword seems to glow a bit in the show?

Another idea for the acrylic sword would be to frost it (or don't polish it after sanding) and stick some EL wire in it or some such, then hook that up to a battery, perhaps in the pommel? Then the sword would actually glow. The easiest way to accomplish that would be to make two halves of the sword, route out the grooves for the EL wire, then place the EL wire into the grooves, then use an acrylic solvent to "weld" the two pieces together. Bam, glowing sword!

Edit: Actually, the easiest way would be to simply cut out grooves in the finished sword and then stick the EL wire into that. That way you don't have to make two separate pieces and you could change it out if need be.

[luciusad2004]

Thanks for the suggestions guys!

I'll let her know. I'm not to sure what route she's going to go as she didn't really give me a price range for her budget but I assume it's rather low. She has a while to work on it though so maybe she'll raise her budget if she comes in to some money.

[Cale_Hagan]

Order a custom piece of acrylic (http://www.tapplastics.com/product/plastics/cut_to_size_plastic) or some other such material, then shape it through various means, which would be whatever your preference is. Once done, flame polish or buff it with a powered buffer tool.

Personally, I'd just cut it down to the basic shape you want and then sand it down the rest of the way using progressively finer sandpaper until you reach the point where you can start to polish it by either flame or with a buffer of some sort or another.

It's going to be rather expensive however you look at it, I think. Let's say you go with normal acrylic, just extra thick and custom cut. Measurements would be what? 3 inches wide by 24 inches long and 2 inches thick? It would cost you $80 + S&H. That's pretty much the cheapest I could get it, too. Just a bit more here and there and it really jumps up in price.

Edit: Using Google Image Search, the sword doesn't seem to be crystal clear. Is this implied in the show or by some other reputable source? Either way, I would say that so long as the color matches, it's not going to matter too much whether you make the sword out of acrylic or out of wood. Wood would be easiest. Slap on a bit of paint and voila. Maybe even have the paint glow a bit, since the sword seems to glow a bit in the show?

Another idea for the acrylic sword would be to frost it (or don't polish it after sanding) and stick some EL wire in it or some such, then hook that up to a battery, perhaps in the pommel? Then the sword would actually glow. The easiest way to accomplish that would be to make two halves of the sword, route out the grooves for the EL wire, then place the EL wire into the grooves, then use an acrylic solvent to "weld" the two pieces together. Bam, glowing sword!

Edit: Actually, the easiest way would be to simply cut out grooves in the finished sword and then stick the EL wire into that. That way you don't have to make two separate pieces and you could change it out if need be.

love tap plastics! :D