

Also, it’s best to do this the same day you spray the sliver paint, otherwise the paint will harden and be much more difficult to scrape off. If you want to give the blade an appearance that it is beginning to rust, all you need to do is take a tool like the edge of a pair of pliers or a wrench and carefully scrape away some of the silver paint to reveal specks of the brown primer underneath.ĭon’t get too carried away doing this, just a few hints here and there that there is some rust beginning to form. Give the beveled edge a coat of shiny silver acrylic paint for more added realism. This will give the blade more depth, and make it look "used". Once the blade is dry, mix a small amount of silver acrylic craft paint with a small drop of black, and dry brush streaks perpendicular to the edge of the blade. Flip the blade and repeat for the other side. Give the primer at least an hour or two to dry and then spray a couple coats of silver paint. Wait for it to dry, then flip it over and repeat for the other side. Give the blade a few good coats of brown or rust colored primer.

Then use a ½” bit, or a bit the same size as your blade width to drill out the pilot holes. Measure and mark out where you want the blade to penetrate the shaft, then drill small pilot holes on each end and make sure they are centered. We don’t exactly want this to look like a square piece of lumber when it’s finished. I hope you didn’t put the sander away because now you are going to need it to smooth out the entire shaft. And since our Grimm Reaper actor will be 8 feet tall (on stilts), I had to splice the 2” x 2” with another to extend it an additional foot and a half. Where I live, I couldn’t find any 2” x 2” ‘s longer than 8 feet. You can make your scythe as long as you want. They might even sell it cheap, so be sure to ask for a discount. Go to your local lumber yard and select the most bowed 2” x 2” you can find.

My blade ended up at 3-1/2 - 4 feet long, but you can really do any size or design you want, just make sure to leave the blade’s tang long enough so it can be attached to the shaft. For me, this was one of the more difficult parts of the project, but maybe that's because I'm a perfectionist. You can see from the photos, it took me a few tries before I was finally happy with the design. Use a pencil to draw the blade shape onto a scrap piece of 1/2” plywood.
