What to make a scythe blade out of?

I’ve made my Undertaker scythe out of cardboard paper (the one for drawing) and those mini skeleton from halloween decorations. It was pretty cool. But I would recommend worbla or foam for the blade.

 

Seconding worbla or plastic if you can find something in that shape, then primed and spray painted. I would advise getting first some coats of black, then a coat of silver, then adding rust and little indents for an used blade if need be, then sealing it.

I've tried cardboard once for an axe for a human sized costume, spray painted with black and silver, and added a bit of (fake) blood. It's not bad, but there are better stuff out there, but at the time, I had cardboard around and I didn't want to freak out my colleagues TOO much XD.

 

Show us your results when you can.

 

If you're not afraid of working with real metal, you can get squares of thin metal sheets in hobby shops - brass, tin plate, even copper, whatever you like. They come in different thicknesses. You can cut them for instance with snips/ sheet shears or a fretsaw with metal blades and sand them with metal sanding paper (or a dremel tool). A bit much perhaps if you do not already have these things, but we made some doll weapons out of metal and I find the real metal look beats most other solutions. The sheets can also be hammered if you like the look, or drilled if needed, of course.

 

I used a tea candle light's metal pot or what ever you call that thingy. It's easy to cut, but if you want to make a death scythe you will probably need a big one . Or a disposable barbeque grill tray, they come in all sizes and the material is just as easy to cut.

 

I think sharing a sketch or example of your desired shape would help. ^^

Without seeing the shape, I wonder if a slice of lightweight wood sanded ultra fine and then painted with glossy white might work.

Alternatively there is a crafting material called palight pvc which you could also carve and finish in a similar fashion to wood. The advantage is that there is no grain like you might encounter in wood, but it cuts very smoothly with a good sharp crafting knife, and then can be painted as desired.

 

Worbla could do the job. It's a thermoplastic that comes in thin sheets that you can cut and then heat up to shape how you want. It's really lightweight and comes in a few different finishes.

 

@lividdarkangel am I misremembering you owning a 3D printer? Seems printed in light weight plastic would be fine.

 

Worbla, also sold as instamorph in pellet form, is also very hard to get really smooth. Not in the stepped output of a 3D printer way but more in a just trying to smooth it as you shape it by hand as you have limited working time until it cools / it behaves differently as it cools. If you think it would be hard to sculpt in clay it's probably going to be a lot harder with thermoplastic. 1cm thickness is no problem though.

 

You can definitely layer the sheets, which are ~1mm thick, to get the desired thickness, or use something else as filler in the middle. It may take a bit of work to make the tapering smooth, though.

 

You might try exploring the marketplace or other similar areas for someone who could model it for you for a fee. I did this some time back when I needed some very tiny screw heads for a modding project, with great results.

 

I’d also like to suggest Tamiya Pla Plate as an option. It’s a thin plastic sheet that you can cut with regular scissors. I’ve used it myself to make a spear blade for a cosplay with pretty good results! I cut out multiple copies of the blade shape and layered them to get the stiffness I wanted, then stuck them together with super glue and spray painted it.

 

For dimensional shapes I would recommend EVA foam. It's a lot cheaper than thermoplastics like worbla and you can find it sold as "gym flooring mats" at places like Walmart or Harbor Freight. You can use a sharp exacto knife to cut the basic shape you need and smooth out any roughness with your dremel. Here's a tutorial video about dremeling EVA foam. Alternatively, depending on how big the scythe blade needs to be, you could also look into precut bevel strips. It's a little hard to explain verbally, but if you cut out small slivers in one side and glue the resulting gaps closed, you can make the strip hold a curved shape. EVA foam does need to be sealed before painting. I usually use a spray called Plastidip.

 

Why not try making the design out is scrap cardboard then cover it In trimmed pieces of computer paper like Froggy Stuff does in their tutorial. Then you can adjust your mark up as need before turning it into a template.

 

I am so sorry, there isn't an actual tutorial for your scythe. What Froggy does is cut the shape she wants out of a piece of computer paper (your diamond) then depending on how thick you want the blade you trace the diamond onto scrap cardboard. You could use 1 piece, or you could end up gluing 3 pieces of cardboard together. Then you would cut a narrow strip of computer paper the width of your blade and wrap and glue it around your diamond. Trim off any extra. Last step would be to glue the top and bottom pieces onto the cardboard. The youtuber is "Froggy's Stuff" and they use recyclables to make props and furniture for dolls.

 

I think of a grim reaper’s scythe as being an ancient, hand forged instrument - not super shiny or smooth….so worbla seems like a great option for this project. If it’s difficult to find Worbla in your part of the world, there is always the option to do some homemade - do a web search for worbla pie for the ratios of wood flour to instamorph/friendly plastic. You can achieve some really cool hammered effects with different household items and the use of a heat gun (or hair dryer?)