In this part of the tutorial we make the wooden handle of the sword.

Part one (the beginning) of this tutorial is here

To do a handle like this you should use a piece of nice hardwood.
Here is the exact piece of cocobola wood I ordered for this project: Cocobolo, 2" x 2" x 12"

I rough cut the wood handle to a bit larger than needed. Then marked where the slot for the tang will go.

This picture shows you the marks on the handle. Now I have to drill a slot right down the center of that wood piece so the tang can slide in.

We do this the same way as the other pieces. First by drilling a series of holes in the shape of a slot.

Now, the handle does pose a bit of a challenge that the other parts didn't. It is unusually long (5 1/2 Inches) so a normal drill bit doesn't go all the way through. I used an extra long drill bit to accomplish the drilling. And remember that the tang is angled so not every hole is straight down.

It takes a bit of drilling and a bit of work but it is only wood so it goes reasonably quickly.

Ok! The handle fits very well. Now we need to carve it into an actual handle shape and custom fit it to the pommel and the guard.

I mark it up here so I know where to rasp it for a custom fit to the guard. Just a little bit of a curve.

Then use a rasp to shape out the handle. Take your time with this. Don't over do it, particularly at the pommel end.

Because that end of the handle needs to be custom rasped to the pommel and this part takes some work if you want a nice fit. I just slowly rasped away at the wood, checking it often.

Toward the end, where it was almost the right fit I was using the small files to fine tune it.

And that's just about done. The wood handle fits very well into the pommel.

Ok, we are almost done with the building of the sword. Let's assemble the parts together and do the final design work.

Make Gimli's Axe from Lord of the Rings

This is an easy and fun project. Of course I give you the template. Make this and you will be ready for the release of the new Hobbit Movie! Make Gimli's Axe