Wooden Orcrist

This entry is a bit late, but I only recently realized that I hadn't posted it to this blog.  My daughter decided to dress as a pirate for Halloween 2014.  She had the basic costume, and I decided to make a sword to add that final touch.  This was partly inspired by a video I saw on YouTube from another woodworker, Paul Jenkins.


Paul created a wooden replica of the sword 'Orcrist' from The Hobbit.  Orcrist is one of the weapons that Gandalf, Bilbo, and the dwarves found in the troll warren.  Orcrist is the sword's Elvish name; the orcs call it "Biter."  This scene in the book is where Gandalf finds his sword (Glamdring, or "Foe Hammer"), and Bilbo finds the blade he would go on to name Sting.

As a long time Tolkien enthusiast, I thought this was a great project.  In addition, the swords design was reminiscent of a cutlass, which is often associated with pirates.  With that, it was off to the workshop.  Actually, it was off to the computer first so that I could resize and print out the templates.

This also marked my first video build log, so I'll let - well, me do the talking:

Overall I'm very pleased with how the sword turned out.  I took a few small liberties with the design, mostly for safety and ease of construction.  The important thing is that my daughter loved it, and it's been well used since then.

I was a bit nervous going into this project, and I'm not entirely sure why.  The woodworking wasn't anything I hadn't done before; I guess I just had a certain vision in my head and I was afraid I would let my daughter down if it didn't turn out just right.  In hindsight there was nothing to fear.  Lesson learned - maybe.

Here are some pictures of the handle details.  The full gallery can be found on my Flickr page.

And finally, my daughter in all her pirate glory: