hi i am going to be making some keyblades soon i know i need a jig saw can anyone tell me what other tools i will need and what the best types of wood would be to use. i want to make Oathkeeper and Oblivion and eventually i am going to work on a Christmas town sora cosplay from kingdom hearts 2 final mix+ and i will need to make Decisive pumpkin. i have never made my own keyblades before so any help would be great

thanks.

okay wood is a funny thing...


number one and most importantly...don't have the tools, don't use the hard woods..(aka broadleaf tress, maple, oak, ash)

1. its harder(aka next to impossible) to work with them, without some serious power tools

2. hard woods do NOt Take well to paint, stain, or anything else.


I strongly suggest mahogany. Its almost as strong as oak, but its a lot easier to work with. Its technically a hard wood, but it cuts well, takes paint almost as good as pine, and is pleasant smelling to work with.

it is a shade expensive though because it doesn't grow well in the states.

Also, don't get the idea to sell them.....Disney is the biggest stinker on busting fan art. And keyblades ar eone of thier favorite targets.........

ok thanks i see them on ebay but not to many good ones. has disney gone after all these people that make them and sell them on ebay and other places.

dunno about Ebay, but some of those guys might be out of country

i do know that MOST people that tried it at cons got busted though, which is why you almost never see them there. The only keyblade I ever known of a dealer at a con having was a rumor of one at Ohayo-con 08, and I've been to about 6 cons.

I kinda of like this though, because that means that darn near all the KBs are handmade, which is really cool

ya i have just seen diferent forms of kingdom key i have seen a few cons where they like had one kingdom key awile back and i did notice true swords.com doesnt sell the kingdom key anymore and they did

yeah, I saw that too, I think they had a license for a bit.

I know the guy at the mall i work at is selling 2 Keyblade's the true form keyblade and i belive the Oblivion keyblade there really heavy i tryed to pick them up they have to be like 50 pounds. I think they are the disney brand, i know the guy wants to get rid of all of his swords so there like 50% to 75% off.

Can't be possible. Disney/Square Enix never put out a license for 1:1 keyblades, only 1:6 ones (so like, keychains/pendants essentially). So, every 1:1 keyblade out there is either hand-made, or mass-produced in China and marketed as the real deal (ie bootlegged). If Disney/Square Enix did, they would be horribly overpriced , heh.

That aside, there's an excellent tutorial online here!

:unsure: Sorry i don't know anything about that stuff, i just assumed.

It's cool, knowing is half the battle. It's better to go out there and learn so the bootlegging can be put in control. Unfortunately many dealers aren't going to tell you something is obviously bootlegged, it's up to the consumer to figure out that, "Hey this keyblade/Kingdom Hearts plushie/costume is only $40..." so instead of thinking, "SWEET DEAL!", they should take a second look at it and realize it's that cheap for a reason. (like has no Disney/Square Enix tags, cheaply made looking, printed-looking tag instead of glossy, etc.) And unfortunately they don't hold up to much wear and tear.

That is a sweet tutorial. I wish everyone's keyblades came out as nicely.

That's not necissarily true..My sandals were made of oak, I got them painted extremely easily.. Two coats, and I didn't really need the second one.

that's because you're painting a flat surface, and proabably with a relitively inexpensive latex paint.

What would almost certainly eventually end up happening, should those be left out in the sun for a while, is the paint will seperate from the wood, and instead of painted shoes, you'll have wood blocks in a bag of paint.


Shoes stay on your feet, and hence don't get much weaterhing other then water. hence almost anything water proof geos for shoes.


Key bades sling over your shoulder on the other hand, get beat on by the sun all day, and hard woods do NOT soak in paint very well, and oil based paints start peeling, and Water based paint do the aforementioned seperation syndrome.

Now obviously if you;re willing to pay for really good paint, you can overcome this, but with the average income and expidenture levels of normal cosplayers

You have obviously never lived the life of a shoe.

I was under the impression that shoes were most often worn outside and would get the most weathering and wear of all things.

In any case, the spray paint and/or airbrush idea in the tutorial seem like the best way to go, really.

wear oh yes, sunlight, not any sane person I know has issues with that.....

Also, noone i now where wears wood shoes in salty slush, its a safety hazard........and if you do,I will remember to nominate you for a Darwin when you fall and get run over outside of Ohayocon.

On the other hand I saw a brand new buster sword suffering from this exact issue on like its fisrt or second con out........

I've made an Oblivion before, not finished with it yet, but I can tell you how I made it. The tutorial far beats my way though xD

Drawing
What I did was get the official art of Oblivion: Right here
Just make sure it includes the keychain piece. After that, get it made into a transparency. If you have access to an overhead projector, you can tape paper onto a flat wall and trace the image being projected at the exact size you want. Just move the projector around to what size you're looking for.

Cutting
Cut the image out and tape it onto a wooden board that will fit all the dimensions. I used walnut - cheap, light, and strong (Not entirely sure how it handles paint). After taping the drawing on the board, go nuts with a band saw/jigsaw. Use a drill for any inside hole along with a jigsaw.

Sanding
You may sand the edges to get more detail if you want, though I didn't. I left mine flat xP. To sand, I just used a belt sander and an oscillating spindle sander.

Painting
I'd go with the tutorial. Primer tons, paint tons.