Comment on Sailor Uranus Sword by meanlilkitty

So glad you liked it! Sadly I really didn't take any progress photos, so I can't show my work. Basically I just cut out the main outline sans the balls out of poplar wood, then used a band sander to make the edges on the blade. Once that was done, I used the sword as it's own template and cut out two more layers for the hand guard, one layer on each side, then a layer for the lip on the handguard. After that I took a dremmel and used several different bits to grind the shapes down and then made grooves in the wood where the beads were going to go. The beads are simple wood ones I got from Joannes and I used hot glue to get them in place. The grooves will help keep them stable so they won't pop off at first resistance. For the ones on the handguard, I put a thin nail into the end of the handguard, and then filled the bead with glue and mounted it on the nail to give it more strength. After that it was just doing final sanding, prepping the wood with several layers of oil-based polyurethane, more sanding, and then painting with metallic gold and silver paint called Viva Colour Precious Metal Effect Paint. The jewels on the handle I cast out of plastic with custom molds I made out of Putty Magic and then painted with acrylic and glued onto the blade with gel super glue.
Let me know if you need any more advice and I'll be happy to help!