Cosplay Fantasy DIY Axe of Inner Strength. Make it & Memories that Matter to You.

01a. Download the files attached to this project (Obviously) 

01b. Open your preferred cutting program of XTool or Lightburn. If you don't have a lazer machine, you can still make this project. Download the SVG's and Print them. Then Trace and cut by hand with a Stanley knife or your hand tools. 

01c. Select. Select the material you want to use & decide if you're going to customize and personalize your axe design. Remember, for the Axe Head, Materials used are based on choice. Read the instructions for the selected engraving style for each material. Also, for the axe head, thinner materials are more malleable and easier to bend while giving a sharper edge to the blades. 

Make sure you have all your materials ready and on hand before you start. (I attached a few images of 3 different material types to this step… Gold Metal Acrylic 2ply, Wood Engraving & Taped foam design)

Material Selection Options. Make a choice on What you Are Using BEFORE the next steps.

Wooden Fluer De Lis Example… Made from 1.6mm thick wood, purchased from PLYCO on a maple. It's an Australian Wood veneer over an eco-friendly ply mulch. Made in Australia. These Thin Sheets are excellent for shaping unique wood bends as the thin ply is bendable, especially if dampened with a small amount of water to make it super flexible. As it dries, the wood stays in the glued shape. 

* Thinner wood is preferred, as it is more flexible and takes less sanding if you want a sharper blade join on your axe. 

* Wood is excellent for sharper blades and glueing because excess glue & edge joints can be hand sanded to perfection. Be careful when sanding engravings. 

Foam Fluer De Lis Example… Made from 4mm Hard Lite Foam & 3mm Soft Foam for cutout side. This is an excellent material if you don't have a laser machine or just don't like sanding or extra work. An easy to work with material that's malleable, flexible and requires very little strength to assemble. It also makes your axe very safe for conventions and awesome for Bopping!

* Adding Foamclay is an easy way to make your axe is 3Dimensional

* Use a 3M double sided tape to add 3d features. (eg acrylic paint the foal, then cut out the lazercut parts and stick the now coloured foam onto the axe head)

* Use a pair of scissors or a knife to cut your printed template out. 

Acrylic Axe Examples… There are so many acrylics on the market, but I prefer the plain black in 1.6mm or a Metal Look Finish 1.6mm 2ply Acrylic that looks like metal (See My Renfair Axe)

Acrylic is the hardest to work with, it looks awesome though and if done well for those of you willing to put in the time, it can look extremely realistic and detailed. Engrave and paint in the engravings on a black acrylic or use a metal acrylic or 2ply to have the design engraved without any extra steps!!!

* Acrylic is less bendable and pliable, so if you aren't careful you can snap the curved parts of the blade when glueing them in place. To avoid this, Heatguns help!

* Paint only sticks in the engraved areas, not long term on gloss acrylic parts without engravings. 

* Acrylic is more ornamental, as it can be hard and more dangerous to swing around. As a plastic, when sharpened, it's SHARP so some conventions won't let you bring it into the fairgrounds. Always make a soft bopping guard for it if using it in large community gatherings.

* Acrylic glues are more toxic and require patience and care not to leave marks… So, looks cool, but more work!

So… Choose your Base….

Will it be Wood, Foam or Acrylic? 

Prepare your materials so they're close at hand and you don't get confused which is for where.

That means, You also need a wood or acrylic offcut to cut the one center stick (Blue)

You also need to make sure you have enough Cardboard. Use old recycled delivery or package sides. Keep a stash of clean cardboard for all project fillings, it's so handy!. You can substitute the cardboard for packing foam as it's just as squishy. 3mm cardboard or foam works best.

02a. I highly encourage you to personalize and add your own Custom Design to this Axe.

To do this in the Xtool or Lightburn Files. Simply Remove all the FLUER De Lis engraving purple images…. That leaves the blade curves and blade engravings only. (Not sure which engravings to keep, see the images here!) 

To do this elsewhere… Just Use the SVG (Base Axe Design Axe Head - Cut Only) File as it's just the blade head. Draw or import your own patterns and designs to it. 

Feeling Ambitios? Then Remove ALL the engravings or use the  (Base Axe Design Axe Head - Cut Only) File as it's just the blade cutout. Draw or import your own blade engrave shading to the blades (but that's trickier as mine already make the blade look very blade like) as well as your own patterns and designs to the center head. 

02b. Draw or copy images of your favorite designs and patterns onto the axe face. Shape them to fit and edit the design until you're happy.

03c. Save your engraving and add the settings for your project.

03a. The Axe Head. (Cut and Engrave a front & back for your axe head) Choose the engrave design of either Axe Cut & Engrave 01a&b OR Axe Cut & Engrave 02a&b. 

Cut your Wood, Foam or Acrylic choice with the Axe Head design that I supplied, Or you Customized. Please Note. There are 4 Canvases on XTool and Lightburn with Axe Heads. 1 Set has the engraving for Painting the other is an engraving version with an outline for engraving, it's up to you which one you choose to use, however I like the blade edge being black so I pick 01 for painting in the engravings and version 02 for engraving on wood or colored surfaces like metal acrylics.  

* Wood… Cut & Engrave. You can use any wood you like, however, Make sure to test the cut and engrave settings with a small shape for your material before cutting the axe head so that the settings work for your wood. The settings in this Lightburn and Xtool file are Settings I usually use a for PLYCO 1.6mm Queensland Maple at the Settings of, Cut: Pwr 100 Spd 13 & Engrave: Pwr 69 Speed 169 because 1.6mm is better for thinner blades without sanding the angle for a sharp look. However I've also made this blade with a 3mm Cherrywood Plywood sheet at Cut Pwr 100 speed 4.7 Engrave 37 Power 227

* Foam… For your axe head, you can add painters' tape and score or engrave out the painters' tape. This will leave you a stencil of tape that you can paint in after the cut and engraving is done. You can also cut the engraving on a separate piece of foam and the blade base on another then glue the foam cutout onto the blade base. See 2 example image of Foam Engrave/Cutting At the Settings of, Cut: Pwr 100 Spd 13 & Engrave: Pwr 27 Speed 169

* Acrylic… If you want to paint over your engravings, leave the protection paper (as long as it's one that's not flammable) on or remove it and add painters' tape and engrave out the parts you wish to paint. For Metal look or 2ply colored acrylics, remove the protective plastics/papers then engrave & cut. I cut a Gloss Black 1.6mm Acrylic at the Settings of, Cut: Pwr 100 Spd 7 & Engrave: Pwr 69 Speed

03b. Cut the wood, ply or acrylic Center stick. I used some leftover Basswood 3mm Ply in one of my axes. This is a center stick that helps keep the axe strong and re-enforces the cardboard to prevent breakage or bending of the axe stick. I used a Scrap Basswood Plywood or a 3mm Acrylic at the Settings of, Cut: Pwr 100 Spd 3.7

03c. Cut the Cardboard filling. I've included 6 sticks and 6 heads that connect at different places along the staff length to keep the weight enforced well, see the next step for images. at the Settings of, Cut: Pwr 100 Spd 27. 

Note: For those who are confident cardboard cutters, Just cut the cardboard using the cardboard parts as a reference with good old fashion eye and hand co-ordination with a knife!

Note: Keep the cardboard scraps, You may need a few to add to your axe filling of you want a more circular or wider staff stick as the design is made for a medium staff width.

04a. Building the inner body is easy, as long as you match the sticks and heads in the right order. 

See the image here for the order and sizes. The center blue stick and head are your wood cutouts, and they're surrounded and sandwiched between the red cardboard parts. 

04b. Glue them all together. The glue can be slippery before drying (use cheap non toxic PVA since the later steps will make it secure permanently anyway). Add some painters/masking tape to hold the wet glue together

04c. Once the glue is dry, squish and hold around the staff stick. By squeezing and pressing your cardboard you can mold it into a more circular staff shape to see if the width and shape is what you want. (It will also get slightly thicker after you wrap it later so keep that in mind.) If it isn't as wide as you want or is too disproportionate, cut some scrap strips of cardboard and glue them in where it feels wrong. 

04d. While focusing on the staff, Use masking/painters tape and tape the cardboard into a circular staff shape by slowly moving from one end of the staff to the other, while pressing and molding the cardboard into shape. The tape will hold the shape and add extra firm support to the staff, making it safe to swing around without risking the cardboard bending.

04e. Keep any spare scrap cardboard to fill in any areas you think you want thicker (For example, I add one extra to the head so the head is wider than the staff, but this is optional and personal preference so add to the base filling you've cut at your discretion once you've built the standard filling. Hold onto some extra to fill in any head gaps once you add the head piece later. 

Before you can add the Axe Head and Blades, you need to wrap the staff. 

You can use hemp cord and glue wrap it all along the staff length, rope, ribbon, fabric or even leather… My Renfair Axe used Cactus Leather, My Fluer Axe Uses Sueded Fabric.

Feel free to look up wrapping styles and use a wrap that suits your personal style. There are soooo many out there, but I love the 4 wrap which is a simple picnic crossover wrap that just covers the staff in a cute crossover zigzag pattern. a simple 2 twist over under also works, but for a challenge try an 8 wrap or a patterned leather wrap which is crazy complicated but looks very cool especially when done with different colored straps. 

My favorite is a 4 strap wrap though. … Steps for that are as follows. 

05a. Now that your filling is made and taped into shape, cut 4 strips of fabric, leather, pleather or ribbon. For the template size you have lazercut the length and width I did for a 4-wrap using 4cm thick fabric and leather straps that are 1 meter long to reach to the end of the axe staff. 

Note: Cutting the fabric into straps is easier if you fold the fabric in half and half again, Measure the width you want (I used a cardboard template) then you can just cut a strip and it unfolds into a long strap <3.

05b. Now that your 4 wrap strap lengths are cut, before you do anything with them check for fraying. Fabric strips from polyester and with nylon backing frays, so like a ribbon, light a candle and let the heat from the flame seal the fraying. Don't burn or melt too much but move evenly along the cuts of the fabric so it just seals the edges. 

05c. Now glue and tape (the tape re-enforces the glue so you can tug them later without worrying it will tug off. Glue it in a cross at the bottom of the staff head. (see image) Let the Glue Dry fully. Glue it the same on the other side so all 4 straps are secured to the head. 

05d. Now wrap it. Cross them over and then under like doing a picnic weave but around the staff instead of a flat square picnic rug. 

05e. Glue it at the end, let dry and trim off the excess ribbon, strap or fabric.

Now that the wrap is complete you can start on the Axe Head Part. 

06a. First Glue the axe center head to the Staff top section. Position it carefully so it covers all the center cardboard properly and sits ontop of the top of the wrap. Tape it in place until the glue dries.\. Then turn it over and at the exact same position glue the second center cutout onto the other side of the staff. 

06b. Any gaps between the cardboard and now glued in place head center parts, fill with recycled cardboard, or handwipes or tissues or rubbish scrap paper that you would throw out anyway. 

06c. Blade Time. Start with the shorter back blade of the axe. Glueing into place is different depending on your glue and material. Ps. You may need to squish and press the edges of the cardboard where the blades go to make it thinner so your blade can easily meet the blade on the other side.

For Wood - Use a flexible clear glue. Glue along the attaching seam to the center head on bloth sides (clip or tape into place) . Wait until the glue is HALF dry, so it's secured to the center head. Using the flexible glue, you can then put glue on the inside edge of that blade and very gently push both blade edges towards one another until they meet. Tape in that angled position.

For Acrylic and Foam - Angle the blade in the angle it needs to be glued and glue it at that angle to the center axe head part. Do the same on the other side, while also glueing where the blades meet at that angle hold.

06d. Now that you practiced with the smaller easier straighter blade, do the same on the other blade side, but take your time and use more tape and clips to secure during the process while the glue dries. This is because the blade is curved and very long, so you may have to do it section by section or have a friend hold the curved part in place while you glue it. 

Note: If you want a perfect SHARP Looking Blade… Make sure to use  aTHINNER material and SAND the wood, acrylic or foam to a 45 degree angle on the back. By sanding thin to an angle on one side, the joins will sit and bend more naturally, giving you a more seamless and sharp looking result. It also glues better that way. However, this takes TIME. (Foam users can of course cut it with an angle cutting knife instead as foam is soft enough for that)

Now you have a sexy staff, a badass Axe Head and some really manky looking cardboard at the top and bottom of the axe head. 

07a. Add glue and rubbish to fill in the gappy inside parts of the blade. Use foam clay, or any clay (Polymer, air drying), mixed with glue, to make a smooth axe top and under. Spread and mold it with your fingers till you're happy with the shape and look. I prefer using foam clay as it's light and your axe gets hefty pretty quick especially with heavy clay.

07b. If you want to embed cool things into the top and bottom, do so while the clay is still soft and malleable. While the clay is soft, add more glue and press quartz rocks or decorative items (like sea shells, beads, crushed glass, fake spiders) like I did into the axe top and bottom, then decorate the axe with small stones to hide where the axe head joins the wrap. Use clear drying glue or resin to embed the items into the axe for great adhesion and a clean look. While the glue is wet, it may be slippery depending on the adhesive you use, so it helps to tape embedded rocks and decorations until the glue fully dries. 

07c. While embedding and shaping everything… add a pommel to the end of the staff. The cardboard base of the staff allows for a small magnet to be glued and sewed in if you want to make a light able pummel, however it's much easier if you just decorate it like you do the top and bottom of the axe head. Add stones to the pummel, form a clay ball at the end if you want it bulkier, then glue on roses or quartz or anything that catches you fancy. 

Note: Decorating can be done with anything… glue/cast in crushed glass, grainy sands, crystals, dried flowers, sculpt your own decorations of seashells and flowers from clay (like the roses I sculpted on my fantasy axe design) or even go abstract and glue fabric patterns and lace into it. Customize and create this axe head however it inspires you!

Note: Decorating the pummel should match the rest of your axe… but be creative with all your decorations. You can even add custom decorations or things to the pummel and axe head face to add more depth and coolness (See my fantasy custom axe design). Remember this is a DIY Decorate it however you want axe template, so go wild and show me how freaking cool you can customize this!

Here's the most satisfying part. 

08a. Clean and sand off any excess glue or clay or parts that just didn't glue where they were supposed to. Wipe the axe off of dust, glue and dirt. Use Sandpaper over 180 grit to sand off any glue or wood splinters, be careful not to sand off any engravings or things you want to keep. Clean paint and glue off of any embedded items

08b. Paint it in. Use Paint to add dramatic touches to the axe head. For example, add shading around your decorations or on the blades to give it the illusion of greater depth. Paint in texture for a more rustic look or even paint in a design or fake blood on your axe. For foam axes, add flexibond to ensure better paint adhesion or use a heatgun to make the foam smoother so paint goes on smoother. Add paint details, gold flecks or shadows to your decorations as well, it's incredible what a difference some highlights can make to your design. 

Note: If your wrap is subtle like the fabric wrap I used, Add depth to it, by painting a line along the edges of the fabric straps. 

08c. Once the paint is dry, Make sure to Varnish any wood parts and anything that requires a coat of protective varnish. Add a touch of resin to fake blood if you painted that in, to give it a more 3dimensional shape and effect. 

09a. Let everything dry fully. Especially glued parts and clays. Fully cured. 

09b. Add a signature to your amazing piece and give it a swing!

How cool is your design?! I just can't wait to witness how absolutely empowered you feel holding this axe! I hope making it and doing something with it, becomes a memory that matters to you!

See My Social Media Posts Featuring this Project!!!

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1ECSfuJEsm/

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https://x.com/i/status/2075857463828705468

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