Tag: Updates

Ups and Downs

So, in all my years of doing this crazy job, I’ve never had a sanding belt break. Today, I had two of them fail on me.

Both of them failed in the same place. Right at the seam. I don’t know if it’s because they’re old or because I should have used a coarser grit for this stage of shaping or some other reason I’m not seeing. What I do know is that Those were my last two belts and I’m not sure how I’m going to finish the project. I’m not exaggerating when I say I’m broke right now.

The good news is that I got the seraph blade all sanded around the edges and I can at least get it measured and marked up for shaping. It’s really important that all those edges make a nice 90 degree angle with the sides (which we know for sure are flat). That lets me make sure I get the edge of the blade right in the middle and not curving off in one direction or the other.

So what now? Well, I shut my machine off and cleaned up the workshop, swore at the broken belts (as is customary), and went for a shower. Now I’m gonna work at clearing my head and conferring with my wife about what sort of budget we can spare for this project. I can’t afford to sink money into it until it’s done which was my way of doing things before financial disaster hit us.

Wish me luck. I’ll try to find a way forward.

Are You Crazy Enough?

I’ve got some updates and an offer for you. Let’s get to the progress report on the wakizashi first.

No, I didn’t break it. That’s an extra chunk of Plexiglas in there.

At last! The pattern is all cut out. Edges ain’t pretty yet but that gets fixed next.

I like keeping aside the pile of all the off cuttings to see how much plastic gets removed. Some of these bits are big enough to make a pendant or small decoration. I try not to waste plastic unnecessarily.

Now! My proposal …

I’ve mentioned before that my wife and I are struggling financially. If I were back home in Canada, I could put up my Patreon or PayPal and you could simply contribute a buck or two if you felt like supporting my work here. But in Finland, that’s illegal.

Yep. I have to sell a product or a service. I can’t legally take donations. Sucks eh?

So I have to take more of my very limited time and energy and try to make an additional product to sell in hopes of getting a trickle to take some of the pressure off.

That’s why I’ve decided, for the first time, to offer tutorials on how to do what I do, step by step. It’s difficult. It requires a degree of insanity to stay patient and stick with it. But it produces results that you cannot get by any other means.

This kind of clarity, structural strength, and inner “glow” cannot be produced by 3D printing or moulding and casting.

What do you think? Are you crazy enough to try it yourself? Or perhaps just curious about the techniques? Would you be interested in some tutorials?

A Tale of Tragedy and Madness

Today, I’m going to tell you about my day using pictures.

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Yep. It’s been that kind of day.
I’ve already repaired this strap system once and I don’t have the time or materials to do it again. I have a replacement part coming to me via Temu. Don’t throw shade on me for that. I am BROKE and I literally can’t afford anything better. No, there is nothing available locally in bumf*** Finland. The next cheapest thing I could find was from Amazon at 40€ plus shipping and it would arrive while I’m visiting my relatives in Canada.
So, for now, we’ll have grouchy post-apocalyptic Shrek.

Here’s an update on the sword.

Git r’ dun. Can I have a beer now?

Wakizashi Work

Angel blade all cut out, now it’s time to work on the wakizashi!

Got the modified Clariel seraph blade cut out as much as is practical with the plunge cutter. Now it’s time to tackle the wakizashi.

Slow and steady wins the race. There are several factors that dictate the pace of carving PMMA (Plexiglas).

For me, the first consideration is how much work my body can do each day. Because I’m not well, I have strict limitations on my endurance. I still have to do other things each day like prepare food, shower, clean, take care of my cats, and go grocery shopping. If I use up too much of my energy or raise my pain level too high, I won’t be able to do some or any of those other things.

The second consideration is the nature of the material itself. Unlike wood, PMMA will begin to melt if it gets too hot. This will deform the piece you’re trying to make and, if you ignore the warning signs of overheating, it can actually discolour the plastic.

To cut PMMA, you need to use friction. Whether you’re using a saw, a grinder, or a sander, the problem remains. You will have to go slowly and give the material adequate time to cool down during the cutting process. You must work in stages and keep moving the tool to different parts of the piece.

The third consideration is the tools themselves. I consider my Bosch multitool to be a decent machine but even it overheats after a few hours of work. It needs time to cool down as well. It’s also possible for the teeth of the tool to get gummed up with melted plastic and it will need to be cleaned.

Vibration from the cutting tools can cause numbness, tingling, and even nerve damage if used for a prolonged period of time. This can be partly mitigated by keeping the cutting bits clean and sharp. The one I’m using needs to be replaced but I’m having difficulty sourcing Bosch starlock cutting bits in Finland. Ah, the joys of living in a remote corner of the world.

Slow and steady; we’ll get there eventually.

New Projects & New Workshop

Oh hey, two new swords in progress! Nice.

Are you ready!? Me neither. Anyway, I have a reasonably functional work space and some materials. On the workbench right now is a wakizashi and a modified Clariel order that was cancelled when the pandemic started.

My workshop is now located on the upper floor of my house. It was going to be in the garage but it turns out that the heating in there doesn’t work and the water pipe freezes every winter. Oh well. The entire outer wall of this room is windows so I have adequate ventilation.

I haven’t been idle during my long hiatus. I’ve studied some new techniques and gotten a couple new tools which I hope will make my job easier and speedier. Here’s a picture of the wakizashi in progress. I’ve drilled guide holes through the material with my drill press who I call Emily, after Emily Post. If you know who that is, you’re officially cool.

Anyway, drilling nice 90 degree holes around the perimeter of the pattern I intend to cut out helps me keep my plunge cutter straight and avoid straying off on an angle that I’ll have to fix later.

You can see that the Clariel, a Seraph Blade inspired by Cassandra Clare’s “Shadowhunters” novel series, was already into the first stage of material removal when the project was cancelled. While it’s sad that the customer had to cancel, the upshot is that I can now do whatever I want with this piece. I’ve never had this kind of freedom before. It’s exciting and terrifying.

Well, let’s see what happens.

The End

After struggling for a long time to make this business work, I realized that I needed a business partner. It’s just too much work for one person to do alone.

I and a friend of mine were set to team up and combine our talents to breathe new life into my studio. Unfortunately, when he arrived in Finland and we spent a few days together, it became clear that we were not compatible as business partners.

I had already closed my business, Inkblade Studios, in preparation to start a new business so now I am without a company.

I could start again with all the same problems as before, or I could just … not. I’ve decided not to. I’m very tired now. I hope you’ll understand. Thanks for all your support and encouragement.

Bye for now.

Why is it so expensive?!

Hi everyone! Yes I’m still not dead. I have moved, again, this time into a house. While I’m setting up my new and improved workshop, I would like to introduce you to this video by Kamui Cosplay. She is one of my heroes of the profession and today she’s talking to us about prices.

If you are commissioning a custom blade from me, please expect at least 800-1000 euros. That’s practically giving the item to you because I don’t get to keep anything but a tiny faction of that.

I’m able to do these prices because my wife works a good full-time job and I should probably respect myself properly and ask for more … but it’s heartbreaking when a customer simply stops responding to me when I tell them the price even though I’m offering it as cheaply as I can without actually losing money. 😦

How can we overcome this together my friends? I want to give you the pretty artworks but the materials are so expensive and I really can’t spend every day all day working for free. This is a fun job but it’s still a job you know?

I’m not going to stop doing commissions and I’m working all the time on new methods of crafting to make things more affordable. But the reality of the situation means that I’m going to have to offer you all some standard merchandise that nobody requested from me personally, but which a larger variety of people could use to complete their costume.

I’m talking about more “plain” styles that you could use for either a Seraph Blade or an elf mage in your LARP. Maybe a selection like this, for example. Things like custom runes or different shapes of blade would be more expensive, of course, because I would have to make the prototype for you individually instead of making a bunch of the same item over and over again. This way, more people will be able to have something cool and not have to pay the price of the sculpture work or the making of the mould. (Remember, silicone is ghastly expensive!)

This doesn’t mean that my work is about to get boring. I’m still going to make cool, stylish, unique stuff for you to buy. You can have a greater chance of me creating an item that looks like what you want if you engage with my blog, or <a href="http://<iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?height=314&href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FKamuiCos%2Fvideos%2F1157911764676146%2F&show_text=false&width=560&t=0&quot; width="560" height="314" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowFullScreen="true">my facebook page, or, yes, my Youtube Channel (which isn’t set up yet because my freaking tripod broke and I still have to unpack my microphone from the moving boxes haha! have patience!).

Why? Well if 20 people say “Hey Ethan you should make the Herondale blades next!” then I have a good idea of what people want. I might get five or ten of those 20 people buy those swords right away and that would allow me to get back the cost of the prototypes I made. That way I don’t get stuck with a bunch of swords nobody wants to buy and you don’t have to pay for the mould and the sculpting work. Everybody wins!

You might think that your voice has no importance but that isn’t true. If I put up a poll asking people which sword model to make next and you’re the only one who responds … guess who gets to pick my next project? You do! So don’t hesitate to tell me your suggestions, even if you’re shy. 🙂

Alright, now I have to go unpack some more boxes. Wish me luck!

Still testing …

I wanted to have some more positive news for you before I posted again but it looks like that’s going to come a little later than I hoped. Remember the pink plastic coaster thingy I said I was making?

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Yeaaah, it’s not supposed to look like that. The darned thing just didn’t cure properly. I’ve been doing more research and realised that my workshop is too cold for curing Alumilite in small quantities like this. (It’s only about 4-5mm thick.)

The plaster jacket I made to hold the silicone mould nice and flat is unfortunately sucking the heat out of the material because gypsum is a substance with very low thermal conductivity. What does that mumbo-jumbo mean? Well it’s cold. And it stays cold. (There’s more to it than that but the coldness is the important bit to this project.)

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It ended up sticky and not fully hardened. You can probably see my fingerprints all over it. That’s not good.

So, yesterday I ran an experiment with my mini-oven at work, heating up the resin and holding it at 50 degrees Celsius while it cured. I couldn’t stay for the last hour of its curing because it was my wife’s birthday and I had to go spoil her properly. But before I left, I noticed a few tiny bubbles that should not have been there and it looked like it was separating from the mould in a few places. Not good! But I didn’t see any cloudiness that would indicate it didn’t cure all the way through. If there’s still no clouding when I get to the workshop today, that means we’ve made some progress!

So, why are small things harder to cast with Alumilite than large things? Well, when you mix part A and part B together, the resin has a chemical reaction that causes it to harden. This chemical reaction is exothermic (it gives off heat). If the piece I’m casting is large enough, I don’t have to worry about the mould being chilly. The resin will heat it up nicely for me.

While I’d love to simply go ahead and cast the Clariel patiently waiting for me in its box, and I think it will do fine with its own heat, a sword is a LOT bigger than a wee coffee coaster and will eat up more of the resin. If I should mess up on a sword casting, that would be a very expensive mistake! This is why I’m doing something small first so I can understand how this material works and get a feel for it before I tackle the seraph blade.

Wish me luck guys!

Finally, a Vacuum!

Yes indeed; the lovely new vacuum pump I bought from Unicorn Tools seems to be working beautifully. I messed around with it for the entirety of Friday and managed to mostly degas 200mL of silicone.

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Mostly. I was having some problems with this. For one thing, I had to tinker with the levels of oil inside the vacuum pump. The oil expands when it warms up so I have to be careful how much I fill it. I can’t just dump the oil in until it hits the “FULL” line because when I turn it on and it heats up, it will sputter and spit out the exhaust port. Yuck!

The other problem I had was that there were still bubbles in the silicone after 15mins of degassing. I had already been tinkering with the silicone for awhile and I was getting dangerously close to the end of its working time. If I didn’t just bite the bullet and use it, I’d have a blob of semi-solidified garbage and the material would be wasted. So I just crossed my fingers and poured it into the moulding box.

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I don’t think you can see the air bubbles in the silicone from this shot. I was having problems taking a photo of a completely transparent object encased in a completely transparent layer of silicone. It’s a pain in the butt taking pics of a see-through object! The camera does not want to focus on it.

The green and white goo under the plastic square I’m moulding is just modelling clay. It’s there to keep the square stuck to the bottom so it won’t float and also to keep the silicone from sneaking underneath it. As you can see, I missed a spot. Oh well. That just means I’ll have to trim the silicone “flash” (extra bits of mould material that sneaked where I didn’t want it to go) when I take the mould out of the box.

Hopefully when I get to the workshop today, I will find that the air bubbles have escaped the silicone and I will have a nice solid, smooth mould to work with. Everybody cross your fingers!

I have a couple ideas as to why the silicone misbehaved. It could be that it was too old. It was very chunky and blobby when I took it out of its container. There’s also the possibility that the vacuum chamber was simply too big for this tiny amount of material. I’m going to try putting some extra stuff (plaster brick or somesuch) in the pot with the liquid I’m degassing to see if it will pull the air out faster and more efficiently. I’m sure I’ll figure it out. It’s just a little frustrating.

Before I run off to work, here’s a video of the new pump at work.

I escaped! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

So the doctor didn’t say that I couldn’t go back to work when I had my last checkup. I may have ‘accidentally’ forgotten to ask. I have been bored to tears sitting on my duff, waiting for my silly body to fight off infection and heal up properly. All I’ve wanted to do for the past three weeks is just go to the workshop and make stuff!

Yesterday, I did just that!

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The heck are you doing Ethan? That’s not a sword.

Yeah I know it’s not a sword, but here’s the thing: silicone and resin are both really expensive materials and I’m using a lot of new equipment at this point. So I realised I needed to do something small first to make sure that everything is working properly and the materials are doing what I expect them to do.

This’ll be a little sci-fi computer chip thingy that I can use as a coaster on my desk. I’m going to be testing out the silicone moulding compound, the Alumilite resin, and the resin dye that I bought. That’s right! This will be the first time I’ve done transparent resin in another colour! I’m excited. 🙂

I’d also like to take a moment to thank all of you who have been poking me for sword commissions. I’m so, so sorry for taking so long to get back to you. I’ve been struggling with this medical thing and it’s been no fun at all. I’m going to ask my doc if it’s at all possible to postpone the next surgery until the new year so I can continue working at my job for the rest of November and the month of December

I’m definitely not in danger of losing my workshop. I just want to make that clear so you don’t have to worry about that. But it would be really nice to at least be able to cover the cost of my rent with sword sales instead of taking it out of my own pockets as I’ve been doing.

I also want to reassure you that the medical thing isn’t a degenerative condition or anything. It’s just a quirky little birth defect that we’ve been working on correcting to give me a better quality of life. 🙂 The only reason I’ve had to go back for more corrections is because there were some complications with the healing. Apparently, the body took offence to the doc trying to do too much correction all at once so we’ve had to slow down and do the fixing-up in smaller steps.

That’s rather annoying for me cause it means I have to keep taking time off work for two weeks here, three weeks there to heal from each stage. As anybody who knows me well enough can tell you: I am not good at sitting around doing nothing all day.

In other news: the metro station near my house has opened up and that means I can get to and from work much more easily and much faster. Yay for less travel time! Instead of waiting for a bus, taking the bus to the nearest metro stop, taking the metro to the neighbourhood where I work, and then taking a bus from there to as close to my workshop as I can get, I can simply take the metro from home and skip the whole first bus leg of the journey.

Speaking of journeys … workshop tiiiiime! The workshop is my happy place and I can’t wait to get there and make some cool stuff! Catch ya later guys.