"Story time..." The university I went to was Cleveland College of Art and Design, the same university that world famous director Ridley Scott attended. Ridley Scott was born in a place called South Shields, a town not too far away from the university.

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So when the South Shields council decided to renovate a large art space in the middle of town, they decided to put on an exhibit to commemorate the work of Scott. And because he studied at CCAD they came to us to make some replica props and costumes for their exhibition.

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One of my friends on the costume course at CCAD decided to make a costume from Robin Hood, and required a sword to be made to complete the costume, so they came to me.

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The costume was one worn by Robin Hood himself, so I needed to make Robin Hood's sword. To get the correct dimensions I actually looked at a lot of genuine, metal replicas for measurements. My replica, however, is made simply of wood.

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The blade is made of layered plywood with a groove cut in and filled with body filler to get the right shape for the fuller, covered in aluminium tape and weathered to the right sheen.

The hilt is an array of laser cut pieces of wood, assembled, sanded and painted to look the part.

The actual assembly of the sword and even blade construction was done the same way as a real sword  would be, in an attempt to make it just that bit more realistic.