Another picture
Here is a picture of a Reaver Daiklave that I made. Originally, I made a cardboard daiklave on a whim for Nick (pictured holding this one – he runs the long-running Exalted game I play in) because he was going to go to a costume party. In part, I made it because I was curious to find out just how large and unweildy these things would be.
The cardboard was less than satisfactory, however, and I soon began it obsessive project that is pictured below. You can’t really see the grip on this thing, but it is over a foot long. The blade is over 4 feet long. It’s made of spraypainted (and hand-carved) hardboard.
The whole thing is ridiculously heavy and would be near-impossible to actually use – which is unsurprising, really.
Wicked awesome!
Have you considered using pink or blue insulation foam? It’s fairly cheap, affixes with 3M Super 77
(available at your friendly champaign Meijers, or
Art Co-op) and can be carved with relative ease.
We used to paint it with house paint, since it’s styrofoam based, it doesn’t respond well to solvents.
I’d think embedding a PVC pipe, a balsa plank or the like as a grip and building a couple of layers of foam
about it would look decent, and still be swingable.
Foam would be lighter, but thicker. I really wanted the blade to be as thin as possible.
I’m thinking there might be some lightweight-yet-sturdy sheet plastic out there…