Design Notes, Tutorials and Articles: How to make a sword in Blender

finished result

In this tutorial you learn the necessary skills on how to make a sword. In this tutorial we will be making a Japanese Katana.

Part 1 The Blade

Change to cycles render

Cycles Render

Delete cube, press 1 and then 5 for orthographic view, shift A to add plane, R to rotate on the X axis by pressing X then 90.

plane

Tab for edit mode S scale on the X axis

plane scaled

Press shift and tab for the snap during transform button or hit the magnet button, select the top vertex

Snap during transform

vertex selected

E to extrude up to 16 boxes, turn on proportional editing,

extruded plane

Once proportional editing is on G to grab on the X axis, scroll mouse button

Proportional editing

Change to sharp

sharp

Move too two boxes to the right

sharp tool in use

Click the right vertex then the second, press W to merge, at first,

merge

at first

merged point

Turn proportional editing and snap during transform off, select the outside of the blade by pressing B and dragging it along the left side or by selecting each vertex individual by hitting shift and right click, E to extrude on the X axis a small bit.

extruded

Merge the top vertex, move the bottom one slightly to the right

merged

Press A to select everything, change view by 3 on the keypad, E to extrude.

extruded

Merge the two points together

merged points

Select the next vertex underneath the top point and its opposite one press W , merge, at centre do this to the rest.

at center

To fix the lighting and shade go to mesh, normals, recalculate outside or inside this will prevent the blade from being dark at certain angles.

Normals

Tab and smooth. the smooth button is to the left it will show if your out of edit mode. add a modifier, subdivision surface, change render to 1.The blade will look off, go into edit mode by pressing Tab, select the these 4 vertex

subdivision

4 points selected

To fix the problem that will happen go to mesh, edges, edge crease. once clicked drag your mouse across the screen to the right side. this fill the empty space, repeat this for the bottom of the blade.

edge crease

using edge crease

edge crease used at the top of the sword

edge crease used at the bottom of the sword

To add a flare onto it create a loop cut ctrl R lenght wise twice

creating a flare in the sword

Press E to extrude and right click straight away so it sits on top, S scale on the Y axis pull it in to your desired depth. Then add edge crease to make the depth stand out.

adding depth

Part 2 The Hilt

Select all of the vertexes by pressing Band dragging it across or by selecting each one individual by shift and right click.

bottom all selected

Mesh, snap cursor to selected that will center the 3d cursor at the bottom of the blade, shift A add a circle, tab into edit mode, select these vertices

six vertices selected

S scale them inwards like so

scale inwards

go into front view 1 select the circle E extrude on the Z axis

extrude

Create a face by hitting F

add face

E to extrude right click straight away scale a small bit extrude on the Z axis downward to create a small lip. Repeat this step for the bottom

creating small lip

Click on the hilt, click on smooth this will create an issue to fix this, add a modifier, edge split this will fix it.

smooth

edge split

Select the face underneath the the hilt, then place the cursor in the centre by going to mesh, snap, cursor to centred. add a circle by shift A, add circle, S for scale to whatever size you want your handle to be.

circle

scale

scale on x,z,y axis

E extrude a small bit downwards, press enter extrude right click straight away scale a notch inwards to create a small lip then extrude to your desired length