How to make a Jon Snow 'Longclaw' Sword.

The Sword

Taking a break from the costume I looked at the various different swords being sold at that time. It was impossible to purchase even a halfway decent 'Longclaw' to keep within the budget, so I concluded that unless Sebastian wanted to pay £200 for the nearest real deal, I would also have to look at various ways to produce something that he could 'wield' like a true member of the Night's Watch!

Easier said than done. I was concious that I was working to a limited time schedule (the costume was needed for a party at the end of April) and when all things were considered, the sword was fairly important, but I wasn't going to allow it to eat into the finances too much. In the end, once again, eBay came to the rescue and for about £15 I purchased a wooden Roman sword – the main consideration was its length. Long claw, in real life, is a mighty sword, and so I chose the longest wooden sword that I could find.

When the sword arrived, I examined it critically. The blade had a short groove in it and the hilt was more curved than I wanted, so I set about trying to carve the hilt into the correct shape... this proved to be a disaster and I wasted two whole evening on this activity.

Even using the smallest hacksaw – it proved impossible to keep a tidy line and because the wood had been cut on the cross, I had wood knots to contend with and in the end I had to admit that this idea was simply not going to work.

In the end I stripped the sword of its hilt by cutting it completely off. I rebound the handle with some strips of black faux leather and then considered my options. Making a new hilt was out of the question. I had neither the resources or the equipment for such a fine task and realistically I had to keep costs down. I looked at the resources that I already had and decided to use strips of cardboard to build a hilt that would be a similar shape to the Long claw sword. I decided to go for a slightly stylised version because the blade of the original Roman sword was slightly wider than was needed and I wanted to keep the weapon in proportion so that it felt good when it was 'hefted'.

I removed the round circle of wood on top of the haft and set about making the wolf head that was to give it that all important Long claw look. This was actually the easiest bit on the sword to do and it took me just one evening to create. I used a piece of air dried clay (3.50 from my local store) and two red pearl beads for the eyes. I pinched and pulled the clay into place, aiming for as near a match to the original wolf head as I could. Again, it was difficult because there seemed to be more than one representation of the wolf head on the internet. But in the end I just went with how the clay formed and then left it to dry.

I was critical of my final effort because I felt the head could have looked more rounded, and the mouth was too wide open, but I decided to keep the shape because it seemed to be in keeping with the rest of the sword – more stylised in nature. I pushed the head onto the end of the handle and squeezed it firmly so make it was secured, then I inserted the eyes into the clay whilst it was still damp and then gave the head a coating of grey and white paint. I left this to dry and gave a final coat of PVA glue.

I created the hilt by cutting out approximately 15 layers of shaped cardboard and bonding each piece together using PVA glue. As a finishing touch I applied a final layer of glue and allowed it to dry. I made another hilt exactly the same way and fitted them over the bottom of the handle, applied a layer of glue, then I clamped the whole thing together and left it to dry for a couple of days.

Getting the right finish for the hilt was tricky. I tried sanding down the cardboard to get a fine finish, but the effect was left looking bumpy and rough. I gave it a coat of silver paint but it soaked into the cardboard and left the hilt looking very unfinished. In the end I found some silver card. I measured the different surfaces of the hilt as precisely as I could, and stuck the shaped pieces of card to the surface of the hilt and was quite pleased with the final look.

As a finishing touch I added depth by using small buttons to imitate the little nodules at the end, and then added a final layer of silver paper all over to add a realistic effect.

Afterwards, Sebastian painted the steel part of the sword using a silver enamel paint in order to make it look more like Valyrian steel - the legendary material used in the Seven Kingdoms. He then painted a pattern on the front of it to echo the swirling steel found on Longclaw and the sword was ready to be wielded!

(Cost so far: £29.50)