THE SCYTHE

On Buffy:

Mine:

Now, this isn't some dinky little plastic toy. This isn't a prop from the show, made cheap, but shiny. This is an actual, real metal, heavy as all-hell
reproduction of what the Scythe would actually be, if he were real. Better than the prop. I'm willing to wager that it's better than what Joss kept!
My brother made this himself. This was not bought in a store, and is not available to anyone who wants it (though if you REALLY want one, I'm
sure that an absurd amount of money wouldn' t be rejected). Since I wasn't in on the making (as it was a birthday gift), I'll let him describe the whole
process in his own words.

It all started as a simple idea... five months ago! The planning itself was a challenge, I had to find whatever information I
could on the Scythe, not an easy thing to do. After looking for a while I had quite a few hard to see screen caps, a few pics from Fray, and
read a few discussions on why the Scythe is not actually a scythe. It wasn't easy but I managed to put together some decent measurements based
on the screen caps and rough guestimates of sizes based on the actors hands and such. After a bit of artistic license, I finalized the design
and drew out some full sized templates of the Scythe "head". Now I was ready to build it!

The Scythe "head"... It was fabricated out of a piece of 3/4" thick mild steel. I first used the template to transfer the shape to the
steel, and then cut it out using a metal cutting bandsaw and a bi-metal blade. It was actually relatively easy to cut out. I then used a 4 1/2"
angle grinder to grind out the rest. Where the red area meets the shiny area of the blade, it starts to taper down from the 3/4" to an sharp
edge. The handle area was fashioned from a 1/4" thick steel tube with two larger "end caps" welded to it. That whole piece was "turned" using
the angle grinder and letting the tube rotate on a rod, it was shaped to give a nice curve to the handle and allow a space for the wrappings.
Finally, that whole piece was welded to the blade with a lot of extra welding to add material to gracefully blend the handle and the blade.

The shaft was made from a piece of 1" x 1/2" steel, drilled for five rivets, and also for pins to attach the head and the handle
near the stake. Where the head attaches, there is a raised piece welded on and ground so it blends with the shaft smoothly. Half round rivets
were used, but simply "JB Welded" in place after they were chromed, it would have been much harder to actually rivet them in place. After
endless hours of sanding down to 400 grit and then buffing, I had all of the metal pieces chrome plated, even the ten rivets (five on each side).
After I had the head chromed, I masked of the blade area with a Polyamide tape and then had it powder coated with a candy apple red
translucent coating. The shaft is connected to the head with two spring pins that are covered by the two pieces of Stingray Skin, the black
wrapping seen in the photo. Stingray skin was commonly used by the Japanese as armor, and the handles of swords ( known as "samé"), because
of it's durability.

Here we see the shaft (on the right), the handle, the claw-like gaurd/stake holder, and a little of the stake showing.

The handle is actually two pieces of wood, shaped to a comfortable feel, that sandwich the shaft and are connected by three
wood pins. That is all covered by Alligator skin that is sewn using several areas including the "hornback". It is laced along the bottom
with a rounded leather lace. The holes for the lace were punched using a leather punch. The lacing was tied near the guard and I allowed the lace
to dangle down.

The Guard was created using steel tube, a couple of round 3/8" pieces, and six "fins". It was welded and ground down, and hand sanded,
and then finally chromed. I then created an Alligator skin wrapping that surrounded the tube and went around the "fins". It was sewn in place and tucked into the tube when the stake was attached.

Here we see the stake. It was created from a piece of Bolivian Rosewood rounded using a table saw and belt sander. I then created
dadoes in the Rosewood near the guard by turning the stake on the tablesaw using a specially made jig. I then inlayed Gaboon Ebony into
the dadoes and sanded everything smooth. The stake was hand rubbed with a beeswax/mineral oil finish... no stain of any kind. Then it is
attached by screwing it to the shaft (which had a screw welded to the end), the stake actually holds the guard in place.

This just shows the handle, guard, and stake... it also shows the skull beads dangling down.

The skull beads are carved from actual Elephant Ivory! It is pre-ban and all legal, and hard to find! It was carved using a Dremel
tool, no sanding or polishing was necessary... it carved up to a very nice smooth finish. The skull on the left is a regular human skull. The
skull on the right is a vampire skull. The hand is the only known photo of Informant!

The skulls again. If you look closely you may be able to see the vampires fangs!

The human skull in profile. It is hard to see the detail in the skull, but I carved a lot of detail... even the growth joints.

This was one of the coolest gifts I've gotten. Not only because of the Scythe aspect, but because all of the work that went into it as well. My
brother did an amazing job on it. It's easy to imagine this as being something created for the Slayer thousands of years ago with the skins used
(he says alligator, I say M'Fashnik) and the way he even balanced it. It's heavy though! I'm guessing somewhere around 30 pounds or more. Makes
sense that only a Slayer could use it!

If you'd like to comment on the Scythe (and please do let us know what you think), send e-mails to me HERE. I'll pass them along.