hey gang
so while i was upgrading my king arts mjolnir, i decided i wanted to have all 3 of the designed hammers throughout the Thor films.
arguably the two hammers are on the right are essentially the same hammer but with a rotated handle.
while the EFX hammer is easily the hardest one to find at a reasonable price, i set my sights on the more common Museum Replicas hammer to acquire and upgrade.
it didnt take too long for me to find one, thanks Nick!
the things going for this hammer was:
- metal and leather
- original design from the first film
things left to be desired:
- hollow head
- painted on chevrons
- too clean
i know there are a lot of critiques and complaints about this hammer... in particular, the incredibly low relief of the runes, and the poor cast of the head where the lines arent straight and edges are super soft.
i dont disagree with any of them.. for a licensed replica it is surprisingly poorly executed.
i do wish the reliefs were deeper but i have actually grown to dig the imperfections of the edges and lines... makes it feel like it was hand forged.
but i digress.
the main thing i wanted to do to this hammer is to completely overhaul the handle. in particular, put in real metal chevrons into the handle.
the paint job was terrible however it did provide me the perfect template to work from.
first i deepened the groove at the base of the handle to match the screen used ones
then i started the exceedingly tedious and nerve racking process of manually tooling out all the chevrons from the 1/2" leather handle.
ive never worked with leather before so i was super nervous. but with a lot of patience and a steady hand i slowly but surely got through it all.
once completed, i started exploring ways of getting real metal chevrons inlayed into the handle.
i decided to settle on lead free silver solder piping because it was the right width as well as easy to manipulate.
however the piping was round so i had to go through the arduous process of hand hammering each piece until it was flat flush to the handle.
here is the first test
because the metal is fairly soft, and having never worked with metal before, it took a bit of time to figure out the best method of hammering these pieces into place.
although not PERFECTLY flush to the leather, it was close enough for my liking.
once all the chevrons were complete, yet another exceedingly tedious and physically trying task, i then removed them all and superglued them all back into place.
from there i then filled the head of the hammer with quick dry cement.
once cured i then started the weathering process!
unfortunately, with the SUPER shallow rune reliefs, i couldnt paint in the crevices and wipe away.
so i have to take a fine brush, q-tip and some acetone and manually removed the acrylic wash from every single rune (x 8 ouch)
although tedious it was WELL worth it!
and just like that, another worthy hammer is complete!
this upgrade project was exponentially more difficult than the King Arts one but I am so happy with the final result!!!
now on the look out for the EFX hammer! fortunately that one was done so well no upgrading will be necessary.
thanks all for looking!
so while i was upgrading my king arts mjolnir, i decided i wanted to have all 3 of the designed hammers throughout the Thor films.
arguably the two hammers are on the right are essentially the same hammer but with a rotated handle.
while the EFX hammer is easily the hardest one to find at a reasonable price, i set my sights on the more common Museum Replicas hammer to acquire and upgrade.
it didnt take too long for me to find one, thanks Nick!
the things going for this hammer was:
- metal and leather
- original design from the first film
things left to be desired:
- hollow head
- painted on chevrons
- too clean
i know there are a lot of critiques and complaints about this hammer... in particular, the incredibly low relief of the runes, and the poor cast of the head where the lines arent straight and edges are super soft.
i dont disagree with any of them.. for a licensed replica it is surprisingly poorly executed.
i do wish the reliefs were deeper but i have actually grown to dig the imperfections of the edges and lines... makes it feel like it was hand forged.
but i digress.
the main thing i wanted to do to this hammer is to completely overhaul the handle. in particular, put in real metal chevrons into the handle.
the paint job was terrible however it did provide me the perfect template to work from.
first i deepened the groove at the base of the handle to match the screen used ones
then i started the exceedingly tedious and nerve racking process of manually tooling out all the chevrons from the 1/2" leather handle.
ive never worked with leather before so i was super nervous. but with a lot of patience and a steady hand i slowly but surely got through it all.
once completed, i started exploring ways of getting real metal chevrons inlayed into the handle.
i decided to settle on lead free silver solder piping because it was the right width as well as easy to manipulate.
however the piping was round so i had to go through the arduous process of hand hammering each piece until it was flat flush to the handle.
here is the first test
because the metal is fairly soft, and having never worked with metal before, it took a bit of time to figure out the best method of hammering these pieces into place.
although not PERFECTLY flush to the leather, it was close enough for my liking.
once all the chevrons were complete, yet another exceedingly tedious and physically trying task, i then removed them all and superglued them all back into place.
from there i then filled the head of the hammer with quick dry cement.
once cured i then started the weathering process!
unfortunately, with the SUPER shallow rune reliefs, i couldnt paint in the crevices and wipe away.
so i have to take a fine brush, q-tip and some acetone and manually removed the acrylic wash from every single rune (x 8 ouch)
although tedious it was WELL worth it!
and just like that, another worthy hammer is complete!
this upgrade project was exponentially more difficult than the King Arts one but I am so happy with the final result!!!
now on the look out for the EFX hammer! fortunately that one was done so well no upgrading will be necessary.
thanks all for looking!
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