How to make a wooden toy sword

I made this toy xiphos out of oak and beech wood. It is inspired by the double-edged, one-handed Iron Age straight short sword used by the ancient Greeks.

First of all I planned and jointed two faces of my stock on my planer. I then used the thickness planer to plane my stock to size.

I split the oak piece in half on the table saw. Because this wood is really hard. I completed the cut with several cuts. I passed the board through the thickness planer again to clear the saw marks.

I then used the cross cut sled on my table saw to make the cross cuts for the tang of the sword. I finished the shaping of the tang on the bandsaw.

I then marked the bevels I wanted the blade to have. I shaped the bevels with a hand plane and a spokeshave. 

To start carving the fuller, I first a established a line with a V varying chisel. I then carved more with a round carving gouge. I finished the fuller with a cylindrical sanding block.

I then cut a piece of beech on the table saw. This would act as my guard. I roughly shaped it on the belt sander. To make the slot for the tang I first removed as much material as I could with a forstner bit. I then finished the slot with a chisel and mallet.

I then started making the handle. This is two beech parts. I completed the groove for the tang with several rip cuts on the table saw. Each time I moved the fence slightly back. I cleaned the saw marks with a chisel. I then glued the handle parts together.

I wanted the blade to fit in the guard. So I routed the area needed and finished it with carving gouges. I then created the bevels on the guard on the disc sander.

I carved the shape of the handle. I first used the V carving chisel and then shaped the rest with gouges.

I made the pommel on the lathe out of a beech piece. I used the bowl gouge for shaping. I also used a flat chisel, a parting tool and a spindle gouge. I used a forstner bit to drill a hole on the center of the pommel. I then shaped the tip of the tang cylindrical with a chisel. The pommel fits snuggly on the tip of the tang.

I then glued all the parts of the sword together using wood glue.

After the glue dried, I blended the shape of the pommel with the handle. I did that with a flat rasp. I then moved to a file and finished with sandpaper.

I sanded the sword starting at 100grit, moved to 220 and finished to 280.

I also added a hanger on the pommel. I first predrilled a pilot hole.

I finished the sword with 8 coats of shellac.

I am really happy with the way it came it out, I hope you like it too!