Back during the last days of my senior year in High School, A great pal of mine and I decided to make wooden swords for ourselves. He opted for a wavy bladed, elaborate weapon. Me, being a minimalist, opted for a more practical design. When finished, I took it to the art classroom and get it painted. My teacher asked what I was going to wrap the grip with. I responded that I would be using electrical tape. He scoffed, and came back with leather scraps. Good bit of painting and a little bit of glue later, this was the result.
I wish the blade had been done better. I wound up doing it the hard way, cutting it diamond shape from tip to base using a circular saw. I see I could have used a different method, now that I know how swords are actually made. As a result of "doing it wrong", the blade is not straight in the least. I can blame my friend, who was supposed to be making sure it remained straight on the saw. To this day I blame him for that.
But it's not all bad. I added notches to the blade so it has a bit of a aged look to it. I also added runic to the two sides for slight drama (no, they're not random, I did actually write something).