For a costume I'm planning, I need, basically, two short swords. And they have to have a sort of see through, glassy look.

Any ideas on how I could make a transparent sword! I'm absolutely stumped.

Oh, if anyone's wondering, the costume is a Shadowhunter from Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments series, and I'm after Seraph Blades

There are three options that spring to mind.

The first would be to buy a clear sword from somewhere like ebay. Often the glowing propers are clear so it might be worth finding something suitable there. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LIGHT-UP-NEON-TOYS-ACCESSORIES-BATONS-WANDS-SWORDS-LIGHT-SABRE-STYLE-AXE-GLOW-/251136949640?pt=UK_Toys_Games_Games&var=&hash=item3a78edbd88

The second option would be to use perspex (clear acrylic sheets) to create the effect buy cutting the shape out.

The final option would be to make it out of clear casting resin. You could either make the silcone mould out of an exisiting sword you find in say £1land or make a clay sculpt. Be careful as some resins reactive with silicon so make sure you check this before you buy.

It all depends on how accurate you want to be

That's great, thanks for the advice. I've heard if the resins used before, but I wasn't sure how to actually use them thanks a lot

Depending on how much casting you wanna do the Gedeo brand crystal resin is really good. It's quite expensive if you wanna do lots but it's one of the safer ones (no horrid smells) and very good for a starting casting. The end results are very good.

http://www.craftcellar.co.uk/contents/en-uk/d35_gedeo-crystal-resin.html

The only thing I'd say about resin is that it's quite heavy, even if you're only making a short sword. It would probably look the best visually, though, so if you don't mind that then by all means, go for it!

If looking at resin you'll want to look more into the details/limitations of resins - each brand (and seperately each 'type' - primarily epoxy and polyester, the former being better for small and detail work and the latter being harder to work with and more toxic, but potentially stronger) have different limitations, thicknesses you can cast to and weights.

From meddling with resin recently myself, it's not something I'd suggest to try and make something really complicated with as your first project

Thought I'd add a warning on clear cast resin, everyone at my work place gets reactions to it almost without fail every time and thats with a full extraction room and masks!

So just be careful if you don't have a proper mask or ventilated area it can be quite nasty and if you react to it once you'll react to it every time

Agreeing on sands, while casting with polyester resin will give a nice look. The vapours are pungent and toxic, it will smell out your entire house/shed XD
Using a polyuethene resin will not give a crystal clear look, it will always have a yellow tinge to it. And although not as stinky, the vapours are far more toxic so wearing a ffp3 grade mask is essential.

My opinion would be to piece together clear perspex. Using a strong clear glue to fix pieces together. You could always sand the ends and polish it to get the shape you are after, and it will be safer and a great deal lighter ^_^

Resin will forever be giving nightmares.

I think I'll go with the perspex idea, everyone seems to agree that's easier. Thanks so much