Grell's Chainsaw: Black Butler/ Kuroshitsuji

I've been fixing a chainsaw that I made for a Grell Sutcliff cosplay a couple of years ago, as the chainsaw had gotten a little worse for wear. I'll be posting up pictures of how it looked when it was complete the first time round, and what I've been doing to bring it back to life.

What it used to look like

The chainsaw in the prime of its life! Unfortunately, the actual blade was made of unsupported cardboard and got bashed about considerably at MCM Expo. Add that to two years of neglect, and you come to the point I was at before the fix began- a broken blade, broken handle and broken inner box. This was definitely going to be a challenge!

Materials I used to fix the chainsaw

After learning my lesson about cardboard, I decided that I'd use wood to make the chainsaw. Then I went to my local craft shop, where foam board was on offer- so I bought a MASSIVE sheet of it! I also used acrylic paints, as well as spray paint for the blade. The foam board got a layer of paper mache to strengthen it, then was painted!

Taking apart the old chainsaw

I basically tore apart the chainsaw at the points I knew I'd put it together. Once I'd done that, I noticed that the handle was in much worse nick than I'd thought it was- it had basically torn itself in half and the only thing that had been keeping it together was the fact it was attached to the chainsaw. The blade was bent, the handle broken and the box which was in the middle of the two sides had a massive hole in it where I'd fitted a rev-mechanism (which is also now broken). Once I'd taken it apart, i traced around the handle and the blade onto the foam board, giving me a new shape to work with. The blade is 2 layers thick and the handle is 5.

The new blade

I don't have any progress pictures of the new blade, because I didn't take any. But this is what the new blade looks like!

The blade, after painting

After I painted the blade, I added red detailing and attached it to the inner box. Then I started work on the handle.

The handle

I measured around the old handle (it's about 20cm long) and cut out 5 pieces of foam board, which I then glued together and paper mached. After the paper mache had dried, I gave it a base coat of black and three coats of red. Once all the paint had dried, I glued it to the inner box and secured it with wooden skewers.

Touch ups

After a lot of careful consideration, I decided to remove the original gold detailing from the sides of the chainsaw because they'd become rips- as this was cardboard, it was relatively easy. I drew around them first, in pencil, and once they were off I painted where they had been with gold paint. I also touched up the red paint and detailing on the chainsaw, adding black outlines to make everything stand out a little more. One of the sides needed a complete face-lift because once I removed the innards of the chainsaw it disintegrated a little, so I strengthened it with extra layers of foam board, re-papered it and painted it up!

The rev-handle (the silver one) also needed a bit of a repair, as the wood had split and it no longer actually revved. So I removed the rev mechanism, added a new curved piece and did a few layers of new silver paint to make it all sparkly again!

Overall construction

After all the pieces had been made, the only job that remained was to attach them sturdily to each other. So I nailed AND glued the handle to the box, then ensured the blade and handle would stay still by packing them with foam (so light, yet so strong). Once that was sorted, I put on the side panels with PVA glue, sticking the silver rev-handle together as I did so (a combination of nails, screws, nuts and glue were used here). Finally, I left it to dry for about 7 hours and this is the final piece!

The blade is a little shorter, as I felt the old one was a little long. That's why the handle looks a little... big. If I had the time, I'd probably make the handle about 1/8th smaller, but it's not bad for a prop!

It's not perfect, but I'm happy I put the effort into fixing it. I also much prefer the shade of red it is now, because it's closer to the actual chainsaw in the anime.

If you have any questions or comments, please pop them on the bottom of the page.

MmRed