"Its dangerous to go alone! Take this." is easily one of the most iconic and recognizable quotes among gamers, especially those of a certain age. It immediately brings to mind the exact scene. A small dark cave bordered by stone, dimly lit by two torches. A wise old man bestows your first sword to begin your quest. You may have seen this recreated as a key holder by other crafty people and they are fantastic, but a little bland. My quest was to take it to the next level. This is my interpretation and more importantly how I did it.

My wife has been going room by room redecorating the house and has occasionally allowed me to make something that fits her taste. Usually its pretty utilitarian stuff like tables, shelves, and cabinets. One room has a large piece of wall art with the names of our family, but this is an exception to the rule. She said that she wants more things to decorate the walls and had expressed an interest in replacing the plain key holder/mail holder we have in a small hallway by the door. She likes those "It's dangerous to go alone..." pieces you can find on Etsy or Amazon but I wanted something more arsty. I got this image in my head of a hand carved, stained wood wizard head with a torch and carved stone boulders. So, quickly I remembered I am terrible at carving things that are supposed to look like animals or people, but I am pretty ok at inanimate objects so I scaled back my vision to the cave, the torches, and the sword.

Supplies

3/4" x 2' x 4' stain grade wood panel
scrap 2x4
wood glue
wood stain, various shades
leather scraps
leather stain
LED candles
3/4" dowel
3/8" dowel
Gel filters
Battery powered tea lights
picture hangers
Vinyl caps

Tools

Table Saw
Miter Saw
Coping saw
Drill Press
Bench Sander
Drill Bits, various
Clamps
File
Rasp
Rotary tool
Rotary tool bits, various
Sanding sponges
Sand Paper

Step 1: The Cave

The foundation of the whole thing is the cave. Made in two parts, the background and the faux boulders. I didn't have any large enough decent scrap pieces so I had to break down and buy a stain grade panel from Lowes. I very much appreciate when people have an in depth knowledge of the different varieties and uses of wood and how best to use them in different ways. I affectionately call these people wood-snobs. I am not a wood snob. I just wanted something with a pronounced grain that would show through the stain. This panel is like basic pine or spruce or something like that. Whatever works. I cut it down to two 20" X 16" pieces. One is just the background which will have a dark stain and the other will be the boulders in the foreground. I cut a 13" X 9" hole in the foreground piece. I wasn't too careful so there are some crooked cuts but this is ok since it will be getting carved up and the crooked parts would look more authentic. Next I freehanded some shapes that looked "bouldery" all around the edges. After I got all the outlines done I went to work tracing those lines with a rotary tool. I used the round engraving tip mostly because it did a good job gouging out a lot of material quickly. I wanted the gaps in the boulders to be about 1/4" deep so they would have physical depth and not just visual depth like a painting would have. After the rough work was done I used the tapered sanding attachment to widen the gaps and do a preliminary sanding of the cracks. I also used the small drum sander attachment to gouge out grooves and dents in the face of the boulders to give it more visual interest. The rotary tool parts took a while but were really the easiest. The hard part was sanding all of the grooves and crevices to make sure it all had a smooth enough texture. For this I worked on it for hours with sanding sponges. I started at 100 grit and worked up to 300 grit. After this was done I set it aside and started on the other parts.

Step 2: The Torches

For the torches I debated making out of tree branches but I would have a hard time finding thick enough branches around where I live so I went with a simple "peg" torch design. I used a couple pieces of 2x4 and glued them together to make two rough 4x4's. After the glue set I cut them down to roughly 2 3/4" x 2 3/4" x 9". I then drilled a 3/4" hole about 2/3 up from the bottom. I only went half way through. This hole is how they'll be attached to the cave section like a wall sconce. I figured it would be easier to drill this hole before the torch is rounded off. Next I used a 1 3/4" hole saw to create a hole at the top of the torch where a light would be placed. I didn't have a forstner bit this big so I had to use a small chisel and a router attachment to the rotary tool to remove the hole plug material. The hole ended up being about 3/4" deep. I have some LED tea lights that will eventually go here. For the final torch shape I just spent a couple minutes rounding it with the belt side of a bench sander. I don't have a lathe to do this kind of stuff but a 60 grit belt made fairly quick work of it. I have a side by side picture of a completed torch and the other one still rough. They look pretty round but up close you can tell they aren't perfectly round. I left about 1/4" border around the hole at the top. I then sanded them by hand with a couple sheets of finer grit sand paper. I took butane torch to the top to give it a burnt look for kicks.

Step 3: The Sword

I have never made a wooden sword before but always wanted to. There are a couple pictures of attempt number 1 which looked more "video gamey" in that it was short and more blocky. This is sort of a midway design I had originally envisioned somewhere between realistic and stylized like the games. I had cut the blade shorter than I wanted and did not leave enough material for the blade tang so I scrapped it and started over. The second attempt was going to be a more realistic blade with a full tang so that the blade and handle are the same piece. I started by gluing two boards together. Again, I needed decently straight boards for this so none of my existing scrap would do since it was all warped, so I had to use purchased pieces. They were 1/2" thick 36" x 6". After the glue dried I started making the rough shape. I cut is down to 36" x 5" on the table saw. For the blade angle I did some sketchy stuff with the table saw that I don't have pictures of. I set the fence at about 1/2" from the saw blade and put the angle of the saw blade at about 20 degrees. I ran the board on its edge and repeated on all four corners until I got the rough blade shape. Next I cut the tip on a miter saw to get the blade point. I used the belt sander to refine the tip and edges slightly then hand sanded the rest of the blade. The final blade width is about 3 1/2".

Before I cut the tang I had to decide on whether I wanted the overall sword length to be more realistic or keep it within the overall border of the entire assembly. Ultimately I decided to be bold and go full length so the sword would extend past the borders of the background. I cut the bottom 8" of the sword to make the tang/handle. This section is the same thickness of the blade but 1 1/2" wide. I also drilled two 3/4" holes for mounting similar to what I did with the torches. They are 6" apart on center.

Next, I took some leftover pieces cut off from the backround board and glued them together to make a block roughly 8" wide, 6" tall, and 2 1/4" thick. This would be used to create the hand guard. After that dried I cut it down to 8"x3". While it was still nice and rectangular I drilled out a hole that the tang would pass through. I don't have one of those fancy machines that can drill square holes so I did the best I could with a couple drill bits and then finished it off with a coping saw to get the corners square. I test fit the blade and marked a the blade shape so that router out a countersunk area for the blade to rest. I then drew the rough shape that I wanted for the hand guard. This doesn't exactly follow the sword in the game because that hand guard curves down toward the handle whereas mine curves up toward the blade. I liked the way it looked curving up better. I used the coping saw and bench sander for most of this shaping. I made and error in the depth of the router and ended up with a gap because of the curve I put in the guard. I had to cut some angled notches in the blade to make it fit better. No biggie. I forgot to take pictures of the pommel but its basically just a small wooden block with some rounded edges that gets screwed to the bottom of the handle.

Step 4: Attachments and Assemblies

Before I went any further I added some wall hanging hardware to the back. Since its going to be fairly heavy I put one at each corner to keep it firmly on the wall. I positioned the the torches over the predrilled holes and set the sword in place where I liked how it looked and marked the spot for later. Next I took a 3/4" wood dowel and cut two 2 1/2" pieces. These would go in the holes in the torches to mount them to the cave. With the torches in the exact spot they would be in for the finished product I confirmed the sword placement and laid out the holes in the cave for the sword mounts. I then cut some more dowel pieces 2". The dowels will be glued to the sword and torches but will be screwed into the background from the back. I did this because I want to be able to remove them if I ever decide to ship this somewhere, like when we eventually move somewhere else.

Step 5: Staining

My number 1 rule of staining anything is clean up. I live in a particularly breezy part of my city and the wind likes to blow directly into my garage so if there is any sawdust around it will ruin my painted or stained finishes. I'm using penetrating stain without the poly mixed in. This is going to be hanging inside so I'm not too worried about protecting it so I'm just going with finishing paste instead of a fully polyurethane top coat. I started with some Ebony stain for the background and the cracks between the rocks. I purchased some Natural Grey stain for the rocks but I had some reservations. In my mind the whole thing was going to be varying shades of brown to emphasize that it was carved wood and not plastic or something. The grey actually looks alright. I still don't know how I feel about it, but I don't hate it. The torches are Special Walnut color. They came out alright but variations in the 2x4's I used to make them resulted in noticeably different tones between the two. I guess that's what I get for not being a wood snob. I used a color called Natural for the blade but i came out orange, so I went over it with the same color as the torches. The orange under tone sets it apart from the torches just enough. The guard and pommel were stained Dark Walnut.

For the handle I used a bit of leftover leather and cut it down to 1/2" strips which I stained Forrest Green. I wrapped the strips around the handle in a spiral pattern. It looks pretty from the front but there are stables on the backside of the handle holding the leather in place. You won't be able to see them when its mounted. The video game version has a green handle which is why I chose the color instead of another brown tone.

Step 6: Final Touches

After temporarily testing the fit in the location it would be hung I removed it to add the last items. First, I thought the lights looked good enough but wanted to try and add something a little extra. I wanted the lights to look more torch-like. I had some gel stage light filters that I used for another project I'm currently working on that involves red lighting. I created a generic torch flame shape and rolled it up with some tape. It just sits inside the indentation at the top of the torches. Next I needed something to hold keys. I bought some hooks but didn't really like the contrast of the brass hooks and the stone so I went with a 3/8" dowel about 1 1/2" long. Drilling the holes for these was a little tricky because two of them were going to fall right in the cracks of the stones. I clamped the whole thing under my drill press nice and tight and slowly brought the forstner bit down so it didn't drift. I got some pvc caps to put on the ends to help keys stay on better. The last thing I added was some vinyl lettering with the famous phrase, of course.

I like it muy mucho!

Introduction: Zelda Key Holder