At the last second I decided to go ahead and make a Halloween costume. I was inspired by a commercial for the movie ‘Shaun of the Dead‘. Funny zombie movie. How cool would that be? I mean I’m going to go out and oversee my kids why not wear something fun? I quickly collected that basics, white shirt, red tie, name badge, and a cricket bat. The first three are easy, I can either make or buy those but a cricket bat is something that I’m a bit short on. I’ve held one before so I know what they look like up close so armed with that and a few photos off the ‘net I can come up with something that should look pretty close to a bat. As I don’t have a wood shop I am going to be using the classic cardboard for the blade. I have a wooden stake from some get rich fast crook that posted his ads illegally on the property my office is located at. At lest something honest came from their signs. Hot glue, gaffers tape… I’m set.

Quick sketch and I have my plan.

I cut two cardboard blades (22"x4.5" just about regulation size) and the edges.

I added some arcs to make the shoulders and rounded the far end to make the toe.

Using hot glue I tacked the handle on the bottom blade after cutting a bit off the end.

Using more hot glue (more glue! More hot glue! Muuhaahaha…) I glued the edge to the blade and added a few chunks of cardboard to add some strength to the whole things. I have to defend myself against the zombie hoard so I need to it to be tough!

Once all the edges were in place I built up the surface of the handle to keep the top from falling in with some squares and more glue. When gluing the top on I did the center and then each end. This was to get as much glue on the surfaces as I could. I need that strength remember?

Once in place I then chopped, er, cut some pine contact paper and covered all the faces. Keep the grain in the right direction and it might actually look like wood. Kind of. Maybe. It should be willow but they were fresh out of that. Anyway, this is America, no one will knnow what this is anyway.

Add some thin tag board to the end of the handle for that knobby bit.

Wrap the handle in some black gaffers tape…

There you go. A mock cricket bat. I know the real ones aren’t that thick and the blades are thicker in the center and thinner along the edges but what the heck, this took me an hour to do and I’m a busy man.
I’m ready for the zombies, bring ‘em on!