I sought the advice of my tutor who suggested making it out of grey board, which is a thick card. At first I didn't think it would look very professional but I decided to try it after my previous failure.

The card was cut to the height of the axe blade and long enough that the sides went onto the axe blade. Super glue was used to bond the card to the wood and the sheet steel. When bending the card around the handle the card started to crack in some areas so again i used super glue to fix any problems. Super glue can be sanded down as well so i went over it with some sand paper.

 Suitable smaller bits of card were cut to fill in any gaps and all pieces were stuck using super glue.

Using the virtical sander in the workshop I sanded the edges of the cardboard so it blended into the steel to give the appearance of one solid form.

 I painted it black and added rust powder to give a slightly metallic effect, after which was followed by two coats of matt glaze to fix the powder in place.

 I wrapped masking tape around the handle so black paint wouldn't get on to the wooden handle. I wanted to have the metal of the axe blade showing so after painting it all black I rubbed it with some blue roll to try and create a gradual fade to black.