We finished up a run of Cyrano De Begerac last year, and with our kids did a rendition of Three Musketeers this year...and made our own swords. We bought a huge container of old golf clubs from our local Salvation army, the metal ones of course, snipped off the head of the club, and unwrapped the rubber around the handle. We bent everything we could find to make the hand guard, we found that old soup ladles worked te best, and sautered them onto the bottom of the swords. They looked amazing!! They gave the metal clang of swords, and were rounded on the ends so that no one got hurt. I was skepticle at first about their lack of an "authentic look" but after watching our sword-trained actors use them, they looked awesome!!!!!! I have attached a video link, within this you can see some of the swordplay.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MLGf7-dz54

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPyVruJ_Ef0