Prop Weaponry

Tempest Daggers

2025

For GMU’s 2025 production of The Tempest, we were tasked with designing 8 different daggers and their sheaths for different characters. Based on the rubber daggers we ordered and the intricacy of the designs that would be required, the daggers were divided up between myself, our shop Props Artisan, and the other Props Intern. I was given 4 daggers to work on for Stephano, Trinculo, Adrian, and Francisco who were the lowest-class characters who got daggers, which meant their designs would be the most simple.

We made the sheaths out of foam, and we used wooden templates of the blades of the daggers so we didn’t need to keep locking and unlocking our weapons storage cabinet. I traced the blade of the dagger on scraps of paper and cut it out, then traced that on a piece of plywood. I used 3 pieces of foam for each sheath and attached them with 2 coats of contact cement on each surface, which were then clamped and left to cure overnight. Once the sheaths were fully attached and cured, I cut down the extra foam to match the shape of the sheath with a utility knife and sanded them smooth with the belt sander, leaving a piece of foam on the middle section to add a grommet, which helped hold the sheaths more securely in their frogs. I drew out my sheath designs on pieces of paper and cut them out to trace them onto the sheaths, then used the dremel to carve out the designs and smooth out anything that got missed using the belt sander. After that, I punched out a hole and added the grommet, then sprayed the sheaths with a black plastic base spray to prime them for paint, which I also used on the daggers themselves, and then I began painting the sheaths and daggers.

The daggers for Adrian and Francisco had the same design and were intended to be identical, and they were also supposed to look well-kept and clean. Stephano and Trinculo’s daggers were supposed to compliment each other without looking the same, so their designs were an inverse of each other, and their daggers were supposed to be more tarnished and beat up. I painted the handles to look like leather, and the painted the beading silver. Finally, I sealed all of the sheaths and daggers, then put them in their frogs to be sent into rehearsal.

I cut out the template on the bandsaw and sanded it down with the belt sander. I made one template for the middle of the sheath based on the actual size of the blade, and I made a larger second template to trace the outside of the sheath, about half an inch from the edge of the blade. Next to these is the first three pieces of foam I traced and cut out.
This is one of my foam pieces after being cut out with a utility knife and shaved down in the middle with the router and dremel. This piece of foam has two layers of contact cement, and it’s ready to be attached to the next piece and clamped together for the night.
These are all of the sheaths after they’ve been attached and cut down with the designs dremeled out. From top to bottom, these are Stephano’s, Francisco and Adrian’s, and Trinculo’s.
I used a light brown base on the handle and mixed that with some black, before stippling that on to make the handle look like leather. I used two different levels of brown on top of the base to give the handle more dimension, and the beading on the handle was eventually painted silver to match the rest of the dagger.
For the nicer daggers, I went in with a base of silver paint, and then added a coat of silver Rub n Buff for a brighter silver on the blade, guard, pommel, and sheath. To finish, I used a glossy sealer on these two daggers so they’re more shiny from the stage.
To get the tarnished look, I started with a base of silver paint; I made mixes of gold and black, silver and black, and gold, silver, and black and lightly feathered them on top of the silver. I painted the pommel with the same navy we used for the Nobles’ daggers to hint at the parallel between Stephano and Trinculo’s idea to rule the island and the Nobles’ plot to usurp Alonso, as well as to provide more similarity to Trinculo’s dagger. I finished these off with a satin sealer so they looked more worn than the glossy sealer of Francisco and Adrian’s daggers.
For Trinculo’s dagger, I wanted to include a pop of color since he’s the jester in the royal court, and I wanted to match it to his costume. I matched the yellow on the sheath to his pants, then I mixed the yellow with a little bit of brown and stippled it on to make it appear a bit more leathery instead of gold. I color matched the pants to paint the pommel, which ties in with the navy blue pommel on Stephano’s dagger.
Production Photo of Adrian’s dagger by DJ Corey Photography goes here
Production Photo of Francisca's dagger by DJ Corey Photography
Production Photo of Stephano’s dagger by DJ Corey Photography
Production Photo of Trinculo’s dagger by DJ Corey Photography