Making a Lancet Replica

This post is going to be a bit of a departure from my usual writing. You'll be spared my ramblings about vaccines, law, ethics and censorship. Instead, I thought I would put up a post documenting how I went about making a prop for my Halloween costume this year. Hopefully I won't give away too much about what my costume is going to be before it's time to be revealed.

Fleam

Lancet

A good costume is more than just the clothes you wear or a mask. It's also important to pay attention to the details. What kind of props are you going to add on? How accurate are you going to be? What materials are you going to use? For my costume, I really wanted to add on a lancet or fleam, devices that were once used for bloodletting, the belief being that bleeding a patient would balance the humours and heal them of whatever disease they happened to have. In nearly every instance, this was pure nonsense, and frequently dangerous, sometimes fatally so. At any rate, I had a couple options: buy one or make my own. Real lancets were hard to find, fleams a bit easier, and both were rather more than I wanted to spend.

Based on the pictures I was able to find, fleams seemed a bit too complex for me. Not only did I not have the metalworking skills they seemed to required, I just didn't have the tools. The lancet looked much easier, though I did need to do a bit more research on how to add a handle. Some quick googling on how to put handles on knives and I was ready to start. A quick run to the local big box hardware store, then time to get to work.

Of Wood and Woo

I've done some work as a carpenter. If you have never done it, you should give it a try. You can get lost in the work. Measuring, cutting, assembling. I've built sets for plays, taking simple pieces of wood and shaping them into imaginary lands that transport the audience into a different world, a different time. There is a simple sort of pleasure in woodworking: the feel of tools in your hands, the focus on the project. All of the stresses and annoyances of everyday life fade into the background. True, there are other pressures there. Get the structure done before first tech rehearsal. Finish painting and dressing the set before first full dress, or, when things really get down to the wire, before opening. There are also a lot of different issues revolving around personalities and egos, but all in all, those are relatively minor things with which to deal.

As I was reflecting on this, I thought of how there are some similarities to how we may interact with those with whom we disagree. When we argue with anti-vaccine activists, promoters of pseudoscience and so forth, there are techniques we use to make our point, to convince others.