You choose a nice long piece of wood.
You weigh it in your hands, imagining it as a sword.
You clamp it in the vice and start planing it down.
Slowly, the blade begins to take shape.
Next, you take a smaller piece of wood and cut it to size.
You lay it over the blade to form a cross guard.
You nail the cross guard to the blade.
Finally, you wrap the hilt with string to give you a good grip.