YouTube’s Hacksmith, aka James Hobson is known for creating fully functional real-life replicas of iconic movie weapons, from Thor’s mighty hammer Mjolnir to Iron Man’s Endgame gauntlet to Kylo Ren’s lightsaber. For his latest “Make It Real” project, working without his team during quarantine, Hobson decided to craft an updated version of one of his first-ever creations: the mutant Wolverine’s famous claws.
In the X-Men movies, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) is most commonly depicted with his claws coated in adamantium, the unbreakable metal that is grafted onto his entire skeleton — and Hobson’s initial attempt followed this design. But as fans of the original comics will tell you, the character’s original claws are actually made from bone, as seen in X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Days of Future Past. Dafne Keen sported similar bone claws when she played the young mutant Laura in the 2017 movie Logan.
So this time around, Hobson works on a pair of bone claw replicas — while cosplaying as the grizzly superhero.
Hobson opts to make the bones 7 to 8 inches long, shorter than the metal equivalents, and after studying some X-ray images of human hands, designs indentations that have the appearance of finger bone joints. When it comes to manufacturing the claws, he chooses metal, to make them more durable, and then coats them with a bone-like powder paint to give them the right appearance.
Finally, when they’re ready, Hobson dons the claws for a series of Wolverine-inspired fight scenes against a bag of rice, cabbage, and a basketball, before finally testing their might on a concrete wall. And it goes without saying, but please: don’t try this at home.
