Blood Razors

[S.M]

I am in desperate need for 3 razors, at least one being a blood razor that somehow exhausts blood! The show is Sweeney Todd.

 

Many thanks

[robloxley]

You could try the National's props/costume hire place.

[S.M]

Tried them, they just have the ordinary razors. Failing the razors, does anybody have any ideas of how to disperse the blood on the 'victim' another way, I have been experimenting but open to new ideas.

[James]

Blood pack already on victim's neck. running the razor across opens it up. ?

 

James

[Suzette]

Not sure if this will help but it may give you an idea - I made a "blood knife", used for the actor to slash their wrist on stage.

 

2 cheap kitchen knives & break the handle off one of them.

Get a plastic pipet and lay along the side of one of the knives, lay the other knife on top to make a sandwich of knives with the pipet in the middle. The bulb end of pipet was just sticking out of the end next to the handle.

Plenty of hot glue gun work later and blunting of knives ...

stage blood into the pipet, actor runs knife across wrist whilst squeezing pipet - hey presto a line of blood where the knife "cut".

 

We did actually end up making a channel of glue for the pipet to feed down through so we could remove the pipet to fill with blood.

 

Hope that helps a bit - maybe you can use someting similar for the razors.

 

Failing that how about a magicians shop? Try Davenports @ Charing Cross - 020 7836 0408

[the kid]

Blood pack already on victim's neck. running the razor across opens it up. ?

surley there needs to be some form of protection behind the bloodpack to protect the neck.

[Tomo]

Using a fake razor of course!

 

A well-made bloodpack will break very easily when you push a metal object against it.

 

I've made a few that would break if you just squeeze them slightly, and various that require a little bit more pressure.

 

Choose your material depending on exactly how they want to break.

 

For 'impact' wounds like bullets thin polythene (ie cheap shopping bags) is very good - get the pack under pressure during construction (tighten up the knot until it's nearly at breaking point), and it will burst very effectively. For West Side Story I did one that properly splattered the surrounding area - the actress playing Maria was not amused though, as I hadn't warned her that it would go *everywhere*.

(Everybody else knew though, so it was pretty funny.)

This method makes a 'pop' sound though so it's not suitable for things like slashing injuries.

 

For slower scenes and slashing-type injuries, either use a bloodknife (several designs exist of various levels of complexity) or wrap blood inside a clingfilm pouch.

This design can be very fragile though - you need multiple layers depending on how resilient it has to be.

 

Do some tests! I spent quite a long time trying to get a 'stabbing' style bloodknife to work properly - I worked out a way to do it, but it needed precision engineering - my kitchen-table tech version didn't keep the blood inside well enough for the viciousness of the knife fight, so we had to drop to bloodpacks.

[Ian_P]

Perhaps avoid the knife supplying the blood as this has potential danger points, rig each actor 'victim' with a small squeezy bottle in their pocket or hand and a pipe from this going up to the neck and just out of their collar.

 

When the fake knife is drawn across the neck, the victim squeezes the bottle and great squirts of jugular blood will gush out! Simple, dramatic and reliable!

 

What do you think?

[Jemma]

A few years ago I borrowed the Sweeny Todd razor from a very nice man (sorry, little black book not to hand) at the Royal Opera House props making department. It worked pretty well, but you have to track down the man himself - good luck!

[S.M]

well, that sounds hopeful, I did call them but got told that the sweeney todd set had been packed away in storage and was not accessible. cant remember what I asked them for however! Will give them a try again.

 

Thanks

[Guest lightnix]

The original Sweeney razors had a two compartment brass handle. The lower compartment contained a "Sparklets" CO2 bulb and was separated from the upper compartment by a push button valve. The upper compartment contained the stage blood and fed a tube, perforated with a line of holes along one side, around which the "blade" was wrapped. Each Sparklets bulb held enough CO2 for one big two moderate shots of blood, with enough left for cleaning out with water afterwards.

 

They were made specially for the production at a cost of around £300 each; I think there were six in all. They were a bit heavy on Sparklet consumption and made a loud hiss when operated.

 

Of all the ideas here, I think Ian_P's sounds like the simplest to achieve, although it seems that most professional blood knife props work more similarly to Suzettes idea, with a squeezy bulb in the handle.

[Alfie]

Damn!

I was on stage for a local production of Sweeny only a couple of months ago! their razors were great and there was blood all over the floor every night (Much to our annoyance) but I have absolutely no idea what they were like or where they were from. you could try contacting them on this link

http://www.on-cue.org.uk/groups/t2000.html

[Tomo]

Oh and cleaning up stage blood - Toilet Bleach.

 

It works incredibly well - one capful in a mop bucket and the blood vanishes with little mopping. Wonderful!

 

Something I really wish we'd found out earlier!

[Neil Hampson]

Bumping a very old thread but here goes...

 

I am involved in a forthcoming production of Sweeney Todd next year and already we are struggling to source some crucial props. None of the sets that we are considering come with the razors for the throat cutting scenes. (Proscenium and Scenic Property Hire both have sets)

We have contacted out local prop hire company 'Howarth Wrightson' (Sp?) but we have been told that the razors are no longer avaialble to hire, with a mention that we may find it difficult to hire a cut throat razor, gimmicked or not due to changes in the law, (I assume this is the amendment to the Dangerous weapons act)

 

Searching on another forum I found this set which would be ideal (See Here) , and I have contacted the company involved to see if I can hire from them.

In the meantime does anyone have, or know of a hire company that has any 'blood' razors for hire, The show is only in May next year so it's not a panick yet but I just need to make sure I have enough time to make if I need to...

PS.

Does anyone know of any other scenery hire companies in the UK that have a Sweeney Todd set for hire. we have the details of the Proscenium and Scenic Property hire sets, and I know that Scenic projects are in the process of building one at the moment.

[w/robe]

I know that Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts are dress rehearsing Sweeney at the moment as I was talking to their Wardrobe Mistress about it this afternoon. I guess that they are using blood razors so they must either have made them or have a contact to hire them from.