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I'm trying to make the hilt of a sword, and I'd like the grip to have diagonal lines across it rather than horizontal. IS there an easy way of doing this?

See picture

enter image description here

MY reference material shows a spiral, but I this is going to be 3D printed and a spiral will just be too complicated, so I just want to make diagonal pits\grooves by resizing every other loop and applying a subsurface modifier to smooth it out.

I tried making two regular loop cuts and doing a loop select and then rotating them. Then creating other loop cuts in between. Which did make them at an angle, but it also distorted the lines of my sword hilt.

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    $\begingroup$ You can start by making regular, perpendicular loopcuts. Then use the shear operator. Ctrl + Alt + Shift + S. Use X Y Z keys to define the axis while the operator is active. $\endgroup$
    – michaelh
    Aug 22, 2021 at 16:50
  • $\begingroup$ Nothing happened, where would I find that command on the menu? $\endgroup$
    – Aaargh Zombies
    Aug 22, 2021 at 18:04
  • $\begingroup$ Here you can find all the info about shearing in Blender. You also need to make sure the loop cuts are selected. $\endgroup$
    – michaelh
    Aug 22, 2021 at 18:51

1 Answer 1

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You could create loop cuts on a cylinder but it won't work if you see the object from one side, you'd better create a spiral with the Screw modifier.

Loop cuts:

Create one segment that looks like this one:

enter image description here

Array it on Z:

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Apply the Array modifier, in Edit mode merge the vertices, use the Shear tool on Y (AltCtrlShiftSY):

enter image description here

You could also use a Lattice modifier to get the same result:

enter image description here

At the end cut off the top and bottom with the Bisect tool and rework the topology.

Spirals:

Create a circle, cut it off, move it a bit away from its origin, duplicate and rotate 120° on the Z axis twice:

enter image description here

Give it a Screw modifier, tweak the values so that it works, give it a Steps value of 12 or 24 or 36:

enter image description here

Apply the modifier, select all in Edit mode and merge the vertices with a threshold high enough. Cut off the top and bottom and rework the topology.

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  • $\begingroup$ This is going to be 3D printed, and I'm concerned that the geometry that the spiral tool creates will be problem. $\endgroup$
    – Aaargh Zombies
    Aug 22, 2021 at 17:56
  • $\begingroup$ in what way could it be a problem? I've tried with a cylinder, you could do it, the problem being that the side view won't be correct, so it works as long as you stay in front, is it what it is supposed to happen? $\endgroup$
    – moonboots
    Aug 22, 2021 at 17:58
  • $\begingroup$ I'm going to make this in real life using a 3D printer. It's difficult to explain without getting too involved but where you have grooves that curve around like that the printer may not be able to handle all of the overhangs. If they're simple loops it's easier to print. $\endgroup$
    – Aaargh Zombies
    Aug 22, 2021 at 18:23
  • $\begingroup$ ok I'm going to edit my answer $\endgroup$
    – moonboots
    Aug 22, 2021 at 18:27

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