What material to use for a prop sword? This was posted after a discussion of whether assassins' questions about deadly weapons would be on-topic here.

If I wanted to make a sword, say as a prop for a theatrical production, what would be the best material to use that satisfies the following criteria?


It must be relatively easy to make:


can be made at home
requiring only materials and tools which are relatively easy to procure
shouldn't take too long to make

It should also be realistic:


rigid, not bending or flopping about even when it strikes a solid object
the same colour and appearance as a real sword would be
preferably reasonably heavy, so that it feels as well as looks realistic



How would I go about making such a 'weapon'?

Edit for clarification: the type of sword I'm imagining would probably be classed as a broadsword: not thin and pin-shaped like a rapier, but not a massive greatsword either. Example pictures (randomly picked off the internet - it doesn't have to look exactly like either of these):
Wood. Adam Savage (whose non mythbuster stuff I love to bits) has a tendancy of making them - see his hellboy sword. He used thin plywood for a base and shaped it with bondo, covering it with aluminum ducting tape. He has another video where he shows process of making a shiny not weathered 'metal' sword from a solid wood sword - the process where he covers the sword in tape starts here, but the whole video is awesome.

There's actually a precedent for this with solid boken, and many modern sword shaping techniques might work with wooden swords.