Book Of The Dead - The Definitive Evil Dead Website

I re-registered the domain and reworked & upgraded the site; putting it back online, so I could take new orders and get payment up-front to fund the initial outlay needed for new tools & materials. After I vacated the shed I was using back in 2008, I sold off much of the larger tools & machinery, as I then had little need for it, which meant somewhat starting from scratch. A year later in April 2013, I felt ready to begin. Using a Portakabin available at work, I set up a new workshop, constructing the benches and making a new workshop

I started the prototyping process at the start of April 2013 lining up three orders to make at the same time, completing the moulds and those first three orders just nine weeks later. All far quicker than the seven months spent the first time round, given that I was vastly more experienced both in terms of general processes, and making replica chainsaws specifically. Each prototype piece was built up using plastic and superglue. This was then filled with Bodyfilla, sanded and given a few coats of primer to give a uniform smooth finish. Quite brittle in itself, but once I'd moulded them and made solid resin reproductions, they were quite strong. From the outside, they look nearly identical to the old saws, but the internal structure was entirely re-worked. The biggest changes were in the interior, and the great reduction & simplification in the steps to take each saw from their raw materials, to the finished product. The new saws were generally much stronger, the 'Cabin' saws' lid was longer at the back, the muffler assembly was more accurate, as was the side grill, and each saws' finishing & attention to detail was greatly improved. The great thing about working from moulds, is that I didn't need to track down an original Homelite XL as a starting point for each order, and I could build in as many complicated modifications as I wanted and they'd come out in each casting. The only proper real chainsaw parts in my saws were the guide bars & chains. Most everything else was made from raw materials.

While it was never my original intention, as a special request for a customer, in May 2014 I started work on a replica of the Army Of Darkness mechanical arm. Mike Iverson of Blind Squirrel Props had custom made an arm in 2011, and had kindly made his 1:1 scale plans available, which I was able to begin work from, creating an arm which could be worn as well as displayed. This project was much more technically challenging than the chainsaws, as I was basically starting out with raw materials. I formed the basic structure & shapes from heated ABS plastic sheets, building up & adding the detail, until I had pieces I could mould, and reproduce in Fastcast. Various metal pieces which were added on, had to be made from scratch with each arm order, such as the brass & leather arm brace, the vambrace handle, and the finger pistons. I sold four arms in total from 2014 to 2015.

In February 2015, I was contacted by Ash Vs Evil Dead in New Zealand, to buy four non working and two working medieval chainsaws; assembled, but not painted or aged, plus a rough stunt saw as well. The four standard saws were made first; made as they would be for any other customer, and were completed in around three weeks. They were then crated up and sent out, with the working saws to follow. I spent three additional weeks making the two working chainsaws; I mean working in the sense that the chain moves round, the muffler blows smoke, and the pull start retracts. Motorizing them was tricky as I had never intended them to be made to work, so the space inside was even tighter. Once the whole order was sent, between later rights issues with Army Of Darkness, and the large size of Bruce Campbell's stuntman's hands, they needed to change the outer look & re-orientate the inside to make it an exact fit. I know they used parts from my chainsaws to make their prototype chainsaw, but they then re-moulded everything and made their own chainsaws from then on. At least it was all sorted and they got what they wanted in the end.

From 2013 to April 2015, I didn't have a proper chainsaw photo backdrop, so just used a plain white background when taking photos for customers. It wasn't until April 2015, nearly two years after re-starting, and only five months before stopping again, I decided to build a new 'Workshed' display in my Portakabin workshop. While the basic wooden structure was the same as the original I'd built nine years earlier, there was far more attention to fine detail, with many of the props used to dress the workshed set in Evil Dead II, identified & sourced, rather than populating it with anything remotely suitable, which I could get for free at the time. This included a Fuller 10" Pipe Wrench, Craftsman 3/8" metal cased drill, and a Zero brand Electric Fan, along with going to car boot sales and buying old rusty tools, jars & containers to fill in the gaps.

Back in 2006 with the first 'Workshed' display, it was my intention to make a different photo backdrop for each model chainsaw. While I didn't do that at the time, I decided to take that idea forward. The second display was the 'Cabin' chainsaws' backdrop; the professors table in the main room of the cabin. It consisted of a wall section, with the bottom half of a bookcase cabinet attached, and a table in front. Everything was made from scratch from wood, including cutting the textured pattern in the MDF back wall with a router. I was able to dress the table with many Evil Dead II props I already owned, such as the tape recorder, lamp, dagger replica and 'Book Of The Dead'. This display was assembled in my flat, but was dismantled when I moved house in 2020, and is now packed away on storage.

The third photo backdrop; the 'Medieval' chainsaw background, was made & dismantled over the course of one day. Long enough to take the website photos needed, it was never intended that it last any longer than this, as there was nothing particularly special about it. It was based on the gravel quarry area seen at the start of Army Of Darkness, where the chainsaw is seen lying on the ground. It was made with a few huge sections of paper, sprayed with glue and covered in sand, with progressively larger stone chips towards the front, to give the illusion of the gravel surface disappearing into the distance.

In August 2015, I decided to put EvilDeadChainsaws.com on hiatus. At the time it was only temporarily, but I haven't formerly come back to it since. The reason behind this was that I'd been getting orders in quick succession up to that August (eleven chainsaws made that year alone, not including individual parts orders, compared to six in the whole of the previous year, along with making the three display backdrops). By that point I was starting at 6am, doing chainsaws until 8am, then finishing a full day of work at 4pm and doing more chainsaws in the evening. As before, I wasn't overly unhappy to leave it behind, once again all the artistic & design element had drained away and it had become another slog to get each order turned out one after another, regardless of how much money I was making. As of the end of 2015, I'd made 26 replicas, sent all over the world, which is no small achievement. The website is still up as of writing, and I'm still selling DIY parts. I may come back to making complete chainsaws at some point, but I've no interest so far.

Much like the previous close-down, I then had a workshed display in my workshop, which needed to be taken out, so I converted it into a free-standing display for my flat, which was then modified & mounted on the wall of my Evil Dead room when I moved house in 2020. As I no longer needed a full workshop, I downscaled & compressed it to one end, and the Portakabin was used for company storage, then in 2020 it was cleared when I converted the 'summerhouse' in the garden of my new house, into a home workshop.

Download - EvilDeadChainsaws: Design Notebook (2019)
(190 Page, 269mb PDF created 16/02/19 - 208mm x 292mm A4 at 300dpi 85% compression JPEG)

Here you can download a PDF scanned copy of my EvilDeadChainsaws.com A4 design notebook. It runs at 190 pages, and contains every note, idea and measurement I've written from 2005 back when I first started, to 2016 when I closed for the second time. I often put ideas on scraps of paper, so much of it is a collage rather than a formal notebook. It will be of limited practical use to most people reading as it's based on working from moulds rather than a real Homelite XL; which is how most people make a one-off chainsaw replica, plus my writing is awful. That aside, people might still find useful bits & pieces in there.

Prototyping & Making My First Three 'Cabin' Chainsaws (April to June 2013)

After setting up my new workshop, prototyping & moulding was far quicker this time round, taking just nine weeks to get the first three ordered chainsaws made. While I didn't sell any further chainsaws to Evil Dead: The Musical, you can see how much I thickened and re-enforced each piece to make it as strong as possible. The base chainsaw was actually a Homelite 'Super 2', as it was the best condition match I could find at the time.

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Emanuele Crivello, Italy (Cabin Chainsaw - June 2013)

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Peter Ames, USA (Cabin Chainsaw - June 2013)

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Danny Velasquez, USA (Cabin Chainsaw - June 2013)

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Nicholas Kester, USA (Cabin Chainsaw - August 2013)

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My Own Chainsaw (Cabin Chainsaw - August 2013)

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Bríann O'Connor, Ireland (Cabin Chainsaw - September 2013)

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Peter Walker, UK (Cabin Chainsaw - September 2013)

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Björn Börner, Germany (Cabin Chainsaw - October 2013)

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Shaun Simpson, UK (Medieval Chainsaw - January 2014)

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Craig Warner, UK (Cabin Chainsaw - March 2014)

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Damian Bartolacci, USA (Medieval Chainsaw - September 2014)

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My Own Chainsaw (Workshed Chainsaw - July 2015)

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Peter Walker, UK (Cabin Chainsaw, Bare Unit - July 2015)

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Steve Voeten, Belgium (Medieval Chainsaw - August 2015)

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Christian Schandorph, Denmark (Workshed Chainsaw - August 2015)

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Making The 'Workshed' Photo Backdrop (April to May 2015)

This was the 'Workshed' photo backdrop, assembled between April to May 2015. The basic wooden structure was the same as the original I'd built nine years earlier, but there was far more attention to fine detail this time. Screen shown props from the Evil Dead II workshed set, were identified & sourced. This included a Fuller 10" Pipe Wrench, Craftsman 3/8" metal cased drill, and a Zero brand Electric Fan, along with going to car boot sales and buying old rusty tools, jars & containers to fill in the gaps.

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Making The 'Cabin' Photo Backdrop (June 2015)

The second display was the 'Cabin' chainsaws' backdrop; the professors table in the main room of the cabin. It consisted of a wall section, with the bottom half of a bookcase cabinet attached, and a table in front. Everything was made from scratch from wood, including cutting the textured pattern in the MDF back wall with a router. I was able to dress the table with many Evil Dead I props I already owned, such as the tape recorder, lamp, dagger replica and 'Book Of The Dead'.

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Making The 'Medieval' Photo Backdrop (August 2015)

The 'Medieval' chainsaw background was made last; dismantled over the course of one day, which was just long enough to take the website photos needed. It was never intended that it last any longer than that, as there was nothing particularly special about it. It was based on the gravel quarry area seen at the start of Army Of Darkness, where the chainsaw is seen lying on the ground. It was made with a few huge sections of paper, sprayed with glue and covered in sand, with progressively larger stone chips towards the front, to give the illusion of the gravel surface disappearing into the distance.

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My Portakabin Workshop (April 2015)

This was the Portakabin workshop as it was in 2016, shortly before closing EvilDeadChainsaws.com and compressing my workshop into the top 1/3 so the remaining 2/3 could be used for company storage.

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If anyone out there wants to make their own chainsaw replica, you should be able to source all the materials I used from either eBay or local stores, and you can download the high resolution Evil Dead II & Army Of Darkness Blu-Ray screenshots, and original prop photos, within the ZIP file below.

Download - features_evildeadchainsaws_2013-2015_reference.zip
(167 screenshots / 192 photos JPEGS, 239mb at 85% compression JPEG)

If anyone has photos of their own chainsaw replicas, or any Evil Dead related replica items, please email them over so they can be added to this site's Collectables - Props & Replicas Section.