If you’re going to dress like Wolverine, you need some claws. They don’t have to be made from adamantium, but they look best if they’re retractable. If you nail that part of the costume, the rest of the outfit doesn’t matter as much. Instructables user Bug spent time on the entire outfit though and used Logan’s costume from the X-Men movies as his inspiration. For the jacket, he applied gold trim on a leather coat he found at Goodwill with fabric paint. For the claws, he used a gravity based system and made them from tubes, wooden dowels that he shaped into claws, and black leather gloves. It’s an affordable and effective way to achieve retractable claws.
After he sanded the wooden dowels, he reviewed how to make them fit inside your arm tubes:
As for technical details, you want the claw to just fit inside your arm tubes after you’ve added the stoppers to the back and the metal end tubes to the front. That will allow the claw to slide freely without having the front of the claw catch on the metal end tube, which is a smaller diameter and thus creates a slight ridge. Make sure the claw slides freely through the tube and end tube up until the last couple inches (you may have to sand it down so it will slide freely, and don’t forget to account for any paint or foil you’ll be adding). You’ll want the last inch-and-a-half to two inches of the claw to be of larger diameter, big enough to pass through the main tube freely but too small to fit through the end tube. The transition should be abrupt, with a lip that will strike the inner tube head on. You can wrap electrical tape around the end of the claw until you get the necessary thickness.
Read more about the claws and costume at Instructables. Want more inspiration? Check out these DIY Wolverine claws, too.