Tips

Use an Exacto knife with good quality blades. I tried using one from the dollar store and it didn’t work at all with the foam. I recommend purchasing a knife sharpener like the one pictured below. If you sharpen your blade after a few small cuts or one long cut, you will cut through your foam like butter. The softness of the foam dulls blades incredibly fast. If you don’t sharpen your blades, you will have to change your blades constantly. This sharpener is a good investment for foam work.

For great tutorials on how to work with foam, I recommend viewing Evil Ted Smith’s videos on YouTube. He demonstrates how to sharpen blades, create patterns, work at an angle, and how to use contact cement.

Be sure not to hold your heat gun too long on your final product as the heat can release the glue. This happened to me a little bit on the edge of the sword blade. If this happens, run some contact cement in the crevice and squeeze it together again after it dries.

Supplies

I am using Eva foam floor mats that are 7/16” (11mm) thick – just under half an inch. This means the blade is 7/8” thick and the hilt at its widest point is 1 5/8” thick.

Make sure you wear a proper dust mask/respirator and goggles while drilling at the foam. Protect your work area with newspaper. This also makes cleanup much easier. The very fine dust from sanding gets everywhere and spreads far. You can protect your clothing by wearing an apron (or better yet, wear old clothes).

Contact cement, Goop glue, spray-paint, and Flexi Dip/Plasti Dip have a strong smell and should be used in a well-ventilated area. The Flexi Dip spray is especially strong (I’m not sure about Plasti Dip, but I assume it’s similar).

Be careful when using the heat gun and wood burner as they reach really high heats and can burn your skin on contact. A hair dryer will not work as a substitute for a heat gun.