Heaven Blade prop

I've taken on a project for a friend of mine. He will be cosplaying Layfon Wolfstein Alseif from the series Chrome Shelled Regios, and he wanted me to help him by making Layfon's sword.

You can see the costume my friend will be wearing and his sword here:



I decided the easiest way to make the sword would be to sandwich 2 halves of polystyrene insulation foam (the pink foam sheets you see at the hardware store) around a wooden dowel spine for strength and stability.
I had to go with wood due to rules of the convention my friend will be attending, as they do not allow metal in any form for props or armor-type costumes.

I apologize for the quality of these photos, I could not find my camera, and had to make do with my cellphone's camera. >.<



Here I have cut two strips of insulation approximately 6" x 48" in dimension, and the 1/2" x 48" wood dowel.  I haven't done any work on the material yet; I just wanted to get a photo of the materials. To cut the foam I used the jigsaw I got for Xmas, (thanks mom & dad!) set to the lowest speed.


Next, I marked a center line and routed a channel down each piece using a dremel with routing bit, and a depth guide set to 1/4". I expanded each channel with the dremel again, this time with a sanding drum bit.


I did a test fitting of the dowel before gluing anything together.

Polystyrene is a neat material, light and easy to work with tools, but certain solvents and other chemicals can melt it. Among them are Acetone and chemicals found in fiberglass resin. I wanted to keep things cheap so I had to use what I had on hand. I glued the two halves together around the spine using a glue called Mod Podge. Its basically white glue, but would work perfectly for what I had in mind. I don't have any pictures of me applying the glue, as I had to work quickly.

After gluing, I clamped the two halves together, as the dowel was slightly warped. To my chagrin, I discovered just how cheap the cheap clamps I bought were, when one broke right after I put it on the piece! I had to improvise slightly to keep the two halves together while the glue dries, so I stacked a few boxes and old books on the piece while it dries on the floor of my basement.

I will post more once the glue is dry and I've done more work.

~Cheers~