2 Piece 4# box or Single piece?

Making Weapons and Shields

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2 Piece 4# box or Single piece?

Postby Sage » Wed Sep 17, 2014 2:22 pm

Getting back into the foam smithing now that I have room for it, and I want to get opinions on which method of 4# box is superior in blue sword construction. I am comfortable with Barley style 4# box in creating swords but I have noticed some people use 2 pieces with a cap in their box construction. So which seems to hold up better in the end?
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Re: 2 Piece 4# box or Single piece?

Postby Dangus » Thu Sep 18, 2014 12:18 am

Sage wrote:Getting back into the foam smithing now that I have room for it, and I want to get opinions on which method of 4# box is superior in blue sword construction. I am comfortable with Barley style 4# box in creating swords but I have noticed some people use 2 pieces with a cap in their box construction. So which seems to hold up better in the end?

Personally, I find that building a traditional box with 3/4# foam to be preferable to routed box/fry builds, simply because it yields a more stable stabbing tip. Then again, pre-routed options are probably going to yield a better result if you're a novice foam smith, or aren't entirely sure of your ability to build a straight and stable box.

To actually answer your question, I would have to say the two-piece method seems more structurally sound, since (last time I checked, anyway) Barely boxes don't have the "teeth" at the tip that edhellen fries do, so I would think this would cause some awkward folding at the tip. The handful of times I've used pre-routed boxes, they have been two separate pieces, sadwiched between a core.
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Re: 2 Piece 4# box or Single piece?

Postby Sir Thurat » Thu Sep 18, 2014 12:59 am

I like to biscuit the core, and then sandwich the core with routed 4#. My issue with the up-and-over single piece routed fries is that the extra foam at the tip is unnecessary and seems to make for a less stable stabbing tip.

That being said, I've used FF and Barley hardcore swords with stabbing, and haven't had issue with the tip being unstable on those. However, I think that is largely because they use a very nice 4# EVA. My Minicell boxed sword that is built in the same method isn't holding up for **** as far as tip stability goes.

tl;dr sandwiched is superior, in my experience.
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Re: 2 Piece 4# box or Single piece?

Postby TicklePits » Sat Oct 11, 2014 2:21 pm

Sorry if this reply is too late, but please see this tutorial by Alric (a very well reputed foamsmith).

http://www.dagorhir.com/forums/index.ph ... 058.0.html

According to this, it is better to have the 4# in one continuous piece, not blue-foam-box-style. I also remember hearing about the 4# not having teeth; will try to find it.

Also, I have to politely disagree with Dangus. In my experience, routed foam is much more stable for the stab tip and all around better. I love my routed foam swords- there's really no comparison. They are much more structurally sound.
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