How to Make a LARP Safe Pirate Cutlass

In this tutorial I am going to show you how I made this LARP safe pirate cutlass. This same method could be used to make any form of LARP weapon, so feel free to adapt it to your needs! I will walk you through the steps I made to construct this LARP Cutlass and make it safe to use according to the majority of larp guidelines. This particular piece is not being used for combat but for cosplay, but I have made it safe for most conventions and LARPs. The general guidlines to follow that will make a weapon safe for most larps out there are: Ensure there are two inches of foam between the core and the tip of the weapon, and one inch of foam between the end of the core and the end of the pommel. In addition to this, make sure there are 10mm of foam between the core and the striking edge and 5mm between the core and a non striking edge. Some larps will require more foam between the core and the edge, others may not be as strict, however it is always god to err on the side of caution.

10mm Carbon Fiber/ Fiberglass Tube, Hot Glue, Aluminium Can, EVA Foam, Craft Foam, Tape, Contact Cement, Foam Clay, Plastidip, Rub and Buff, Acrylic Paint, Leather Strip, Craft Knife, Knife Sharpener, Brushes, Heat Gun, White Gel Pen

This is the most complicated individual step of this build, but it is the most important one for a safe final product. It also seems a lot more complicated than it really is.

The main material of this sword is eva foam, which is a great lightweight and durable material for larp/cosplay weapons and armor, however it is very flexible and will not be a very sturdy or rigid weapon as is. In order to make it more rigid and provide strength to the build, a solid core is added in the middle of the sword. This core should be strong and lightweight. The best materials for this are things like carbon fiber and fiberglass. You want a tube for this build so either order from a hobby store in the length you need, or repurpose something like an old golf club, they work very well for this purpose and are much more cost effective. I am using a 50cm carbon fiber tube with a 10mm diameter.

The problem with this core is over time and use as a weapon, the core can slowly cut through the foam and eventually pop through and hurt someone. In order to avoid this, we will add a two inch flexible section to the tip of the rod and a one inch section to the rear of the rod using hot glue. This will allow the softer glue to flex with the foam and prevent it from damaging the foam and breaking through the surface.

Start by marking one inch on a skewer, and using that to press a wad of paper into the tube to function as a stopper. Repeat this for both sides of the tube, then fill the end of the tubes with glue, this will give the glue on the tip a more firm hold and somethign to attach to.

Then using an old aluminium can, cut a rectangle and roll it around the tube using tape to hold its form and tightly shape it, this will form an aluminium tube the same diameter as the external diameter of the carbon fiber tube. Then, slide this tube off of the carbon fiber tube, and using the same technique with the skewer, ensure the tube is two inches over the end, then slowly fill the tube with hot glue, trying to avoid any bubbles. As the hot glue cools, it will contract and form a well in the top of the tube so continue to fill extra glue for a few minutes as the glue settles. You can use a heat gun, as aluminium is conductive, to heat the hot glue and ensure it sinks down to the carbon fiber and bonds to the glue already in the tube. Then, using a scalpel or craft knife, cut the tape off of the aluminium and unroll it to reveal the hot glue core. Repeat this for the other side, for a one inch hot glue core for the pommel of the sword.

You can definitely freehand a design on a large sheet of paper/cardboard/straight on the foam if you'd like! If youd like to copy the sword design I have made, I have attached a PDF template to scale, be sure to print it on multiple pages by selecting actual size or poster settings when printing the PDF. Once you have it printed, overlap the sheets of paper so they line up and tape them together. Then cut along the lines until you have a whole template, for this design the guard is made seperately from the rest of the sword so feel free to cut the guard off of the template provided, so you end up with the same shape as shown in the next step.

For this design I am using 10mm EVA foam, two layers for the blade/handle and one layer for the guard. To trace the design on the foam, I like to use sewing pins to hold the template in place and make sure it does not shift or warp while transfering the pattern. To make the pattern stand out against the black foam I suggest tracing the pattern with something light in colour like a white gel pen or silver sharpie.

Using a craft knife/box cutter, extend the blade, and hold it so the blade edge is perpendicular to the cutting mat, holding your hand just above the foam so it forms a 45 degree angle and uses more of the blade in the cut then cut smoothly through the foam using the craft knife, in one long smooth cut as much as possible. The fewer cuts, the less jagged edge you will produce. Ensure your knife is sharp, foam is a very dense and abrasive material that dulls the blade very quickly, sharpen your blade on a knife sharpener after every cut to ensure the smoothest possible final product.

Lay the rod onto one side of the foam, then trace the perimiter of the rod roughly where you want it to sit. Then remove the material from this channel until the rod sit halfway in the channel. Some ways you can do this are with the craft knife and angled cuts, or with a dremel tool. I used the tip of a hot glue gun to melt the majority of the material, then wrapped some sandpaper around the rod, and used it to sand the remainder of the material out of the channel until it was a snug fit. If you have access to a dremel, that would probably be a more effective and quicker way to do this.

I am still looking for a consistent and easy way to do this but this is the best way I've come up with thus far. When the two sides are joined together, we want the channel to line up so the rod in the center fits in well and everything lines up straight. To do this, I sanded a piece of chalk to produce chalk dust, which I then brushed around the perimeter of the channel, so that when the two sides are lined up and placed together, and then pressure is applied, the chalk markings will pass to the next side. This can then be more permanently marked using a pen and the process of carving the channel is repeated on the other side.

The blade and handle have been kept in one piece to ensure that the rod will be straight and the handle and blade will be in line with each other. At the join between the guard and blade on the template, cut using the craft knife to separate the handle and blade.

Spread a thin layer of contact cement on both sides that will be glued together, as well as in the channels and along the carbon fiber rod. Let the contact cement dry for a few minutes until tacky, then place the rod in the channel on one side, then sandwich the other side on top. To ensure a strong bond between the layers, roll over the newly sandwiched layers with a rolling pin applying consistent pressure over the length of the blade.

Go back to the template, and cut along the line of the bevel from the profile view. Then using this new template, place it on the foam blade to sketch in the line you will bevel the edge to. Then flip the template over and place it on the reverse of the blade.

Using the craft knife, ensure you continue to sharpen it as the foam will dull it very quickly. Hold the knife at an angle from the white line of the bevel, to the middle of the edge, which will be where the seam of the two sides of the foam are. Then slowly work your way down the blade, using a sawing motion to remove material.

Alternatively, you could grind in the bevels using a belt sander or a dremel tool if you have them available.

Using some sand paper, smooth the bevels down further till they have a consistent surface finish all the way down. To help with this, I taped some sand paper to the back of a ruler, which ensured I had a stiff straight piece of sandpaper to make a consistent bevel across the edge instead of a curved or wonky edge.

Punch a hole in the center of the guard where you want the blade to sit. Then using a craft knife and sand paper, sand a more domed shape to add more depth to the guard.

To add some more shape and fluidity to the guard, and make it look like hammered or cast metal, heat the foam up with a heat gun, and then curl it in your hand as shown. This will over bend the piece so that as you release it it should form the rigth shape. If you only hold it in the shape you want, the elasticity of the foam will cause it to bend back and it will not hold the final shape you want.

Using a layer of contact cement on both parts, stick the blade onto the guard.

Glue the two handle sides together using contact cement, ensuring that the channel for the carbon fiber rod lines up and that it can still easily slide onto the blade.

To make the build look a bit more homogenous and polished, cut some 5mm strips of craft foam, and use them to wrap the join between the blade and guard, the guard and handle, and where you will seperate the handle and pommel.

Using the craft knife and some sandpaper, remove material on the corners of the handle to give it a more rounded and comfortable shape. Then attach the handle using some more contact cement and hot glue.

You can definitely build some really impressive weapons using just EVA foam, however sometimes you may want to add some embellishments or sculptural details that are difficult to form with the foam alone. In those cirucmstances a grat material is foam clay, it acts just like clay, and can be smoothed with a bit of water on your fingertips, and then dries very similar to EVA foam. To have the clay adhere to the foam, wet the foam surface first before applying the clay. The clay also sands well when dried to help produce a mor epolished final product. This makes it a great product to use on props and costumes. for my current build, I've just used the foam clay to make a nicer shaped pommel that looks as if it was cast out of bronze. You can easily sculpt a more complicated design or add more decoration to the guard or blade using this material.

Using some hot glue, tack the bottom of the D guard to the pommel to form your desired shape, while leaving enough room for your hand. Then to smooth and reinforce that connection, add some additional foam clay at the seam and smootht he transition with wet fingers.

Using some foam clay and water on your fingertips, smooth the foam clay over any imperfections you wish to smooth out. if they are shallower scratches or seamlines of where the foam has joined together, use some flexible filler as in thinner coatings it is easier and less expensive. You can then use a high grit sandpaper to smooth the surface further before moving on. The weapon does not need to be perfectly smooth as the plastidip coating will smooth and fill in some of the smaller imperfections.

If you want your weapon to look old, and like its been used a lot then add some scratches and chips in the areas that it would be likely to see use, along the egde/spine of the blade from fighting, or in the hand guard from blcking opponents blades. This effect helps to add character to a weapon, but be carful cause it is easy to over do it, and if you want your weapon to appear more new, skip this all together.

To add these scratches and cuts, I took my craft knife and extended it fully, made sure it was nice and sharp, and then did some shallow cuts in the areas I wanted damage, at a 45 degree angle, then offset that cut and came in at 45 degrees the opposite direction, to take a v shaped wedge out of the foam. Repeat this as many times as you'd like, from different angles, and with different depths of cuts to make it appear more reallistic.

In order to make your weapon more durable so it survives all your skirmishes with orcs or far worse a convention floor, you need to coat your weapon with something like Plastidip or Liquid latex. I use the aerosol plastidip, and spray on about 5 light coats of platidip, or fewer heavier coats, depending on how 'pristine' you want your weapon to be. There is also a brush on version of plastidip which works just as well. a general rule is one heavy brushed on coat will be enough to protect your weapon if its thick enough, so one brushed on coat is equivelant to about 5 light spray coats. plastidip is mostly self leveling, so if you brush it on, dont be too worried about the brush strokes as it will settle and remove alot of the marks in the coating till it levels out. If you want a more distressed final product, some texture in this stage will actually help to sell a distressed look, so applying th eplastidip,latex with a sponge, or putting on a heavy coat of spray, can make the piece look rusty or battle damaged. So take as much time and care as youd like to get the outcome that you are looking for.

Starting the paint job of the sword, apply some rub and buff, or acrylic paints to block out the base colours of silver on the blade and gold on the hilt. Although the blade will be given a rust effect and weathering will be done to the whole sword, to get a more realistic metallic or rusty look, you want to start with a base of metallic paint as then each layer on top of it will interact with the base coat like it would on real metal. If you did the same weathering on a matte paint job or the wrong colour it wouldn't have as reallistic of an effect. If you wat a more pristine sword, skip the weathering, but do dry brush a few diffferent shades of the gold and silver to break up the surface and provide some edge highlights.

The weathering process involves a variety of different coloured washes with watered down acrylic paint, then using a rag/paper towels to remove most of the paint, only leaving behind small amounts in the recessed areas of the piece. The more colours and layers, the more depth you add to the piece to an extent, you can overdo it but you just just when you are happy and stop there. I used a brown paint, then black paint wash, followed by a blue/green wash to mimic the colour of oxidised bronse, then a different shade of gold paint. The final weathering is very subtle but it breaks up the monotone gold and makes it look more convincingly like real metal.

For the blade, a similar black and brown wash were used, then a dark brown was applied using a natural sea sponge, and once dry a more orange brown was applied over top. This produces a rusted metal effect, but, the edge of the blade would be used more frequently and the rust would not have built up there while the sword was used, so the edge of the blade is polished with some rub and buff to bring back the metallic shine.

This step is totally optional! You could definitely just paint the grip to your desired finish, but I always feel a leather/faux leather wrap give it a great look and solid feel in your hands. To do this, just apply some contact cement to the back of the leather strip, as well as to the foam of the handle. It may also help to taper the ends of the strip so that it can be made flush with the guard and pommel without making the grip unnaturally thick in those areas.

I felt I had overdone the rust look, and felt that it took away from the look of the sword, so brushed some more rub and buff on top. I made sure not to cover the rust entirely, and leave some of it peaking through under the silver to give it an aged and pitted look. If you like the rusted look, and want your cutlass to look like a relic just pulled from a shipwreck, you can use this rust technique to age your sword to your liking.