This Is How I Make My Cosplay Swords! If There Are Any Questions, Or If Anything Isnt Clear, Feel Free

This is how I make my cosplay swords! If there are any questions, or if anything isn’t clear, feel free to ask me anything. The template I mentioned: sta.sh/21u4m1riua1s ((By the way, I’m going to Megacon next week!! I’ll be cosplaying as Alice Angel, Bendy, Vio Link, and Shadow Link!))

Some tips to make sewing with vinyl/pleather easier.

Want to learn how to cosplay? Check out the rest of my channel! New tutorial videos every Monday and Thursday with extra bonus content sprinkled throughout the week!

My Website: http://www.koumorinohime.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KoumoriNoHimeCosplay Tumblr: http://koumori-no-hime.tumblr.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/koumori_no_hime

@mangosirene She's my idol. Or my cosplay senpai... Lol ♡♡

Cosplay 101: Adhesives

This is meant as a beginner primer for adhesives (that we use [enough to know a bit about {mostly}]). This is meant as an outline that covers the general details of each kind of adhesive. The links direct to the wikipedia page on the adhesive if you want to know more about the full details.

Cyanoacrylate: CA glue for shorthand, aka Superglue or krazyglue. However, if something is marketed as a super/krazyglue and doesn’t contain cyanoacrylate, it’s not a CA glue. This is our go-to glue. It’s strong, but a bit brittle and can melt the crap out of some materials.

Pros:

Strong

Widely available

Cleans up with acetone nicely

Can glue most things together (EVA foam, paper, styrene all work well)

Many consistencies available (thin, thick, gel)

Quick dry/cure time, can be quickened with CA accelerante

Can be mixed with baking soda for an effective gap filler (CA cement)

Safe to use on EVA foam

Readily available anywhere that sells adhesives

Cons:

Fumes/strong smell, ventilation and/or a respirator required if working with large amounts of CA glue

Brittle and non-flexible

Melts polystyrene (EPS/XPS foam aka Styrofoam)

Fumes can leave cloudy residue

Rapid exothermic reaction with leather, cotton, and wool that can cause burns and even fire

Shelf life of about a year unless kept somewhere dark and cool (like the fridge)

Polyvinyl Acetate: Also known as white glue or Elmer’s glue. Useful but a bit basic and requires open evaporation.

Pros:

Pretty safe, just don’t straight-up drink it or rub it into your eyes or nose

Great for paper and other open structure materials (fabric, some open-cell foams)

Widely available

Water-soluble

Inexpensive

Readily available anywhere that sells adhesives

Cons:

Relatively weak and brittle when cured

Needs open-air evaporation to dry

Water-soluble

Long dry/cure time

Gorilla Glue: We’ve used this one a few times and it seems to work fairly well

Pros:

Strong bond

Non-solvent, won’t melt things most of the time (stable with XPS foam)

Readily available anywhere that sells adhesives

Cons:

Needs clamping/pressure to cure properly

Long cure time

Expands during cure process, can squirt/drool out of joint (might be a good thing too, though)

E6000: A strong and flexible glue, great for fabrics or gluing things to fabrics.

Pros:

Very flexible, can hold up to a little stretching even

Strong bond with a bit of surface sanding

Can glue many kinds of things together (EVA foam, fabric, styrene, paper, leather all work well)

Dries clear (though air bubbles and edges can be visible)

Readily available anywhere that sells adhesives

Cons:

Solvent-based, will eat through polystyrene, pretty pungent smell

Long cure time

Can smear easily during curing

May ooze out of the tube and glue the cap to itself (plies might be required to unscrew the cap if this happens)

JB Weld: An incredibly strong 2-part epoxy. I use this a lot to strengthen a mechanical joint.

Pros:

Incredibly strong, can be used to join engine parts together

Fairly shock resistant

Works great on most surfaces

You can drill, tap, sand and carve it once fully cured

Cons:

Very long cure time, about 24 hours

Not flexible at all

Requires a very good joint and a lot of surface prep

Can be brittle under torsion

Needs more cleanup than single-part adhesives

2-part Epoxy: This is a massive group of adhesives so I’m only going to mark the basics

Pros/Cons:

Strong

Cure time can vary from a few minutes to days

Needs more cleanup than single-part adhesives

Ranges from glass-hard to pretty flexible after it cures

Hot-melt adhesive (aka Hot glue): A craft standard and fairly material-safe way to adhere things together.

Pros:

Works on everything that doesn’t melt or [easily] catch fire

Fairly strong with a good joint surface

Pretty safe if you don’t touch the nozzle or glue while it’s hot

Safe to use on polystyrene

Great for EVA foam armor/props

Inexpensive

Glue itself can be versatile and used for filling molds.

Glue sticks can come in a variety of colors

Cons:

Can be a bit messy, nozzle keeps leaking sometimes and leaves threads of hot glue everywhere

May be visible under thinner materials if the glue isn’t smoothed out

Can straight-up melt or ignite some materials (spot test or look up the melting point of the material)

May be only semi-permanent in some cases, depending on the surfaces

Can melt when exposed to heat (don’t leave pieces glued together with hot glue in a hot car)

Contact cement: An adhesive that is applied to both surfaces, allowed to dry, then pressed together.  Barge and Weldwood (US) are brands commonly used in cosplay. Rubber cement is not a contact cement.

Pros:

Very strong, practically permanent once bonded together

Great for EVA foam armor/props (the main go-to for a lot of foamsmiths)

Cons:

Fumes require ventilation and/or a respirator

Requires a ready supply of brushes for application

Shelf life up three months to a year depending on storing conditions. Throw away if the cement begins to set up in the container

Melts polystyrene

Cures in 5-10 minutes, but EVA foam may require a second coat due to its tendency to absorb materials

It has begun...

Step 1 of Naraku build complete. Only 4.99 billion more to go! 😥😂😂