Thermoplastics - practice knives

Taking American Kenpo Karate lessons through a local community college. The teacher instructs us on empty hand as well as knife techniques (the theory being anything you can do with one can be done with the other to greater or lesser effect). Unfortunately, only one student has practice knives, so we don't get to do much actual practicing.

Until I show up, and think "hey, I could make those out of thermoplastics..."

They're not gorgeous, but they get the job done. I got four butter knives from the thrift store, cut them down and blunted them (just in case), then sandwiched them between two layers of EVA foam - the stuff that anti-fatigue floor mats are made of. In fact, I purchased a bunch of anti-fatigue floor mats from Lowe's for this purpose. The first attempt was made with hot glue, which bonds well, but then melts later when you heat-seal the foam. The rest of the knives were made with gorilla glue, which took longer to dry, but seems to do well with heat-sealing.

Once the glue dried, I used a dremel and sandpaper to shape the knives, definitely the longest and messiest part of the whole thing, then ran them all under a heat gun. The heat gun tightens and seals the outside of the foam, making it a little tougher and less likely to tear, as well as shrinking or blowing away excess dust or tears. Beautiful? No. Functional, and now we have enough for everyone to work with knives? Yes.

Enough of a beginner project to give me confidence to make Mjolnir, Thor's hammer, for cosplay next? Oh... oh yes, indeed.