Nerfarium: FORGED IN FOAM

Sunday, April 14, 2019

FORGED IN FOAM

My version of the Zombie Strike Machete

Over the years Nerf has released a number of swords and other foam melee weapons. "Gather all the firepower you can get, but you'll still need a trusty tool that doesn't run out of ammo". With those words in 2013, the Nerf Zombie Strike Machete was released.

NERF ZOMBIE STRIKE MACHETE

There's just one problem with the NERF Zombie Strike machete...
this finely detailed faux blade manufactured by Perpetual Play Group and licensed by Nerf (Hasbro), it's not really a machete at all... it's a Bowie knife. Since the first incarnation, the Bowie knife has come to incorporate several recognizable and characteristic design features.

Bowie knifes

If you know anything about zombies, you know that perhaps the most classic way to dispatch them is with a good "Whack" to the head with a machete. I decided it was time to make a legit zombie slaying machete.
This project required three basic items, all of which I found at my local Wallymart. Some foam mat exercise flooring, contact cement, and a wood dowel.

Foam, cement, dowel

basic materials, not including paint

There are literally a million different videos and articles on how to build with EVA foam on the web, it is a whole separate hobby of its own, and since I'm still learning the ropes myself, I won't go into details on "how to" now. I leave that to you to look up yourself... if you have any specific questions about it, ask me in the comment section and I'll do my best to answer them.
Basically what I did was sandwiched a length of dowel down the center of two halves of foam that I cut out. I glued everything together with contact cement, shaped it a little, and then painted it to get this...