Crafters’

Hot Knife

by Bruce Weigle

Gamers looking for a means to shape styrofoam into terrain forms have usually had two choices: cut the stuff with a kitchen knife or melt it with a hot knife or hot wire. The first is messy and hard on knives, the last impractical for more than the most basic cuts of small pieces of styrofoam. To actually “sculpt” styrofoam, the hobbyist needed a commercial hot knife, which could carve, slice, contour, and smooth… all with one tool.

Commercial hot knives, which melt their way through material with an electrically heated blade, tend to be a bit expensive: upwards of $200 for the kind insulation installers use. The advent of a hobbyist’s version is a welcome development, allowing terrain table makers to turn ordinary styrofoam into terrain with relative ease. The “Crafter’s Hot Knife” retails for about $60, making it a bargain for serious terrain-makers. It measures 12 inches overall (of which 6 inches is blade), but is fairly handy to use, weighing no more than a large kitchen knife. The heating element is activated by a button on the side of the handle.

A few minutes work with the knife confirmed that it could handle all styrofoam cutting and shaping operations easily. The wooden handle did not overheat, and the unit retained a useful working time with alternating on-off use. The nearly 1/8 inch thick blade made cutting through thick styrofoam slightly more time-consuming than with the much thinner blades on most commercial hot knives, but it also retained working heat longer than the thinner blades, and is obviously more sturdy (my old commercial knife’s blade has a permanent bow in it from many hours of sculpting with its flat side).

Most terrain table makers will find the 6 foot cord too short, a problem easily corrected with a household extension cord. The unit is designed to shut down after two or three minutes use to prevent overheating, but this operating time can be extended by the intermittent use of power, to about five minutes. If the knife shuts itself down, it should be ready for reuse after about three-four minutes. Naturally, the knife should always be used with adequate ventilation while cutting styrofoam. The manufacturer also recommends Crafter’s Hot Knife for cutting everything from candles, to synthetic fabrics, to ice cream cakes (!) Available through various hobby outlets or from www.craftershotknife.com

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