[Paddlewise] foam tools

Gabriel writes, about carving braces and other things from minicell foam:

<<a couple of things that may make it easier,
dollar store serrated knives make quick work of the rough out in the 3"
minicell....dragonskin will quickly carve out the nuances of shape. drywall 
open
face sandpaper refines it.>>

The serrated edge of a river survival knife also works fairly well for 
rough carving - but my favorite tool for this is an old Sureform plane 
"blade", broken in half. This leaves a very coarse toothed edge on the 
(transverse) broken edge. Scraping with the pointy ends of the teeth 
pointed *toward* the direction of scraping removes material very quickly. 
Scraping with the teeth pointed away from direction of scraping removes 
material a little more slowly and leaves a smoother finish. Like Gabriel, I 
use dragonskin to smooth the final brace or seat. Sixty grit sandpaper also 
works well for smoothing.

Another great tool for carving minicell is a hand drill fitted out with a 
wire brush. That does a great job of removing material quickly - but you 
have to secure the minicell blank onto a piece of plywood, your driveway. 
If you don't, the rotary torque of the wire brush tends to spin the piece 
of minicell around.

(Carve minicell outside -  preferably on a windy day so the tiny pieces of 
foam "sawdust" blow onto your neighbor's lawn. It makes an awful mess if 
done inside.)

Finally, Bob V writes about the denser foam used for PFDs: << Very 
difficult to cut, but doable with shears.>>  .....A bread knife or a 
hacksaw blade (off of the hacksaw) will cut this foam, or any foam, like 
the foam was butter.
- Bill Hansen 

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