Carving a tree out of EPS (Styrofoam) - Hot wire sculpting technique

My brother and I were commissioned to build an 8 foot tall cypress tree out of Styrofoam as part of a swamp scene for a shop in New Orleans. We did all of our carving with a hot knife and a homemade hot wire. For our hard coating we used Speed Finish which is a cement based product sold as a tile underlayment.
Here’s a link to the 3D files for the hot wire cutter handles in case you want to print your own set:
www.thingivers...
Chemical 14 swag:
teespring.com/...
Thanks for watching and don't forget to SUBSCRIBE!