question about fiberglass cores for my friend

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question about fiberglass cores for my friend

Postby Adran Bolar » Wed Jan 25, 2012 4:52 pm

My friend wants to try to build "two curved daggers". I know that if he curves PVC by boiling it will probably break after a little while of fighting. He was wondering if there was anyway to curve fiberglass(I have had VERY little experience with fiberglass so I don't have an answer for him) so is there any way for him to do this?
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Re: question about fiberglass cores for my friend

Postby Thumbs » Wed Jan 25, 2012 5:48 pm

I've heard people asking this question for years and have never heard a definitive yes. I have a realm mate who swears it can be done but his first attempt didn't pan out. However if you do succeed I'll be interested to see the results.
Also, when you say curved daggers do you mean Bel style daggers? since Bel daggers are stab only, curving them seems like they would be super easy to mess up with, and not actually stab them with the stabby bits.
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Re: question about fiberglass cores for my friend

Postby Adran Bolar » Wed Jan 25, 2012 5:56 pm

Oh yeah I didn't even take into account those rules. I shall let him know that they will have to essentially be short blue swords with probable stab tips. But I think I'm gunna make him actually make some basic stuff first 'cause he hasn't made anything before so I think that's why he doesn't know the limits of PVC.
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Re: question about fiberglass cores for my friend

Postby Thumbs » Wed Jan 25, 2012 6:01 pm

first weapon you make should always be a basic blue. like with fighting, single blue will teach you the basis of building any weapon in the game.
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Re: question about fiberglass cores for my friend

Postby Adran Bolar » Wed Jan 25, 2012 6:03 pm

that's what my other friend and I decided to suggest to him
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Re: question about fiberglass cores for my friend

Postby randy » Wed Jan 25, 2012 6:13 pm

I would imagine, if you had a pvc "hotbox" along with a bending spring, you could heat the fiberglass up enough to form it into the shape your hoping for. If I ever come across a cheap hotbox, I will try it and post the results. A properly curved scimitar or katana would be pretty cool.
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Re: question about fiberglass cores for my friend

Postby Arrakis » Thu Jan 26, 2012 9:47 am

Randy, the problem with that is that the binders in fiberglass aren't thermoplastic polymer binders; they're thermoset resins. Heating them up will do nothing until you get them hot enough that they just break down and your fiberglass becomes a pile of nasty smoking goo with glass fibers all over the place.

Adran: At the length scale y'all are discussing, 1/2" Sched 40 PVC should work fine. It's not likely to break at lengths under 20" of core, due to the lower bending stresses involved at that size.

If I were going to build curved daggers, I would almost certainly just curve two 17" pieces of PVC to the curves I wanted, box the blade areas (which should be at least 10.5" to ensure that they pass the rules on minimum overall length in the Book of War) with blue foam, add two blue foam blade layers to each, add two layers of 3/8" yoga/Pilates mat to each for the stab tips, add pommels, oblong the grips a little with Gorilla tape strips, wrap the grips in hockey tape, cover the blades with cloth covers, and viola. Daggers.
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Re: question about fiberglass cores for my friend

Postby Adran Bolar » Thu Jan 26, 2012 3:46 pm

thank you Arrakis! I will let him know. I think he'll be quite excited to know that his plan will work out after all!
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