by 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.