Heat-forming PVC

[Rhuarc]

I've seen on here that PVC is frowned upon compared to fiberglass. I've done a small bit of fighting with weapons made from PVC and I've experienced both unformed PVC and completely flattened PVC breaking on impact. What I'm wondering is if anyone has done any heat-forming of PVC to shape it. I've made a variety of weapons and it seems that when you only slightly flatten it, to a sort of ovular shape as opposed to circular, it grows much more rigid and gains a good deal of strength. Has anyone else experienced this or made Belegarth-legal weapons in this manner? Thanks in advance for any advice or opinions

[Conquering_Hero]

Don't know if you're still looking for an answer on here, and I'm no expert by any means, but it's my understanding and experience that PVC is a sub par core to fiberglass no matter what. It is much more prone to both flex and break. Although flattening it might make the core stronger in one direction, it would also weaken it in another. If you accidentally flatted someone with a super flexy blade with only one layer on it they'd probably be unhappy.

If you're looking for an easy to get core, I'd recommend dual coring 3/8ths in fiberglass rods or golf clubs. Neither is by any means ideal but I've done both with a small bit of success. Plus if you get the fiberglass and get very into foam smithing you can break them down and make a couple javs.

Sorry if I'm too late to be much help I thought I'd proclaim my opinion to the Internet.

[Celtic Christ]

I'm a bit late, but hopefully I'll be helpful. I've yet to do any foamsmithing with pvc but I work in pvc manufacturing. When you heat the pvc enough to change the shape you change the density and integrity of the pipe. It becomes more brittle and chips or shatters more easily. If it's available to you I'd try sch 80, sch 120, or cpvc. As for dual cores, they're frowned upon for core separation. I've had some excellent luck with a claymore I made from dual core 1/2 fiberglass. I plastic welded them together and it's held up amazingly for 2 seasons now. The only repair I've had to make was a blown tip earlier this season. The plastic welding kit i used came from Harbor Freight for something like $15 (I had to modify the tip a bit though due to the cheap materials used).