For Those Wanting To Make Katanas (Bending PVC pipe)

[Izanaki]

Get a wide piece of PVC(1.5" or so). Duct tape the bottom over repeatedly. This will be your "PVC oven." Boil a big old pot of water on the stove. Have a large measuring glass and tea kettle with spout ready too. Put your 1/2"-3/4" PVC piece into your larger piece, your PVC oven. Pour in boiling water till full, cover with a baking mitt or some insulator. Dump the old water and replace with new boiling hot water every 15 minutes or so. I've been able to get very easily manipulated PVC after 45min-60min with 3/4"pvc, probably less time with 1/2. You have less than a minute to bend your PVC once you remove it from the heat, however it can be easily manipulated by hand, bent over a knee, or put into a peg setup.
Another method is to fill a bathtub with very hot water and soak the PVC in that, however its very tough to maintain enough heat to make the PVC pliable.
For more gradual curves that can be flexed into the PVC unheated, you can supposedly pour boiling water in, put it in a peg setup, and then just leave it there overnight.

Bending PVC with a Peg System

There are a few ways to do this. The easiest is probably to use tent spikes or anything you can hammer into your own backyard. That way, there?s no assembly required. Otherwise, if you want an exact repeatable mold, you can get a sheet of plywood, drill some holes in it, and stick pegs or wooden dowels through it to make your desired curve.

[Alom]

or when you walk into the store to get pvc and all they have is pre-bent from abuse and mishandling stuff that is supposed to be straight.
edited for clarity

[Danzig]

Way to rip off Eriador [/url]

[Izanaki]

I don't mean to rip off the information, I simply came across it along time ago, saved it as a word document, and decided the other day to post this information in a more widely known website, for more people to have access to it. I was able to find it online, but i dont know the url of it so I wasnt able to site the source, and how would someone else who wouldn't even known where to start, go to find such information?

[Danzig]

Theres a thread somewhere with links on it, they could use that but maybe that got deleted with the worm, I don't know. Source has been cited now, though, no lawsuit worries ^^ Personally, I'd rather see the info on this forum than the pop-up infested angelfire site anyways... I love the eriador site, but it kills my computer when I'm there too long.

[Grey]

i heard that you can just bend pvc (not that well though) using a lighter is this true?

[Digoza]

i heard that you can just bend pvc (not that well though) using a lighter is this true?

Yes, if you have the time, and are that lazy; if you're going to use heat to bend the PVC, I suggest using a stove. One of the guys in my realm made a few weapons that are curved, he gave me one of them in fact, and all he did was he used his stove to heat the PVC up in the place he needed to bend it at, bent it, then cooled it off.

[Izanaki]

Seiichir? has some great curved katanas, if you know him, he's a part of Dagorhir though.

[Seiichiro]

The way I curve PVC is the same as the Eriador instructions using the bath tub of hot water to heat it. If I'm lazy, I'll just rest one end on my shoulder, the other on the floor and hook my leg over the middle to set the bend and throw in a movie while it cools.

I haven't used curved PVC in years, though. I keep breaking them. Someday I'll do a composite curved PVC and fiberglass core and see how that works.

[Izanaki]

in your pic w/ the naginata and the katanas, werent they curved a bit at the top? or have they just lasted a long long time?

[Seiichiro]

It's just some extra foam at the tip/back from how I do stabbing tips.

[Izanaki]

oh ok, that makes sense.

[Nakamoto Amuro]

I really hate to beat a dead horse seeing as this post is 3 months after the fact, but i've found that heating the PVC core tends to weaken it. I've had success with just elevating one end securely onto something, strapping on a nice pair of boots, and just bending it gradually underfoot, focusing mainly on the striking tip. i get a nice slight curve going and then by holding the intended handle end in both hands and with the tip resting on the floor and pointed between my feet, i press into it with my foot even more focusing this time on the "blade", making sure to have a good grip on the handle end to keep it from slipping. I've made many curved blades using both the heating and the latter method, and every one of the non-heated ones have survived many battles.

[Izanaki]

as to your comment on heating them and weakening them, i have heard this as well. When a member of my realm made curved swords, they were forced to use 1" thick PVC pipe, because pretty much anything else, would not last as long, because bending it with heat makes it more rigid and therefore more likely to snap under pressure.

IF the bending method you mentioned, is applicable to all bending jobs, then i would say thats the better method because you wouldnt need as thick of a core, and would be easier, for those that dont know how to heat and bend PVC.

[Nakamoto Amuro]

I've done this with 1/2 inch pipe all the way up to 1 1/4. Everything 3/4 and up has held well with the 1/2 breaking by virtue of them being so thin. I'm not saying they're indestructible, because PVC will break eventually, but thats just the norm. Just be gentle with the pipe when stepping down and bending, and a little patience will be needed as well. Good luck with the foam smithing fellow samurai.

[Izanaki]

and same to you, but how well do you think you could do trying to smith a blade that starts out with a handle 5" long, then, about 3" of straight striking surface, then it curves like a crescent moon, for about 30 inches?

I'm assuming that it might work, if you apply pressure to certain areas.

[Nakamoto Amuro]

I'm tryin to envision what you're discribing, and so far i'm coming up with a sort of hooked deal? hmmm... even bending it that far you risk EASY breakage, not only that but also the flex may be a bit too much. But i'm more than willing to try and figure out how it would work. i love a challenge.