Silflex

[Falcone al Rasool ibn Muhajir <polearmed@worldnet.att.net>]

Poster: Falcone al Rasool ibn Muhajir <polearmed@worldnet.att.net>

Allah's Peace unto the Merry Rose!!

While playing with the proposed alternate sword material, I have noticed
a few things and I want to share.  I should point out that I haven't
used this on people yet, and won't until they have used it on me and I
think it is OK.

My construction method was three tubes of silflex(1/2",3/4",1") inserted
in each other with strapping tape, etc.  I, too, had the problem of the
most inner peice crawling out the front, and the second piece crawling
out the back.  This evidently is from force applied while the material
flexes with the blow.  Noticing that a quarter fits rather snug inside
the 1" piece, I whittled down the ends of the inner pieces by 1/16" and
superglued a quarter to both ends, and strapped each end with several
layers of strapping tape.  The result, no noticable movement of any of
the material out either end.  The force is obviously being applied
still, as I did little to help that, but the reaction force from the
flexing is overpowered by the quarter.

Though I might have helped the problem of protruding or launched
inner-material, I don't know if having a "two/bit tip" on either end is
safe.  My pell has been brutalized with a hell of alot of force(stuff I
won't throw at people in a battle) since the quarters were added, but
long term wear may prove that this is not practical.  We have a hard
enough time keeping tips in check already.  Would the quarter be more
dangerous than the frayed tips we see now and again?  Probably, because
you can notice that the tip is fraying and needs to be retaped, at
least, but the quarter could launch with no prior warning.

I like the idea of heating the tips and trying to melt the ends together
in a bond, but I wonder if that doesn't make the material brittle, and
thus more prone to breaking with sharp rims as in poltruded fiberglass.

Thoughts?  Ideas?

Falcone
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Donald Wagner                            Falcone al Rasool ibn Muhajir
Raleigh, NC                              Barony of Windmasters' Hill
Lead Technical Instructor - WorldNet     Kingdom of Atlantia
<dswagner@attmail.com>                   <polearmed@worldnet.att.net>
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