FinalHavenLarp.com

OK!

So where does one fine fiber glass tubing to make weapons?

the internet?

okay, I think most home improvement stores will at least sell the orange or yellow rods/markers people put to line curbs and driveways and such in the winter for plows. (I'm sure they have other normal uses, but that's what I see them used mostly here in Michigan.)

Another option is to look into kite stores. Not little dinky toy kite places, but places that consider kiting a real hobby.. like Mackinaw Kite Co in Grand Haven where they have kites for kite surfing... www.mackite.com

I think www.intothewind.com would have them too as fiberglass rods are considered kite making materials.

Again, I'm sure there are other places to buy them, but that's what comes to mind.

You can also look into carbon fiber as well. I believe the kite poles at MacKite are carbon fiber. They are lighter, typically, than fiberglass, and can be purchased in various lengths and thicknesses. They are, however, a bit pricey.
I think Matt used some of the black carbon fiber rods for some of the weapons at one time, but I don't know if it was really very different (other than thickness) from using the fiberglass rods.

As Angie pointed out, the driveway maker rods you can be purchased (or found) for fairly cheap prices and are made of fiberglass. It shouldn't be a problem if they are covered, or inside of the weapon, but when they are stressed, they can flake off or splinter into shards of fiber glass. We can typically find them in places like Home Depot and Menards nearer to Winter.
A Google search for "Fiberglass Driveway Marker", or "Hydrant Marker" will get you things like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Lifesafe-4-Ft-Fib ... B000O50T0W

You can also look at Farm Stores (Like Tractor Supply/Family Farm and Home, etc)

Not only do they have the thinner orange and white fiberglass driveway stakes, they also have a lkarger 1/8 inch DIA version in their fencing section (I think it's for portable electric fence for animals).

My WH PC (Garritt) has used a sword since the night of the Burning Skulls that has a core of two of those wrapped in duct tape with a blue camp foam blade. Works perfect, and after wrapping the handle with cotton clothesline, the two paired stakes make the handle a nice oval cross section for better control.

If you're making latex weapons I would go with carbon fiber rods, they will hold up to stresses better. Personally, I don't think we should be allowed to use flat foam weapons which are pretty much all you can make with the fiberglass rods. Flat foam hurts a LOT more when it's cold outside unless you've found a flat foam in between the too soft stuff and the hard stuff. I'm using the thicker walled newer pipe foam and bamboo now. It has more give but you can find the wall thickness that used to be used for the larger weapons with the smaller core size.

I found the blue camping foam to not hurt anymore than the other stuff, but maybe that is just me.

If you can find cheap graphite golf club shafts, you can use them to make a decent core for a weapon. Go for the women's clubs, they are lighter and more flexible...

Plus if you get them with the grips already on, you get a decent looking handle all in one package!

August wrote: Plus if you get them with the grips already on, you get a decent looking handle all in one package!

but don't forget, you need at least 1 inch foam padding on the back end!

I have an aluminium golf handle cliped at the top with a fiber glass driveway marker pushed to the bottem and pinched in with the aluminium and surrounded by 2 layers of tent bed roll foam plus duct tap and soon to be cloth.

all for a low price of 11 dollars and ! can make several more with the left over material, after 2 swords.

The problem with the steel ones is that they have very little flex. Golf clubs come measured in 5 flexes, X, S, R, A, and L. They also tend to weigh about 50-100% as much as the Graphite.

The L (Ladies) and A (Senior) are the best. X (Extra Stiff) and S (Stiff) are what you usually find steel in. The flex softens the blow when you hit someone with the weapon. It will bend every so slightly to help cushion the impact.

I still advocate Graphite (aka Carbon Fiber) as the best for this, it tends to cut (like with a band saw) better as well.

Never in three years have I been asked to check my swings with flat foam weapons, but I see it all the time with tubefoam or latex swoards. I'll bet anything that if it hurts, the distance of foam between the core and the striking edge is too thin. I don't think I've even made a weapon with less than 1 1/4 inch from core to blade-edge.

You should also add a thin layer of foam 90 degrees to the pieces that are layered to make the blade.

Like this, 'o' being the core: l=o=l

It makes things compress better.