Solid Fiberglass Rods
Fiberglass rods can generally be purchased at hardware stores, farm supply stores, and the like. Because you generally have to order fiberglass tubes online, rods can be a great option for inexpensively and quickly getting started making weapons for foam fighting. That said, if you need lengths beyond 48" or need to keep weight down, you are generally going to need to place an online order and might as well get the appropriate tube or upgrade to a carbon core. Rods can generally be found in-stores in 3 sizes:
3/8", sold as driveway markers, is the most common and easiest to find. 3/8" rods have largely been phased out due to issues with flex on longer weapons, I could only find myself recommending them for coring cheap stab-only daggers or short weapons made for kids that would never see an adult duel or the field.
1/2", sometimes referred to as 'pig post', is a bit harder to find. I've found that farm supply stores like Thiesen's and Farm n' Fleet are the only places that carry them in my metro. A 1/2" fiberglass rod could reasonably be used to make a weapon up to 60" long before you begin to run into flex issues, and you'll generally find them in 48" or 60" lengths. 11/16" is generally also found only at farm supply stores. I can't recommend using these for anything. They are heavy and generally don't come in lengths over 60", which makes them effectively obsolete.
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