PVC Pipe
Information about the uses of PVC pipe and where to buy it.
Note that this is not listed in the cores section. PVC is a terrible core and has been deprecated since before 2010. If you recommend it as one, you are causing harm. Feel free to waste your own money, time, and materials, but don't put that evil on others and mislabel it as advice.
PVC has two significant uses at this time:
Making handles for shields
Making handles for weapons
For shields, PVC can be used as-is after being cut to length, or can be bent into custom shapes using heat. See Heat-Bending PVC (Stub) for more information on bending PVC.
For weapon handles, PVC can just be slid over the core and adhered in place if you want a round handle, or it can be quartered (cut in half along its length, twice, creating 4 quarter-pipes) and a quartered strip can be placed on opposite sides of the handle to create an easy oblong handle. Just make sure the inner diameter of the PVC is appropriate for the size of the core it is going around if you are not quartering it. Quartered 1/2" PVC generally weights about 0.5 oz per 6" strip, meaning that a 12" oblong handle made this way would have about 2 oz of PVC in it.
The way that these strips are being laid around the core in the process described above is known as "cladding". This can actually be done for most of, or the entire length of the core, to reinforce it and reduce flex. I have found cladding ¾ the length of the core to specifically be useful for making composite cores for 47"/48" weapons using 524 Kitespar. The PVC is held in place against the core using Carpet Tape, with a spiral wrap of Strapping Tape that prevents it from pulling away and serves to create a proper linkage. The Carpet Tape and Strapping Tape should stop a few inches before the end of the PVC (at the end opposite of the pommel) so that the end of the PVC does not become a stress point and forces are more spread out. See PVC Cladding (Stub) for more information on this process.
When cutting PVC, you want to use a toothed blade rather than an abrasive cutter and make sure to wear a dust mask and dust goggles. An abrasive cutter will work, but will create dust that will float in the air instead of, mostly, tiny chunks of PVC that will fall out of the air immediately. A toothed blade will put much less PVC into the air. PVC dust is not something that you want in your lungs and is not something that you should tolerate in small amounts in the same way you might if it were sawdust (which is still not good for you to do, but will not mess you up nearly as quickly). PVC that is 3" in diameter or larger also makes great weapon storage containers. See 3"+ PVC Pipe in the Weapon Storage section for more information about this.
Sources
1/2" Schedule 40 PVC @ 10' length
Menards
1/2" Schedule 40 PVC @ 10' length
Lowes
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