ANST - Shield Blanks

[j'lynn yeates]

On 7 Nov 99, at 10:36, Jeff Smith wrote:

> Does anyone have an email address or web site for titanium shield blanks?

don't have a address, but know of a soviet salvage yard that for american 
greeen, i am sure they would let you rip apart scrapped soviet sub hulls or 
aeroframes ....

seriously, the question must me asked *why* ...  

titanium has many real unique properties, but thanks to the media of this age, 
people tend to get hooked onto the "fantasy" aspects of it ...  the reality is 
that the metal in sheet that large is *expensive* and hard to find (industrial 
metal, high demand, low supply, most locked up in military & aeorspace 
contracts ...), and very difficult to work in civilian home shops (just try 
getting a curve to hold in it .. not to mention cutting, drilling, finishing 
(having worked it as exotic jewelry on a small scale and having made a sword 
out of a piece of bar stock that was mistakenly thrown out that was salvaged 
...), and it does pose safety hazards when working it - at industrial levels 
the dust is nasty stuff and prone to spontaneous ignition. 

a much saner apparoach would be a good, generally available aluminum alloy .. 
about same weight, widely available in sheets and shield blanks, far cheaper 
and easier to work, and for SCA uses totally adeqaute ... basically, titanium 
would offer *zero* benefits in this arena, all expense and problems.

'wolf 


... truth is the sword of us all (lords of the new church)
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