Kevlar and the war

ok so the guy that makes my poi was saying that it has become harder to get kevlar do to the war going on.......point n' case, he's only found one person selling a decent kevalr blend (aparently there's some new kind out, but with no kevlar, cannt remember what he said it was.......any way) and he had to buy 300 rolls 'cause thats the companys min buy right, 'cause of the war..............ok so now to my point, is any one else noticed that or what...............if so i would once again like to say thank you to Bush, not only is up our country, but now his misguided choice is ing up our hobbies too.....

Sounds like a load of rubbish to me and an excuse to raise his prices. The Kevlar used for wicking is completely different than that used for anything war related. Kevlar is made by DuPont - a huge company that can output as much of anything as demand requires.

And the military hasn't just thought "Gee, we're going to war. Do you reckon we should order some body armour." No, they do what the British army does - just not give them body armour. Although I'm sure body armoour companies are doing really well at the moment!

see thats what i thought as well. but his prices have not gone up........yet.........thats why i post to get knoledge.

thanx dom

ha fire proof kevlar and bullet proof kevlar are different so call the bs on that

Fine 5-year bump

they are different for sure, but precisely HOW?

I only notice wick-stuff to be much fluffier than the vest-stuff...

certainly the vest stuff wouldn't hold the Kero... but would the wick stuff hold bullets?

where are the pro gunners when you really need them... : |



All I know is that the sale of the wick-stuff seems to be .... restricted in Thailand for exactly that reason... the cops don't want ppl to stuff it in their vests to really make them bulletproof...

Ok, well it's not a completely untrue statement as you might think.

HoP wick for fire toys (and most others no doubt), uses DuPont Kevlar(R) in it's construction. The same kevlar as used in bullet-proof vests etc. The wick uses the threads of kevlar interwoven with other materials to give the properties you want whereas in bullet-proof/stab-resistant vests it pretty much uses kevlar threads woven with more kevlar threads.

A wee while ago (while I was still at HoP), we did have to wait a long time for our wick orders and while they didn't outright confirm it, we understood that we had to wait because our mill was doing other "more important" things with kevlar due to the war on terror.

So it IS conceivable that wick could be on shortage due to wars.

THe world just doesn't have it's priorities right does it?!

Totally not.

Not forgetting the ceramic plates, mind you.

Plate spinners share your pain.

The Bullet Proof Part of a Bullet Proof Vest is the Ceramic Plate.

The Kevlar/Spectra part of it is Bullet Resistant, more accurately called a Bullet Resistant Vest, or Flak Jacket.

They are made of thin flat sheets of tightly woven Kevlar/Spectra that are laid up at right angles to each other.

Visually they look very different to Kevlar Wicking, but they are made of the same fibre.

I doubt very much that the Wick stuff has the ability to stop a bullet as even the Flack Jacket stuff will only stop a small round from the likes of a pistol, or shrapnel from a frag grenade or similar.

It may at best slow it down, at worst it will cause the round to mushroom before it enters the flesh and create an even bigger wound.

Though even a proper Bullet proof vest with ceramic and all has a lovely label on the plate "This Vest will stop Multiple rounds from a large calibre rifle", I always wondered A). How many rounds is Multiple, (it could be only 2), and B). What do they define as Large Calibre?

*cough*

need to tell these guys

I wonder where they hide the plates

Kevlar is registered trademark of Du Pont... whilst it is highly ironic that (semi) Hippies now support Du Pont (after this has been the very company which initiated the Hemp-ban and "war on drug (ab) use"... I personally would look for alternative suppliers for that matter.

Kevlar stops bullets, because it is a microscopically thin fibre. Have you ever tried to drill a screw through wick into a staff (or Poi)? Well if not then you might not understand how the trick works. A very thin fiber with high tensile strength and neatly woven together will slow down anything that .... tadaaa .. rotates.

Wiki article on ballistic vests

George: Thanks for enlightening me over the additional content in Kevlar for firespinning (as in providing means for Kevlar to store liquids)... would be interesting to learn what exactly these are...

Charlie, they might refer to .35 .38 caliber and 9mm
maybe only 2 in the exact same place? (which already is quite... unlikely to happen)

FireTom, the extra content is needed for the fuel absorbancy (mainly). Kevlar by itself is only good for high tensile strength - it's not very fireproof (and if you don't believe me, get a spare length of kevlar sewing thread and hold the end in a match or lighter flame an see what happens!).

Large calibre usually is taken to mean the .762mm or .308 type projectiles - 9mm is considered small cal. They might however be referring to even larger calibres like solid shotgun rounds. Actually the larger the calibre, probably the greater chance to stop the projectile because the force is distributed over a larger area of the vest. On te downside though the larger the projectile usually the greater the propellant force so maybe not! All things considered I'd rather not test it in real life!

makes perfect sense, george - thanks for that...

thanks for clarification and letting me know that I was completely wrong in my conversions... 9mm is WAY smaller than .45 or .50 cal... me...

what would be the filler material for fuel absorption?

btw: should test it in RL, just not wear the wick

I know the British police vests have a list printed onto them of all the things they are meant to stop, and I also know I wouldn’t trust them to stop anything.
Mind you I wouldn’t trust the military version either.

does that list include
"your attitude"
???



it's not about trust - it's about not having to rely on them

where are the gunners when you *really* need them? would be interesting to know if my Poi got a chance in fending off a bullet

Ill have to check.

My partners in the military and to be honest it scares the pants off me, while Kevlar is a brilliant material like you I much prefer the idea of not getting shot or hit by a fragmentation device.

hand him a piece of wick for his next shooting range session, maybe

Well it didn’t withstand my attitude…..

When she gets back into the country I will pass her a couple of wicks.

Wow i never thought of that, i'll string some up when i'm next on the range and submit photos, could be a couple months though, i only just finished my annual re-qual shoot recently.

I just typed "your attitude" as a joke .... and then discovered the double meaning ... hence the thingy...

please keep us posted...

Don’t worry about it.
I understood when we met that she might be posted overseas.

It sucks that she’s gone for Christmas.