Since I avoid farmers like the plague, guess I’m looking for kite shops.
The price list here looks cheap.
Kiteworks is where I usually go.
What you want is SOLID rod, not hollow tube. It doesn’t make much different if it’s carbon fibre or fibreglass, so long as it’s NOT TUBE. The tubes shatter on impact.
You could use 6mm in a dagger, of up to 45cm length. Larp daggers are often longer than you’d expect, which helps so that your fist doesn’t get too close to your target (don’t want to accidently punch them).
Personally I would buy their 7mm fibreglass rod for weapons of up to 1 meter in length, and I’ve used it for shields too. I used to use 8mm, but now I find it a bit too heavy. They have 7mm rod for $7/meter. About 1 meter is a good length for a longsword.
I’m personally inclined towards RD1 in Albany, ad a 1.5m lenght will set you back a mere $6.49 for a 10mm thickness, and less for thinner. The rods also tend to be a bit less whippy than the ones used for the kites.
But like everything, there’s a lot of personal preference involved.
If what you have is effectively a flat disk with a hole in the middle, you could try getting a piece of pvc pressure pipe (offcuts from any plumber are the way to go - don’t go to stores, they will rip you the smeg off), maybe two-three times the length of your centre hole…
Ah fuggit, pictures ftw
Just bear in mind that this kind of handle won’t be as strong as a more integrated one, but if you wanted to increase the strength you could put a cloth layer (ie cloth soaked in ados/f2) running over the shield face and handle, as well as over the back of the shield above and below the handle.
If you think it’s worth trying to do a compiled guide, I’ll look at it for the next week. It’s something I was quite keen for if we got the nzlarps website back into more frequent use - especially if it were to be used for articles and such in the vein of Immersion 
This morning I’m using the shield boss pattern (in the first post) to make monster eyes. 
Sailmakers is also another good place. Ask for sail battens.
I recycle the fibreglass rods from old bubble tents. I just cut the short piece of aluminium tube of the end and it’s perfect for shield handles.
Cheers Derek, just used the pattern, works perfectly.
