I'm pondering building a rather organic-looking "swimable" tail (read: needs to be able to be used underwater, but extreme, or even good, performance isn't a priority) by using, not a monofin, but a composite fluke using hard (well, somewhat flexible) spines or rays inside a thick yet flexible skin of translucent silicone. As I'm not wishing to reinvent the wheel, I'd love to know if someone around here has tried something similar before. Some questions, too, in case someone has.
- What would be a good way of attaching the spines to the wearer? I fear that just treating them as "the blade of a very cut-out monofin" (read: just gluing them to some foot pockets) would lend to breakage at the tension point of the joint.
- Would corsetry baleen (well, modern steel equivalent) be a good ray material, or would it need to be stiffer?
- Would I wind up with a tail performing far worse than expectations? That wouldn't be an aceptable result because it HAS to be at least "swimable". Would I wind up with a tail performing above what I expect? As in, would it be not just "swimable" but actually adequate? I'd be stupid if I considered that result not to be aceptable :-)
- Woul I need some material stronger than silicone for it to work?
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