The Air Froce came up with an improvement on duct tape, which we called F-4 tape. This was either thin steel or aluminum "tape" with sticky on the back that was used to make temporary patches to the skins of aircraft or helicopters after encounters with small, fast, sharp objects.

I've even seen this used on F-4 wings, for short flights, hence the name.

If memory serves, J.C. Whitney, a mail order car bits place, used to offer stainless steel tape for such high temperature repairs as mending exhaust systems, or the like. I have used duct tape and a couple of hose clamps to mend radiator hose in an auto, where the tem gets up around 212 F., and the pressure around 10 - 15 PSI. Tape the dickens out of the area around the leak, and then put on a couple of hose clamps to hold the tape in place. I'm so glad that now I am now to afford proper maintenance techniques.

Oh yes, when I returned to the US from Britain, I had the top and bottom of a dulcimer that I never got around to making. I put them between my guitar and banjo cases, and taped the two cases together with duct tape. And then the damned customs man asked me to open the cases! Which I suppose leads to the inevitable taping of hard cases together to make them last another 20 or more years. When the weight of the duct tape exceeds that of the case AND the instrument, I suppose it is time to buy a new case.

Dave