Why all the interest in exotic materials for the foils? It is really hard to beat wood, except for abrasion resistance. When I made wooden aircraft props, we used to offer a self adhesive (peel off backing) thin stainless steel leading edge cover, took care of much of the abrasion problem.
You can laminate wood into any curved shape & carve the foil using hand tools. Wood in tension is almost indestructible, and will flex to within 90% of its modulus of elasticity an infinite number of times, I do not think there is another material which can make that claim. We used to laminate 1/8" maple for our aircraft props and use a solid piece of 1/4 sawn fir for our wind blades, both worked very well.
Cheers, Tony
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