Nine track tape BOT sensing foil

[Mr Ian Primus]

After a recent fight with some Cipher tape drives,
trying to boot a system, I managed to badly mangle the
leader of my boot tape. Now, rewriting the tape isn't
a problem, but fixing the tape is. I can cut off the
mangled leader, but then there won't be enough tape
left before the BOT marker. The BOT on a nine track is
just a hunk of sensing foil, just like I remember from
trying to repair eight track tapes (BTW, tinfoil and
double sided tape _doesn't_ work on eight tracks). Rat
Shack no longer sells sensing foil, surprise, surprise
- so, does anyone know of a currently available
solution? That metal duct work tape perhaps? I don't
want to use anything that might risk damage to the
heads though. Any ideas?

-Ian