I think you may be confusing your HR for the Raw again: To my knowledge, neither Large nor Giant-Blooded add fatigue levels.
Nope, they don't. Increase damage intervals (and +1 str and sta in the case of giant blood) and that is it. Quite useful if you plan to put yourself in harm's way, but not as useful as in previous edition when it made you into an hermetic alkaline battery, lasting longer to cast spells.
Who said anything about Fatigue levels?
"The number of levels still needed for the spell is treated as the amount by which a damage total exceeds your soak, and you take a corresponding wound."
If you take damage in six or seven point intervals, 5 points wont do much.
My actual mistake was not specifying that this was with taking a light wound. But that´s what happens when you get rushed while typing.
I generally much prefer current version.
Or a pain in the ass for getting out of harms way!
Never make a Giant blooded, non-combatant coward... well go ahead and do it, and watch the comedy ensue as the behemoth nocks a wagon over into a hovel injuring half a dozen innocents, just to avoid having to fight to teenage bullies.
I always have a habit of making grogs more interesting than my PC.
I would consider a topaz a precious gem, so I would require a MT of 8 before you could open something with that as a component. If I was convinced it was only a semi precious stone, I would drop it to MT 6.
I would not allow shape and material bonuses based on what an item used to be, only based on what it is now. So, no bonus from the canvas previously being a sail, no bonus from the wood previously being part of an oar.
Moreover, sail and oar are shapes, not materials iirc.
So get rid of Arcane connections as well? I know I am being flippant but what a item USED to be is a fundamental aspect of how magic works. So if you cut the hair from a lion's mane and then have it woven into thread, then you would no longer consider it hair from a lion? If you shape a piece of wood into the shape of a feather then would you allow only the wood bonus or would you also allow for a feather bonus because of the shape?
Specifically, the sail is a strip of sail cloth taken from his own ship's vessel. The sail had been a sail for at least a decade before he decided to incorporate it, sail cloth is drastically different from just any old fabric used to make a cloak.
Secondly the wood from the oar, is wood from a oar from the ship which was broken during an engagement of creative merchant exploration of found goods. They broke the oar while pirating a Arabic vessel. The oar was once wood and was once an oar. On top of which the wood was whittled into the shape of a small oar which as then woven into the sail cloth. So it was a wooden oar carved into a small wooden oar.
As of 1490 which is the earliest I saw speak of topaz (( I am far from a erudite scholar on medieval topics )) it is considered semi-precious. Streeter refers to the book of 1490 in his book about gems.
Of course ultimately this Talisman is twinked out. I couldnt figure out if you could get multiple component bonuses from a single item, it seems you can, however I understand the reluctance to stretch this to allowing a single thing be four or five components at one time given a dozen attunement bonuses. It is a bit scally-monkey-wonky.
By the same logic, "a wooden staff, shod in iron, with a quartz crystal bound on the top" would be a single component. Where does it stop?
I think it is best to assume 1 component = 1 shape + 1 material.
This is an ideal time for house rules. I think, and I'm not the only one, that a Major Virtue that lets you take a character out of play for several hours to do something very cool and powerful is reasonable. You don't. The rule isn't broken, it just doesn't do what you want for your game.
I don't think it is quite limited to 1 shape + 1 material, but in most cases it probably is. Jewelry or clothing are good examples of a single component that can have two shape bonuses - a necklace or a cloak, for example, hit two sets of shape bonuses. A toy sword would probably benefit from 'toy' and 'sword' shape bonuses within the single component. Its a toy and a sword at the same time, and it isn't a composite object like the iron-shod wooden staff with a crystal is.
I can't think of any single components that would claim three shape bonuses. That doesn't mean there aren't any. Noble's parma applies. 
Materials I can see being a 1 component = 1 material deal.
The material can bring several bonuses under different headers, though: the standard oaken staff for example is usually both "Oak" and "Wood (dead)".
Cheers
The worst part is that I am looking at powergaming a Talisman. 
I cant even find something worthwhile to power game. I am horrible at this.
If you want to powergame a Talisman, I think your best bet is to rediscover "Awakened Devices", and make a self aware magic item/Familiar/Talisman. Such power! Awakened Devices don't seem to have a limit on stats, save for your Arts, and a +10 intelligence is not hard to enchant (lv 60 according to Mystery Houses p. 130). A ten Magic theory can be achieved by teaching, enchantment, or both, depending on how you read it (again, p. 130 MH). So, right there, a +20 to every lab total! And every season you spend working on your Familiar (Cords, powers, etc) is a season working on your Talisman, and so a free F&E bonus! And because your creation is self aware, it can concentrate on powers for you, and activate powers without your input (Very useful for ambushes and sleeping etc.).
This is all canon, best I can tell.......
Arcane connections fade, unless someone spends a season fixing them. If they didn't, I might see your point, but as it is, it just seems like more evidence that this is not how it should work.
The way I figure it, the Shape and Material Bonuses come from the connection to the Platonic Form. The purpose of a bed is sleep, so beds cause a bonus for sleep related effects. The purpose of a saddle is to ride a horse, so it gives a bonus to control the horse. Some bonuses are less obvious than others, why Red Coral is good for items used against demons is not obvious to me. But as I understand it, it is something connection to the Platonic Form which gives the Shape and Material Bonus, and once the connection to the form is broken, I don't see the bonus as applying anymore.
Pliny, that great Roman authority, claims that topaz gets its name from the island of Topazos, which he describes as being in the Red Sea, even though other works describe topaz as coming from an island in the mediterranean. Apparently the "topaz" mentioned in the Old Testament is a translation of a term for a yellow stone which was probably chrysoberyl.