France-Lamesblades?

[vincikai]

France-Lames electric blade
Blue Gauntlet blade
are they good blades?

[noodle]

my first blade was (mistakenly ordered) a france lame. broke in 1 month.
also, i know a guy who broke 37 bg blades in one year.

they're good if you need a cheap backup, but if you're a reasonably hard fencer (use flicks, hard hits, etc) you might want to try something else, they both seem to have a tendancy to break fairly easily.

[ShadowHuntr]

let's put it this way, there is good reason why they went backrupt. and SG blades by Blue Gauntlet are dispicable

[downunder]

let's put it this way, there is good reason why they went backrupt. and SG blades by Blue Gauntlet are dispicable

french accounting practices?

their blades are actually fairly good, which is why prieur bought the forge.

SG blades are chinese made and pretty poor value for money

[K Degnon]

french accounting practices?

their blades are actually fairly good, which is why prieur bought the forge.

SG blades are chinese made and pretty poor value for money

Actually, what is the 411 on Prieur anyway? I'm getting back into this sport after about 10 years away and I've heard multiple conflicting stories about the status of Prieur. I've been told:

Prieur has gone out of business.

Prieur is still in operation although their blades are now about pot metal quality.

Some other company bought Prieur's molds and is making Prieur blades

Back when I was competing I really liked Prieur equipment. I've tried to find out what happened to them on my own, but haven't been successful. Can anyone shed some light on this? Thanks.

[CvilleFencer]

Okay here is what I have pieced together from what I know from use and have heard from others. I don't have a good timeline but I will try to fake it...

France Lames (FL) makes their own blades and markets other equipment under their name. Good stuff and not to much competition at the time (70's-late 80's)

Other countries start to enter the market or take a larger market share (Uhlmann/Allstar/LP)

FL begins cutting cost/corners to stay competitive and quality begins to suffer (late 80's early 90's)

Russian and Chinese companies enter the picture as well and BF starts to allow more private labeling of their blades to smaller companies

FL cuts even more costs and corners and their blades and gear go downhill very fast.

FL is hurting at this point and in a bid to make up some profit they begin falsely/confusingly selling blades as FIE that are not and their reputation takes a huge hit. The end is near and quality continues to fall as they try to make up some of the capital.

FL goes bankrupt and closes the doors (early 2000's)

Prieur buys the forge and rights and begins selling them again at a value price to build up the name to its former status (01-02)

Prieur has some labor/machine issues with the old equipment/employees since Prieur was a competitor/rival and have not been able to get up to the old production standards and keep vendor inventories full (02-current)

I have tried out the non-fie epees and the FIE and non-FIE foils from Prieur recently have been happy with them. The epees have a good balance and a slim cross section and seem about on par with fleche and StM although a bit two springy for my tastes. The foils are about the same. Very good prices so far, especially for the FIE ones, a nice finish and balance, and they flick/handle well (but not LP FM or BF FIE levels). They do take some nasty bends that make me worry about long term durability but I usually fence with Vniti so I know (for a fact unfortunately) that you can drive a car over those and they won't break!

Unless we are talking saber blades the BG stuff is junk and a huge waste of money. A friend broke 3 in one tourney and another snapped two at a differant tourney. I have never had one last more than 3 months of regular club use as a loander weapons and will not buy them at all anymore. The saber blades however are nice for the money, although I don't care for the balance.

Anyway, the above timeline is very general and I only know some of it for myself, the rest is stuff I have heard, but from multiple sources so I hope it is some help. I keep meaning to right some reviews for the new Prieur blades for the Product Reviews section here but keep getting sidetracked...

[DHCJr]

Very good, but I will add some other points. Many fencers swore by Prieur blades. The trouble is Prieur did not make blades, the same as Uhlmann, until they bought forges that went out of business.

All of Prieur blades came from France-Lame, but like people swearing by 'Uhlmann' BF blades over other BF blades, it was because of the arrangement they had. Prieur bought all of France-Lame blades, but they also had unlimited returns. If it didn't meet their standards, it was returned. Prieur tried to strong arm France-Lame, who left the exclusive arangement when the contract expired. Part of the problem was cutting corners, but also, they sold every blade, not just the ones that made a standard.

There were other blade manufacturers and very good ones, but not mass market ones, at least not in the west. The Soviets made a lot of blades, but their quality was lower than the current Chinese, but what was good, was they looked bad. Their teams did not use Soviet blades, the blades were for local consumption and there was a large number of fencers in the Soviet Union. Scironni Blue Blades were considered the best that money could buy if you could get them.

The reason for France-Lame demise was closer to Enron than shoddy work. Considering how many 'FIE' fakes they produced, it is a wonder they were not banned from fencing, but there was a rumor that a certain FIE president had a minority stake in the company.

That was a good time line.

[CvilleFencer]

Thanks DHCJr and thanks for the extra info on FL! Also congrats on breaking a 1000 posts!

[shlepzig]

I have put several older FL blades in service recently (I was low on funds and found some unwired blades in a bag I thought I had thrown away years ago).

They are stiff, and heavy and feel nigh industructable, I have not put a bend in one of them while using them in practice. I would not reccomend them as a first choice but if your game does not involve any sort of flicky attacks, they get the job done. All in all, slightly bendier than my BF epee blade.

Shlep.

[PeterGustafsson]

Hi!

I have tried out the non-fie epees and the FIE and non-FIE foils from Prieur recently have been happy with them. The epees have a good balance and a slim cross section and seem about on par with fleche and StM although a bit two springy for my tastes. The foils are about the same. Very good prices so far, especially for the FIE ones, a nice finish and balance, and they flick/handle well (but not LP FM or BF FIE levels). They do take some nasty bends that make me worry about long term durability but I usually fence with Vniti so I know (for a fact unfortunately) that you can drive a car over those and they won't break!

This car thing - inquiring minds want to know...

Have a nice time!

Peter Gustafsson

[CvilleFencer]

As to the "car test" for my Vnitis, I had a few fencers leave some weapons with me to work on so my bag was full as was the club bag that I was taking home to tune up. I had my Vniti laying out as I had just fenced with it so I put it in its sheath and left it proped up by the car to go get the rest of the gear. It was a fairly windy day so it must have blown over and rolled under the car and I did not notice as I loaded everything else up.

As I drove away I heard a snap/crackle/pop and sure enough there was my Vniti in its busted up PVC sheath. No worse for wear except for a bell guard that was a bit mushed on one side and a scuffed up grip!

[ShadowHuntr]

slim cross section

what exactly is a cross section?

[CvilleFencer]

In that instance I use it to mean the width and depth of a blade although in a real sword it refers to how the blade is formed in the center and how it tapers to the edge if you were looking at it dead on from the point. An example would be a diamond cross section <> as opposed to an oval cross section () or a triangular cross section V.

I could have spoken more descriptively by saying that the Prieur epees are fairly thin at the base and tapering up towards the point with a fairly deep and pronounced V shape groove. As far as blade geometry goes they look a fair bit like the newer BF FIE blue blades, just a bit thinner at the base but thicker at the tip.

[esskreemr]

My first blades were France-Lames, they were great and lasted for years. When I ordered more a couple of years later, they were the worst blades I have ever seen. I broke most of them within a couple of months. In addition, they broke off to a jagged and sharp edge.

This was 8 years ago, I will never buy another France-Lames blade again.

[angriff]

I recently came to possess 3 Prieur PS FIE blades, and I found them much to my liking. Light and well balanced, not as stiff as a BF blade yet not all that whippy. They do have a tendency to take kinks however, but as long as you're careful not to hit overly hard they'll hold up fine

I've since heard that these PS blades have gone out of production.. sigh..

[o4aversob]

I've been fencing with a hostin plus blade, which is supposedly the highest quality non maraging FL made. The blade has taken much abuse and it stays durable. It is finally starting to lose its shape, but I've been using this blade for much longer than its life expectancy would be. In my opinion, even the 'shoddy' FL blades of the late era aren't that bad. comparing the hostin plus to my vniti, i personally feel there are some distinct similarities in balance and flexibility.
As for BG blades, my first BG broke much faster than any blade I've ever used. After much use they become incredibly flexible from the point to middle of the blade. They're also very light.

[ShadowHuntr]

i had a hostin plus blade, lasted me at most from october to april. it guess it isnt that horrible. i didnt use it that much and the wired started to pop out. it got a fairly large bend in it though.

[felicote]

I've since heard that these PS blades have gone out of production.. sigh..

Those are the blades that I use. Where did you hear that they have gone out of production?

[noodle]

i have two hostin plus epees. from the same batch, one's flexible and one's very stiff. but they've both lasted me over a year (though i haven't used them much recently) so i've gotten my money's worth out of them.

[angriff]

Those are the blades that I use. Where did you hear that they have gone out of production?

From a friend whose source I do not know.. the blades I own are forged in 1987 though. Are Prieur still producing PS FIE blades? Wow!