Best foil for non-flickers

[Volara]

Hi,

Being a newbie, I wanted to ask the opinion of more experienced fencers (if this isn't enough sucking up - I can do better).

I'm finally wanting to buy my own foil (non FIE at this stage - I can't afford it) but a relatively good quality one and I wanted something that was more rigid than flexible (I'm don't see myself flicking for some time) so does anyone have any suggestions? I've already had a look around and now I'm more confused than ever. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks :-)

[Fencer X]

Fencer X wrote;

LOL- I was actually just about to start a
"foil blade" thread, myself- Ya beat me to it

First, do a dejanews search on "foil blades".
This will turn out some threads from
rec.sport.fencing. Some useful, some not.The
consensus I get from that, is that France-
lames blades are to be avoided. (someone
correct me, if I'm wrong.)Apart from that,
My only experience has been with Blade's
"hurricane floyd" reconditioned wired blades.
went in there, picked up a couple- $10.00
each, wired with tip?!? They're russian-made,
only used for one night, so far. My
impression so far- They seem light, flexible,
and they are made of metal. The point sets
off the scoring machine. As to thier
durability, who knows? I had pommels, grips,
guards aplenty, laying around. Not knowing
what I should spend more money on yet, I
opted for the cheapest blades I could find
for now. For classical, dry fencing, I've
built up a stockpile of 30-40 year old Priuer
,Castello,Scarone,"RR" blades. As to
electric, Maybe we can get some advice from
the rest of the crew here. As to the $10.00
Blade blades, so far-so good.

Fencer X

[Mr_Jones]

In the US, Triplette is your best bet IMHO. Their signature blades, made by BF, are light, well balanced and can be had in just about any flexibility you prefer, although they do tend to be on the stiff side. Call and tell them what you're looking for, and, in my experience, they'll go out of their way to make sure you're happy.

[mifencer]

how about an epee?

[neevel]

Well, Blaise Freres (Uhlmann, Allstar, Triplette) is a place to look if you want a distinctly stiff blade (I've heard/seen some examples of recent non-maraging BF blades having durability issues, though). Prieur blades are a bit less stiff than BF and have a generally good rep for durability. Lammet blades (Dinamo, Fleche, PBT non-maraging, etc.) seem to be the best durability for the money if you're on a budget. The various models from Lammet do have different weight, balance, and flexibility characteristics. Leon Paul blades generally last a very long time (about the best I've seen for non-maraging blades), but are light and flexible, and tend to get very mushy when old.

Do spend the extra money up front for German (real German-- Uhlmann or Allstar-- rather than knock-off German style; I know that Fencing Post, American, and Blue Gauntlet sell real Uhlmann) points. You'll save yourself a lot of trouble, especially if you're still new to maintaining electric weapons. Just wrap an extra strip of tape around the screw-heads to give them some more protection from gettng damaged. Be sure to get spare springs and a few screws for your points-- springs are essentially a consumable item, and you're bound to lose a screw sometime.

If your club has a de-facto standard for body-cord type, stick with it so you can use club weapons. If you've got a choice, I consider German-style 2-prong to be the best overall system for reliability and staying in the socket-- I'd recommend the BG 'easy fix' bodycords, which let you tighten the contact screws without disassembling the plug. Avoid the solid-pin 2-prong cords that Blade and Physical Chess sell as budget pieces-- the pins get bent out of shape easily and won't make a good contact.

-Dave