FS? RT? Any good?

[LUDICROUS]

I'm just looking at blades, and there is "FS maraging" and "RT Ecostar Maraging"

What are these stamps? Good blades? Anyone know?

Vniti: Triplette sells them for 59.95 USD(maraging, foil, wired, comes out to 83 NZ) a blade. Is this the legendary blackstick/blackrat that lasts forever? at such a cheap price? PLEASE! IS IT?

Thanks

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

I'm just looking at blades, and there is "FS maraging" and "RT Ecostar Maraging"

What are these stamps? Good blades? Anyone know?

Vniti: Triplette sells them for 59.95 USD(maraging, foil, wired, comes out to 83 NZ) a blade. Is this the legendary blackstick/blackrat that lasts forever? at such a cheap price? PLEASE! IS IT?

Thanks

The FS blades stand for forge scarone, which was reputed to be a good quality forge. Toward the end of my FS foil's life, it got very, very flicky, but it lasted 2 years of abusive newbie technique.

[CvilleFencer]

DFP is correct in that the FS blade is the old Scaroni borthers forge. After they went under the company and its machines/rights (and maybe the entier facility but I am not sure) were purchased by the Uhlmann/Allstar group. They are good blades with a decent lifespan and a nice feel, although the ones Ihave used and seen are rather flicky.

The RT blades are rebadged Vniti blades and are IMHO the best blades for foil ever made when you consider the price/durability factor and the lighter weight of the newer blades.

Triplette no longer sells Vniti although they still list them on the website. The Vniti blades are aften called Blackstick/Blackrat although I met one fencer with a POS Chinese blade from Epee Co that called his the same thing althought the fell, quality, blalance and durability are no where near the same catagory as the Vniti.

I get most of my Vniti foils from the Fencing Post. Saul does not list them on his website for some reason but if you call him up he always has a few in stock, for around $75 IIRC. You can also get them from Blade, Physical chess (they call them something strange like BMI or something) and from Blue Gauntlet. Hope that helps!

By the way, America has one E and only the president and rednecks talk that way!

[LUDICROUS]

aaaaahh, thank you DFP/Cville!
Score, I know what my next foil will be! A vniti might feel quite different compared to my StM (everyone says the vniti is heavier?), but hmm.

Oh, the america thing is from the movie "Team America" Go see it. Funniest movie in history, and my sig is from the theme song.

[shango]

Apparently, and Cville will back me up, the new Vniti blades are much lighter and balanced than the new ones.

[LUDICROUS]

Thats good news then

[CvilleFencer]

Apparently, and Cville will back me up, the new Vniti blades are much lighter and balanced than the new ones.

I would say that the new ones are very much like the new ones. I have found very little difference in the weight and balance between one new one and another new one. All of my old ones are new ones however, as I sold my last really old one to help fund the purchase of the least old new one. However the newer ones are lighter than the older ones, say pre 03 or so!

If you set up your grip/tang cant/bellguard/socket combo correctly chances are that it will feel the same or lighter than your current StM. If you prefer a more tip heavy blade I suggest an LP ultralight socket, LP pro line pad, a cheap Chinese or good LP or Uhlmann ultralight guard and either a smaller Zivkovic grip such as the G or Z series or if you like a Belgian grip the LP polymer/plastic grips have very little weight (I would guess they are the lightest made but am not sure) to them. I tend to not like them as my blade actions in foil are so powerful (read violent, panicky and out of control) that I can feel the grip flex a little and it weirds me out. I have a couple of clubmates however who actually have refined and effective foil techniques that swear by them.

I like the Balance point of my foil just in front of the bell at the forte so I go with normal German sockets, a rolled edge lightweight guard, a puffy leather bellpad and a Zivkovic BIII grip. In short, if you set it up right you can balance the weight of the Vniti (or any blade) so that it is an asset and not a detriment.