Best epee

[mousers11]

After 12 months of foil i have switched to epee & need to purchase some weapons. Who & why makes the best epees.

[PhineasGage]

Check out this recent thread and make your own decision.

http://www.fencing101.com/vb/showthread.php?t=12870

Personally, I like Vniti and BF maraging, because I like a stiff non-flicky blade and these are usually reliable providers of such. However, as several people noted on the above-mentioned thread, there's a bit of a range even among blade providers. Best thing is to contact a vendor directly and tell them what kind of blade you're looking for, and they'll generally be able to set you up.

[howtobrew]

welllll, from my 1 year of experience, I can tell you that tFP sells a perfectly good, economically priced StM epee for $80, that I have been quite happy with. Actually I have two of them, one pistol, one french.

I also recently bought an LP nonFIE epee, and I like the feel of it too. Costs more, but seems like its worth it, based on other poster's opinions of LP blades.

So, my experience says that StM and LP are good choices for $80-105.

[dreamer90024]

I like the Uhlman BF blades. They're kind of stiff, but not very and are priced decently (around $70). Also if you live in the US it is very convinient to order them through Blue-gauntlet.com.

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

the BEST epee out of all of them.... I'd say is the BF white made by cartel, put a vniti bell guard on it, and wire it up with a leon paul PTFE epee tip. Other good blades are the Leon Paul Non-FIE, and the Vniti FIE blade, both of which have long life spans, but tend to take a little getting used to. The BF white mentioned above is a well balanced blade, but can have a short lifetime compared to the other two. Its also expensive. Personally, I try to stay away from the STM blades, as I find that they kink far too often. For good non-fie blades, the leon-paul non FIE has great lifespan, but feels awkward at first. The triplette blade, if you can pick out a stiff one, has a nice feel, and though it kinks easily, will last a fair amount of time. The fleche blades sold from physical chess are good for the money, but tend to rust very easily, and take kinks easy.

[Zilverzmurfen]

vniti bell guard

So what's a Vniti Guard..? Any pics anywhere? In what way do they differ from other guards?

My guard of choice since a while back is the Titanium-Aluminium Alloy guard. It's ace.

[shango]

Basically the same thing, they're one piece, I think there's a few pictures on the Blade website. www.blade-fencing.com

[Zilverzmurfen]

Ok, so this looks as if it would be the exact same guard sold under different names...