Alright, I was dared by a certain troll to post this story, as he does not believe it is true. Back me up if you've ever seen anything like it in all your fencing experience. This is eyewitness, from me.
A while back, about a year ago, I saw a blade, a very flexible blade, made into a loop. It was basically an O shap. With enough force, you could force the blade into a full loop, with the tip of the blade going all the way around.
It could do figure 8's and take on a pretzelish shape.
If you've ever seen a blade that was flexible enough to do any of this stuff, post here.
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. And from this side only! The flight of a half-man, half-bird. Dinosaurs nuzzling their young in pastures where strip malls should be. Cookies on dowels. All those moment, lost in time. Gone, like eggs off a hooker's stomach. Time to die" -Phil Ken Sebben
are we referring to the silverstar? i think thats what it was.
before my time, for sure, but i've heard that they put ads out with the blade wrapping itself around a baseball bat or some such.
its a foil blade BTW.... I dunno what kinda blade it was, but they had found it in their club armory from 10 years ago
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. And from this side only! The flight of a half-man, half-bird. Dinosaurs nuzzling their young in pastures where strip malls should be. Cookies on dowels. All those moment, lost in time. Gone, like eggs off a hooker's stomach. Time to die" -Phil Ken Sebben
I have never seen a blade anywhere that bad, although I have seen one or two that you could flick yourself in the elbow with if you had a strong flick and held your arm just right. Needless to say the blade that you are describing is not legal for use and you could make a case that if the fencer in question was aware of the extreme flex of the blade, the fact that is was not legal and was using it anyway that he was trying to give himself an unfair advantage, IE cheat and might just get himself a blackcard. Probably would never happen in practice but I think a judge could make a case for it. Still, I would like to see a blade wrap around a baseball bat and return true... That would just be nifty.
Just another lost soul saved by the (hit) First Church of EPEE!
Silverstar blades were marketed on their ability to bend, but not break. It's been quite a few years since I've seen one, so I am going on memory - as I recall the foil blades were not overly "whippy" (at least not nearly as bad as the non-FIE Leon Pauls and various Chinese blades), but they were supposed to be able to take a ton of repetitive hits without breaking. They ran an ad in US Fencing that showed one of their blades tied in a knot.
I think that they were good science, but poor fencing equipment. The balance was all wrong and they didn't handle very well. In epee it was difficult to control the point after any blade contact.
it very well might have been a silverstar blade. The fencer who used this blade no longer fences, being that after the new timing changes, his flick-only game went to hell.
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. And from this side only! The flight of a half-man, half-bird. Dinosaurs nuzzling their young in pastures where strip malls should be. Cookies on dowels. All those moment, lost in time. Gone, like eggs off a hooker's stomach. Time to die" -Phil Ken Sebben
Mr. Epee has it right. The Silverstar blades were marketing by Triplette to be an ultra-durable blade. The had taken a foil blade and wrapped it around a post for their ad.
While the blades were durable, they didn't have a good balance point and were inconsistent in how they worked in. I used one once, but at that time a Hostin Plus was about the same price and a better overall blade.
Craig
Originally Posted by Mr Epee
Yes,
Silverstar blades were marketed on their ability to bend, but not break. It's been quite a few years since I've seen one, so I am going on memory - as I recall the foil blades were not overly "whippy" (at least not nearly as bad as the non-FIE Leon Pauls and various Chinese blades), but they were supposed to be able to take a ton of repetitive hits without breaking. They ran an ad in US Fencing that showed one of their blades tied in a knot.
I think that they were good science, but poor fencing equipment. The balance was all wrong and they didn't handle very well. In epee it was difficult to control the point after any blade contact.
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. And from this side only! The flight of a half-man, half-bird. Dinosaurs nuzzling their young in pastures where strip malls should be. Cookies on dowels. All those moment, lost in time. Gone, like eggs off a hooker's stomach. Time to die" -Phil Ken Sebben
Originally Posted by Mr Epee 
