08-28-2005, 06:57 PM
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#1 | | Member
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 51
| Good equipment sites?
What are some good sites to buy equipment? | 
|  | | And now for this message... |
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08-28-2005, 07:03 PM
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#2 | | Member
Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Hants, UK - Fence at Beauclerk Escrime, Winchfield
Posts: 95
| Depends on what you're looking for, for jackets etc www.duellist.com and www.leonpaul.com are both good shops and make high quality equipment. PBT is also good but google them cos I don't know the addy.
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Sure, I have green and black fur and a fluffy tail, but what's more dangerous, your blunt sword or the chance I have rabies and I'm gonna bite ya.
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08-28-2005, 08:39 PM
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#3 | | Member
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 51
| here are the ones I use
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08-28-2005, 09:50 PM
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#4 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Pacoima, ca USA
Posts: 5,942
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08-28-2005, 11:43 PM
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#5 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 5,537
| Most of em are pretty good... I'll list a few that are bad.... Triplette, Physical Chess and PBT. The reason I give these ratings are as follow.
Triplette: Poor quality, poor customer service.
Physical Chess: Mediocre quality, customer service is *****y.
PBT: Quality is acceptable, but for the price, its very much not worth it. Only worthwhile if you're in hungary.
The best 3 vendors I've found so far are Leon Paul USA, Absolute fencing and Fechtsport Langenkamp.
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"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
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08-29-2005, 01:49 AM
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#6 | | Senior Member
Join Date: May 2002 Location: South Texas
Posts: 2,890
| Two years ago, Fencing Net members voted best suppliers within the US. The two best vendors (quality, service and cost) at that time by an overwhelming margin were:
1. Fencing Post
2. Blue Gauntlet
These two received about 60% of all of the votes spread among 12 vendors or so.
Since then, there have been several things happening:
1. Fencing Net started Leon Paul USA.
2. Amanda left Blue Gauntlet and started Absolute Fencing
3. Triplette owners apparently split the company.
4. Something happen at Santelli.
In my very personal opinion, currently, the two best fencing vendors within the US are: Fencing Post and Absolute Fencing. However, the gap has closed considerably between them and the next tier. These two vendors are closely followed by Blue Gauntlet, Leon Paul USA and PBT.
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Epee is the Sword.
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08-29-2005, 11:10 AM
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#7 | | Member
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 51
| I know about the quality of absolute because I fence absolute. | |
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08-29-2005, 11:59 AM
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#8 | | Member
Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Salisbury, UK
Posts: 59
| Quote: |
Originally Posted by fatjoehatesme | anyone used these in the past?? as ive only recently found them ive been comparing prices with the allstar dealer in the UK and langenkamp is far cheaper so any feed back on them would be grateful
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erm....parry ...riposte....oops...argh!!....run awwaaayyyy!!! | |
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08-29-2005, 12:32 PM
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#9 | | Senior Member
Join Date: May 2002 Location: South Texas
Posts: 2,890
| They have shipped to the US at considerable savings. Excellent quality, shipping and mailing. The only problem for oversea customers is "RETURNS". So, you very much need to know specifically what to order ahead of time.
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Epee is the Sword.
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08-29-2005, 12:53 PM
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#10 | | Member
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 51
| http://www.esun.com.hk/
this is like the cheapest site ever I don't know about there quality though | |
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08-29-2005, 02:31 PM
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#11 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Charlottesville VA
Posts: 3,084
| Esun gear is decent, about on a level with BG, Absolute and Blade. I would avoid the blades and body cords, but on the uniforms they would be a good deal at almost twice the money and they are 350N if I recall correctly, something BG and AF are not.
Whats the catch? Shipping takes forever (litteraly a slow boat from China unless you pay a susbatantial amount for air shipping), customer service and returns can be both difficult and costly unless you are up on Mandarin, and they last time I checked they did not use Credit Cards, just bank drafts which I am not a huge fan of. They also seemed much more geared towards dealing with clubs and with large orders of substantial volume and much less with individual consumer sales. Still if you can get a few friends together to order or place a club wide order it is very much worthwhile as long as you are not in a hurry and will not be without options if something does not fit (remember that sizing is not going to be US standard). Hope that helps...
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Just another lost soul saved by the (hit) First Church of EPEE!
Bona Na Croin. "Neither Collar nor Crown"
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08-31-2005, 12:35 AM
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#12 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Great Neck, NY
Posts: 246
| I suggest Absolute Fencing, their customer service is great. Fencing Post would be ok, if they only had online ordering. Blue Gauntlet: The Walmart of the fencing equipment retail stores. | |
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08-31-2005, 02:55 AM
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#13 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Los Angeles
Posts: 300
| Quote: |
Originally Posted by shango I suggest Absolute Fencing, their customer service is great. Fencing Post would be ok, if they only had online ordering. Blue Gauntlet: The Walmart of the fencing equipment retail stores. | You can order online from the fencing post. You get 20% off too. Just have to do it by e-mail | |
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08-31-2005, 07:36 AM
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#14 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Ireland
Posts: 217
| Quote: |
Originally Posted by fatjoehatesme | It's absolutely shocking!! I've seen the masks from esun - bought less than a year ago and now they're, literally, falling apart  | |
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08-31-2005, 12:33 PM
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#15 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Pacoima, ca USA
Posts: 5,942
| You buy cheap, you get cheap...fencing us one of the very few areas inlife where you -- more often than not -- actually GET what you pay for... | |
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08-31-2005, 01:55 PM
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#16 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Charlottesville VA
Posts: 3,084
| I agree 110% with Purple on this one. For cheap club level gear I like Absolute uniforms and mask and Fencing Post lames. I don't suggest getting any blade of less quality than StM (avoid all the chinese made blades) or a body cord that is not LP/Uhlmann/prieur/pbt/negrinni. It is just not worth the money, even at half the price of the name brand gear. If possible go FIE on blades and masks as they last a LOT longer than cheaper non-FIE alternatives.
As to US vendors I use I like:
Fencing Post
Blue Guantlet
Absolute
LP USA
The couple of times I have used them Sword Masters has been excellant also as far as service/shipping/quality but I have not done enough with them to consider them a favorite vendor yet and their pricing on some things is a bit high. Of course those things are hard to find elsewhere in the US so I guess I can understand that.
Based on past experiance I actively avoid:
Physical Chess (service/quality)
Blade (service/price)
Allstar USA (service/price)
Fence Smart (quality)
PBT USA (price only, service and quality are good)
Fencing Equipment@bizhosting (service and quality are horrible beyond words)
Hope that helps...
__________________
Just another lost soul saved by the (hit) First Church of EPEE!
Bona Na Croin. "Neither Collar nor Crown"
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08-31-2005, 02:39 PM
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#17 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Pacoima, ca USA
Posts: 5,942
| Quote: |
Originally Posted by CvilleFencer I agree 110% with Purple on this one. For cheap club level gear I like Absolute uniforms and mask and Fencing Post lames. I don't suggest getting any blade of less quality than StM (avoid all the chinese made blades) or a body cord that is not LP/Uhlmann/prieur/pbt/negrinni. It is just not worth the money, even at half the price of the name brand gear. If possible go FIE on blades and masks as they last a LOT longer than cheaper non-FIE alternatives.
As to US vendors I use I like:
Fencing Post
Blue Guantlet
Absolute
LP USA
The couple of times I have used them Sword Masters has been excellant also as far as service/shipping/quality but I have not done enough with them to consider them a favorite vendor yet and their pricing on some things is a bit high. Of course those things are hard to find elsewhere in the US so I guess I can understand that.
Based on past experiance I actively avoid:
Physical Chess (service/quality)
Blade (service/price)
Allstar USA (service/price)
Fence Smart (quality)
PBT USA (price only, service and quality are good)
Fencing Equipment@bizhosting (service and quality are horrible beyond words)
Hope that helps... | I'd make on amendment to the blade list...BG #2 dry blades are good for little kids just starting out...they're soft enough that the kids probably won't cry "Wahhh! That hurts! Fencing sucks!" and quit.
I'll have to see if I can get my body cords up to the acceptable level (when I get 'em made)
Hopefully you can add me to the good list! | |
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08-31-2005, 02:45 PM
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#18 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Charlottesville VA
Posts: 3,084
| Quote: |
Originally Posted by Purple Fencer I'll have to see if I can get my body cords up to the acceptable level (when I get 'em made)
Hopefully you can add me to the good list! | Very true about the dry blades. I tend to use Absolute or BG dry blades in our beginners and school programs for those very reasons. I will have to order some kit from you so I can see how you stack up purple!  I am interested in checking out your cords once you get them made. I played with building my own using monster cable and very durable insulation around the plug heads but the cord I wanted to use was too thick without heavy modification and hand carving the clam shell sockets was just not as much fun as it sounded. I could make and mold my own clamshells, but I have not been able to get the plastic hard enough to keep me happy using the normal arts and crafts stuff. Anyway, always looking for innovation in body cords, so keep me in the loop and I will get a few from you when you are ready to market them.
__________________
Just another lost soul saved by the (hit) First Church of EPEE!
Bona Na Croin. "Neither Collar nor Crown"
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08-31-2005, 03:45 PM
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#19 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Paris, France
Posts: 1,099
| So DFP, you would rank Absolute Fencing as a better vendor than PBT? I certainly hope not. I own gear from both places, and I can say that my PBT jacket is of much better quality than my Absolute lame. For cheap stuff, absolute is great, in contrast to say BG, who can;t even put together a coherent website. | |
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08-31-2005, 05:28 PM
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#20 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Charlottesville VA
Posts: 3,084
| Quote: |
Originally Posted by rcmatthews So DFP, you would rank Absolute Fencing as a better vendor than PBT? I certainly hope not. I own gear from both places, and I can say that my PBT jacket is of much better quality than my Absolute lame. For cheap stuff, absolute is great, in contrast to say BG, who can;t even put together a coherent website. | Keep in mind there is a big differance between vendor and manufacturer. Absolute and PBT USA are both Vendors/resellers. Absolute also sells Uhlmann/Allstar gear among other brands, and for decent prices compared to other sources which is more than can be said for PBT USA. I sure would rate them above PBT USA just based on cost/value. Toss in a good selection of items and great customer service and you have a much better vendor than PBT USA in my opinion...
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Just another lost soul saved by the (hit) First Church of EPEE!
Bona Na Croin. "Neither Collar nor Crown"
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