bending the blade

[remise]

One kid at our club attempted to straighten his blade with his foot and ended up snapping it in half. Isn't there a rule or recommendation that a fencer NOT put the blade under his/her foot to straighten it, but rather straighten it by hand? I'd check the USFA rules, but their website seems to be down.

[epeemike81]

not at all. It's a pretty good way to straighten a blade.

there IS a rule against doing so ON the strip, so you should step off to the side.

-m

[DJ Apostrophe]

i've seen more disastrous results when someone has tried to straighten their blade by hand... I've seen the blade snap and lacerate the person’s palm. If it’s going to snap, I'd rather have it happen under my shod foot.

-w

[kalivor]

Generally speaking, you're less likely to break the blade by bending it under your foot than you are in your hand. That said, anytime you bend a blade, there's a possibility that it might break.

Here in Canada, the ONLY guidelines I've seen for bending a blade (in old coaching manuals) describes the under-the-foot technique:

Originally Posted by Level2FoilManual

Straightening a Blade
One of the tasks confronting the coach of a beginners' group is to straighten blades which have been bent by incorrect and clumsy hitting. Blades are expensive and great care should be taken in straightening them. The beginner may try and straighten the blade by hand and when the weather is cold there is a good chance that it will break.
• The correct technique is place the blade under your foot, trapping it between your foot and the floor.
• Gently slide it backward and forward, without trying to straighten it, until the blade is warm.
• When it is really warmed up, smooth the bent part against the floor with your foot, gradually increasing the pressure while pulling the blade upwards by the handle.

This process should be sufficient to bring the blade back to its original curve. However, if the bend is too severe and does not easily straighten, replace the blade or give the beginner another sword. A severe bend will weaken the blade at that point, making it dangerous for continued fencing practice.

It has photos, too!

[KD5MDK]

I'm still dubious that almost any change in the temperture of a blade you can create by simple rubbing will have any effect. I wouldn't recommend doing it outside in a Canadian winter, but that's a different issue to various shades of room temperture.

[epeemike81]

Originally Posted by KD5MDK

I'm still dubious that almost any change in the temperture of a blade you can create by simple rubbing will have any effect. I wouldn't recommend doing it outside in a Canadian winter, but that's a different issue to various shades of room temperture.

next time you bend it under your foot, feel the blade afterwards. it's downright HOT. it is a SIGNIFICANT temperature change. Friction is a wonderful thing.

-m

[RITFencing]

The rule is that you cannot straighten your blade like that on the strip. That rule is in place more to preserve metal strips than anything else.

[ailuros]

i, curiously enough, am a subscriber to both schools. when a blade is cooler than room temperature, i'd never touch it except to rub until it's warm. when a blade gets "bent out of shape", if you'll pardon the expression, it seems to be both dependent on the bend of the blade and on my current blade intuition, if i may. the under-the-foot method is good. tried and true, in my opinion. i and my coach, however, have noticed an interesting trend. when one begins the under-the-foot method, one should try to have the blade as close to parallel with the floor as possible, and pull it up very slowly ( going back and forth foreign to me, though i don't doubt that it works). if those two criteria are not met, the blades tend to be more prone to breakage. with the hand method, it's really a judgment call. if one thinks one can do it without breakage, there's no reason not to. i've only ever broken one blade with the hand method, and i later found out it was a faulty sabre blade in the first place. neither have i or anyone i've ever seen break one with the foot method. perhaps we're just lucky?

good luck in the future, with all your blade benditude.

ailuros

[gtmac]

Straightening the blade under your foot is, I'm sure, highly recommended by fencing equipment vendors. Straightening the blade in this way increases the metal fatigue beyond the area of the bend.

Try bending the blade in the opposite direction using careful pressure with your thumb on the opposite side of the bend. It's not as quick, but your blade will most likely last longer.

[kalivor]

Originally Posted by gtmac

Straightening the blade under your foot is, I'm sure, highly recommended by fencing equipment vendors. Straightening the blade in this way increases the metal fatigue beyond the area of the bend.

Try bending the blade in the opposite direction using careful pressure with your thumb on the opposite side of the bend. It's not as quick, but your blade will most likely last longer.

Thumbs are bad.

If you're forced to straighten the blade because there's a bad bit of bend in a certain spot on the blade, this spot can (accurately) be referred to as the "weak point".

If one then puts all the force they're using to bend the blade back on this weak point by, say, directing it there by using their thumb ... well, the blade is far more likely to snap.

I've seen blades snapped by pretty much every straightening method out there. But over half of them have involved thumbs. If you're going to try this, you'll have to use VERY careful pressure, indeed.

[jeff]

I'll use hands only if it's a minor adjustment to a blade for comfort/balance - and I've still had blades break in my hand. Definitely if there's a kink or weak spot, I go for the under-the-foot treatment, and slide the foot over the weapon to spread the pressure I'm applying. Pain sucks, and blood looks bad on a white fencing outfit.

[fencerbill]

As an armorer, the most precise way to straighten a blade is with a vise and a plumber's wrench. You can even correct the sidewards curves that way. You put small corrections every few inches until excess curve is tamed.

I always put the initial curve in my Sabre blades under my foot. My first lessons were from Lejos Csiszar. Although I have broken them this way also. Usually because I have rushed it. One might say that is how you pay for your lessons.

[rcmatthews]

I mean really people, come on. Does it matter? Both ways work, so I use both ways. It just depends on what I feel like doing the moment when I have a bent blade. Well, actually I don't really know why I choose to do one over the other, it just sort of happens without thinking about it.

[Redkyte]

Wow. Apparently I'm a freak. I subscribe to neither the foot nor the thumb bending schools.

I sight down the blade to find where the bend is exactly, then I put it on my thigh, and my hands equidistant from my thigh on my blade, and then GENTLY AND SLOWLY apply pressure. I repeat as many times as needed, usually about 5 times.