Tell me you've done this...

[Orestes]

I write this with a heavy heart. While trying to cant the tang on a gleaming, out-of-the-box-new STM FIE blade I broke the tang off. I've wired a fair amount of foils, and this is the first time this has happened to me. This was 100% user error, something I'm willing to consider a (costly) lesson. It might take some of the sting off, however, to learn if anyone else has made similar mistakes...

[mrbiggs]

Yes, it's a common mistake, though there are a variety of ways that you can try to avoid it, which you can probably find using the search function. I'll see if I can help you a bit.

I can't find it. Sorry. I guess someone will have to post their method.

[KD5MDK]

I've done it.

Now, what were you asking? Oh. No, not yet.
My method: Put blade in a vise, right at the joint of tang to blade shoulder. Put a pipe over the tang (thin one if possible, to put the fulcrum at the shoulder). Bend in preferred direction.

[CvilleFencer]

Me to. It has always been with an StM blade though. I think maybe one Prieur but it was a stupid crazy bend for a friend. StM's tend to just be prone to snapping off at the tang under very light stress in my experiance.

I use a small guage pipe bender so that it spreads the force out over an arc instead of at one sharp point. In a pinch I will use a small diameter pipe and a vise but it is always hard for me to get an exact angle this way.

[remise]

I did it with a couple of Chinese blades. In the pipe and on the vise, they snapped clean in half with virtually no pressure whatsoever.


I refuse to cant Chinese blades now.

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

I've broken tangs before, but it was always because I was stoooopid. I broke it because I was trying to cant a vniti (one of the more difficult blades to cant), using a hammer. I knew the tang was strong, but apparently, it was not strong enough.

[tlucente]

I think maybe one Prieur but it was a stupid crazy bend for a friend.

My tang bend is not "stupid crazy"

I bend them by clamping the tang in a vice, and bending it from the blade end by grabbing low on the the forte and pulling slowly and in stages. I have, in a pinch, bent them by vice-gripping them to my house's metal stair rail.

[KD5MDK]

The reason I don't like clamping the tang and then bending from the blade end is that it either:
1) begins the bend at a randomish point below the shoulder or
2) you find the shoulder interfering with the bend as it catches on the vice.
also 3) potential thread damage, and much harder to put a nut on to serve as a die.

[JMcC]

Only worked on about a dozen so far; but, in haste, I broke my first one a couple of weeks ago. As you say, an expensive lesson, and it was an STM.

[Mergs]

Yup. Guilty.

[Joe biebel]

I write this with a heavy heart. While trying to cant the tang on a gleaming, out-of-the-box-new STM FIE blade I broke the tang off. I've wired a fair amount of foils, and this is the first time this has happened to me. This was 100% user error, something I'm willing to consider a (costly) lesson. It might take some of the sting off, however, to learn if anyone else has made similar mistakes...

Well, with enough experience this will happen to everyone. When I purchase new blades I will cant and curve them right away as soon I get them. On a rare occassion one will break. This is not user error but a material defect in the blade. It is not unreasonable to assume the blade is meant to take "Canting" or bending. If you feel the you did noting "out of the ordinary" in the process of "setting up" the blade, and it is purchased recently, ask the vendor to replace it. I have only had this happen 3 times in 37 years. Two were situations with new blades that broke while setting them up. They were replaced with no questions asked.

[penguin_2000]

only once... but with an old rusty blade. never happened on new blade to me.

[larkmaj]

I managed to snap the tang off a new StM FIE Gold just the other day. Though it wasn't from canting, it was from dying. The darn tang was too small for 6mm, they slid right down it, and too big for 12/24. Also, it was in terrible shape and the threading was inconsistent as well.

Anyway, I know what you mean, and it sucks, fortunately it wasn't my blade that I snapped. Also, absolute was kind enough to take it back as the tang was obviously in unusable shape to begin with.

[epeeboy]

There must be something about StM metal because the only tang I ever stripped by tightening the hex net was an StM, but I like the way the blade reacts to fencing.

[Zilverzmurfen]

It might take some of the sting off, however, to learn if anyone else has made similar mistakes...

Nope, I've never done it. And I've also mostly ever fenced with StM and/or Dynamo blades.

[CvilleFencer]

There must be something about StM metal because the only tang I ever stripped by tightening the hex net was an StM, but I like the way the blade reacts to fencing.

Same here. I have gotten to the point that whenever I am wiring up an StM blade I go ahead and rethread it just to be safe. Still, I do think they are good blades for the money, one just needs to have care when bending or tightening them.

Tom, that Prieur is why I switched to the pipe bender instead of doing it in the vice. The pipe bender is a very sure way of doing it as it spreads the stress out over a wider area instead of all in a very small angulated spot on the tang. How about wacky radical for a description of your blade cant?

[Alex_Paul]

If you are puting a cant in a blade using a vice make sure that you leave enough room for the tang to bend (at least 5 mm). You should not ever butt the vice up to the shoulder of the blade for two reasons:

1 If the shoulder is touching the vice when you start to pull it acts as a lever pulling the blade away from the tang. Instead of the force acting in one direction to bend the tang it is now acting in two directions, bending and shearing.... This is not good and is the cause of almost all instances where the tang breaks during canting.

2 Different manufacturers use different tecniques for finishing their blades. All blades are hardened by heating to red hot and then quenching in oil. Some manufacturers heat batches and then literally drop them in to a vat of oil. This hardens the whole blade and the tang. They are then tempered in an oven before final polishing. Other manufacturers have much more precise tecniques for hardening where only the blade is heated and quenched and the tangs are left un hardened and therefor easy to cant. If you put a high quality blade in a vice all the way to the shoulder and try to cant it you will be trying to cant the very hard steel of the blade rather than the relatively soft steel of the tang therefor nulifying our hard work!

[Inquartata]

Never broken off a tang on a brand-new blade. 'Cause I don't bend my tangs. The one sure-fire way.

[Orestes]

For what its worth, I didn't do anything different in this case than I've done with my other blades over the years. I had some trouble with the blades when I got them, so I didn't want to pester the vendor any more than I already had. That being said, I'll see if they're amenable to a trade. If not, I'll chalk it up to an StM lesson...

[Mergs]

FWIW, I've had this problem with blades that I purchased from Fechtsport several years ago. Don't know why manufacturers would process batches of blades when conveyor ovens and quench baths are readily available in industry.

Guess it's like the Marines, 230 years of tradition, untouched by change!