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Morion · 01-15-2007, 04:07 PM

I recently purchased 2 regular old STM electric foil blades. One broke during the first night I used it while I was flexing the blade to bow it. The second broke as I was attempting to put a bend in it before I even used it. I do not feel I was putting undue stress on either of these blades, they just snapped. Has anyone else experienced this with STM? Is this just a case where I got a couple of blades from a bad batch? Enquiring minds want to know!

keith · 01-15-2007, 04:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Morion

I recently purchased 2 regular old STM electric foil blades. One broke during the first night I used it while I was flexing the blade to bow it. The second broke as I was attempting to put a bend in it before I even used it. I do not feel I was putting undue stress on either of these blades, they just snapped. Has anyone else experienced this with STM? Is this just a case where I got a couple of blades from a bad batch? Enquiring minds want to know!

Have you been following ORODs training regime by any chance?

Morion · 01-15-2007, 04:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by keith

Have you been following ORODs training regime by any chance?

Since I don't know what that is I probably am not. I'm not a 98 lb weakling but I'm not Hercules either.

JayhawkPawn · 01-15-2007, 04:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Morion

I recently purchased 2 regular old STM electric foil blades. One broke during the first night I used it while I was flexing the blade to bow it. The second broke as I was attempting to put a bend in it before I even used it. I do not feel I was putting undue stress on either of these blades, they just snapped. Has anyone else experienced this with STM? Is this just a case where I got a couple of blades from a bad batch? Enquiring minds want to know!

Flexing the blade to bow it? Or were you advance lunging into the remise? Seriously, I have a hard time believing that you broke two brand new blades by just prebending them. I'm jaded, but I'm a monster, and I've yet to break a blade, and I own StM blades that have taken upward bends of extreme angles, and were bent back into shape with a foot, a rag, and proper application of gym floor and heat. This is for both foil and epee blades.

Did you purchase them from a clubmate that said they were new? Where did you "break" them? If you snapped them in the middle, then you put some extreme bends in your stuff, and need to back off a bit. If they snapped at the tang, it could be a defect of shipping, or perhaps you got a bit overzealous. If you snapped them in the forte, you're full of something, and deserve your two broken blades, and if you snapped them in the foible or point, then you did it yourself.

See how easily you can break your blades? Was this your first time bending a blade? Did your coach make the "You're a monkey." face at you when you showed them to him/her? Sorry for sounding jaded, but I's seen it all.

-Jay

OROD · 01-15-2007, 06:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Morion

Since I don't know what that is I probably am not. I'm not a 98 lb weakling but I'm not Hercules either.

In that case, dont even attempt my training methods Morion. You might hurt yourself.

.

Morion · 01-15-2007, 07:50 PM

Both blades were brand new from a vendor. They snapped in the foible. One about 8-10 inches from the tip and the other about 2 inches from the tip. I've been fencing and building my own weapons for a few years now as well as installing new blades on weapons for others in the club. As far as I can tell I was not being excessively heavy handed. The weapon that I got to use had experienced no extreme bends during use. They just snapped when as far as I can tell they shouldn't have.

restlesscheese · 01-15-2007, 08:17 PM

I've had a few of the regular StM color blades for about 6 months, and they've been awesome. I've never even had any them take a bad bend before. (Come to think of it, it's hard to get them to take a bend at all! They just spring back straight...) I'm betting bad batch, but that's just me.

OROD · 01-15-2007, 10:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Morion

Both blades were brand new from a vendor. They snapped in the foible. One about 8-10 inches from the tip and the other about 2 inches from the tip...

Sounds like a bad batch of blades.

.

jjefferies · 01-15-2007, 11:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Morion

I recently purchased 2 regular old STM electric foil blades. One broke during the first night I used it while I was flexing the blade to bow it. The second broke as I was attempting to put a bend in it before I even used it. I do not feel I was putting undue stress on either of these blades, they just snapped. Has anyone else experienced this with STM? Is this just a case where I got a couple of blades from a bad batch? Enquiring minds want to know!

Such things happen. If you genuinely had not been fencing with them then it should be obvious to any armorer that they were untouched. In such case I would have no qualms about asking the vendor for a replacement. As has been pointed out it is possible that there may have been a bad batch. In general I have decent regard for StM, at least in epee. Foil's not my game and I hesitate to comment about StM foil blades.

chefencer · 01-16-2007, 12:21 PM

Morion: I know it's pretty warm out your way, but were they cold?

And Orod's training methods (as I recall) involve flicking to one's elbow with rebar and stuff...

OROD · 01-16-2007, 03:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chefencer

And Orod's training methods (as I recall) involve flicking to one's elbow with rebar and stuff...

Yes, here's a link to the post. As you can see, I have a rather particular training method which is not for the weak to even attempt.

.

reawl · 01-21-2007, 12:25 AM

I picked up two StM gold blades from Absolute and got really terrible life out of them. They lasted about one month and both broke about 6 inches from the top (which is where all of my blades break, but I usually get 4-6 months out of a blade). They were bought in December.

That said, I've had good experience with both Absolute and StM in the past and I would probably purchase some of the same blades from the same vendor in the future (once I'm sure that this batch has been sold off).

noodle · 01-21-2007, 12:29 AM

as was implied by reawl, blade quality can vary from batch to batch. sounds like there's a bad batch of STMs floating about.

Warrior Princess · 01-24-2007, 11:51 PM

People are always bad-mouthing STM blades, but once you get them conditioined and broken in, they're amasing blades. Really whippy. I have two Uhllman blues, two blue STM blades, and one regular STM. I like my STMs alot better.

LUDICROUS · 01-25-2007, 04:06 AM

Perhaps the quality of non FIE stm's varies wildly? Bad batch of carbon steel (w/e its made of)? Anyway, Non FIE is non FIE, so you can't *expect* much. There is much more leeway in fencing for bad quality, since the market is relatively tiny.

Warrior Princess · 01-26-2007, 01:01 PM

Oh... you're one of those equipment snobs.

(I can be one too, I just feel like spending my money would be a waste since I don't compete in FIE right now.) It's spring steel, not carbon steel. (I like metal, so I asked coach.)

Joe biebel · 01-28-2007, 05:28 PM

That (breaking a new blade while attempting to put the initial curve in the blade) is amazingly rare. Having it happen twice, screams defect in the batch". I would hope that the vendor would "take them back" or give you credit for them. I have returned four blades in my 37 years of fencing and received full credit and apologies from the vendors each time. I have never tried to return a "used" blade. Whenever I get a new blade (I'm the one who's going to set it up) I will it check the tang and tip threading, make sure the groove is proper, before I curve the blade and put the cant in it. If it's not up to snuff, or it breaks while bending or canting, back it goes. I would always advise doing this (checking and bending the blade) before you put any labor (prepping and wiring) into the blade. There is, as you have learned, a small chance that the blade has a defect. I've already had a brand new blade that I did not curve ahead of time, that broke while sitting in the wiring board, grrrrr.

I have not bought a standard (non-FIE blade) in several years. I have yet to have an FIE blade break prepping it. I have had several FIE blades with other defects though.

I think you should send an email to the vendor and make it clear that you want them to replace the blades for no charge. The problem may end there. Forums like this are good for helping vendors see the value of customer service and treating customers fairly. It would be good to know, either way, how your vendor responds. Good luck.

clonardo · 01-28-2007, 07:05 PM

were the blades cold when you snapped them?

We use a lot of StM color blades as team gear at my club. The quality is extremely variable. The counterattackers on foil tend to break them pretty regularly. We had a batch of StM color epee blades that just had no temper- you could bend them 6" from the forte, by hand, and they would stay that way.