foil blades

[alexmb]

i'm looking to buy some FIE foil blades.
the allstar FS blades seem cheap and fairly good quality.
is this a good choice?
and what tips are good? there is the option of getting them with german tips. are they good value and are they fairly long lasting?

any comments/suggestions about this are greatly appreciated
thanks

[Boo Boo]

I use Allstar FIE BF (White rectangular blades) and love them: a nice solid blade, but beautifully balanced and good for flicking. I very rarely/never get broken wires.

I use the German tips which are very nice tips (don't tend to go sticky), but do tend to fail annoyingly for me: the tip snaps in two leaving the tail stuck in the barrel (meaning you can't tell when you tip is broken - bad when it happens to you in competition). This has happened about six times since last December. However, nobody else seems to have a problem with the German tips (yes, I am using German tips and not French tips), so maybe it is just me.

Despite the regular tip problems. I still love the FIE BF blades (much prefer them to Leon Paul FIE or Leon Paul Budget FIE). Have never used the FS blades. Best thing to do is to find someone local who uses FS blades and ask to borrow one for a fight.

Boo

[I see dead people]

I feel there is little difference between all-star FIE blades and non FIE blades.

I think FIE blades are for real pros and real suckers.

[Fast Eddie]

I had a long discussion with Walter Triplette, at TCA, about the differences between the various blade types - very informative for a new fencer like me. Apparently, BF manufactures a lot of blades for a number of people, including Allstar, Uhlmann, TCA, and Cartel. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable than I am can post some definitive info about blade types on this site...

[alexmb]

in response to "i see dead people"
i'm not exacly a real pro, but many of the competitions i enter have a requirement for fie standard equipment

does anyone know much about what blades are good, what are cheap but good?

[neevel]

In the U.S., FIE blades aren't required for local and national level competitions. In Europe, they often are mandatory for at least the national level.

If you're practicing and competing regularly, then you'll save money in the long run by using maraging blades-- their durability is far greater than carbon steel blades, and will more than offset the higher purchase price (one US$70 FIE blade will usually get you through at least the same length of time as 4 US$30 carbon steel blades, and likely much longer).

Manufacturers do tend to try and make their maraging and non-maraging blades of a given model have a similar feel in terms of stiffness and balance, so a BF blue non-maraging blade will handle and flex much like a BF blue maraging blade. The maraging blades will be a little bit heavier. The real difference, as stated above, will be in longevity.

As for BF, they produce a variety of models of blades, and the various vendors select which models they want to carry and stamp their name on them, but there's not going to be a difference between the blades of given model sold by different vendors (a BF white FIE blade from Uhlmann will be the same as a BF white FIE blade from PBT), so you can just go with whomever gives you the best price (assuming all other things equal). There can be changes from one year or production run to another, so a 1998 BF blade from Uhlmann may be different from a 2000 BF blade from PBT. One thing to keep in mind is that there will always be a certain variation in the stiffness of individual blades of the same model, so the best situation is to be at a vendor's shop or tournament booth and go through a bunch of blades to find the ones that feel best to you.

As for german tips, use them, but be sure your vendor is selling you real German (Uhlmann or Allstar) rather than a german-style tip made elswhere. Also beware that even the best manufacturers will from time-to-time put out a bad production run or try an experiment that doesn't work out (like Prieur's flirtation with aluminium tip screws a few years back, or Uhlmann's propensity to turn out runs of body cords with cheap, too-brittle wire). These companies are smallish operations serving a smallish market, so they don't have the resources and incentive to engage in the same level of testing and QA that large manufacturers can.

-Dave