Bizarre terminology - help! :D

[Mads]

Well met, ye wise fencers!

I have been lurking on this forum for some time, and finally decided to register, so here I am (hooray).

Anyways, I recently broke one of my epees, so I need a new blade, and here the trouble starts! When looking at the lists of different blades, I am overwhelmed with terms such as:

French FIE (N) SMcoloured
French MRG/BF FIE blue
FIE Maraging Ecoline VN
FIE Maraging allstar SM

I have not been able to find any explanation of the difference of these blades, although I understand that maraging blades are more durable, and of course "blue" refers to the colour of the blade.

I hope you can help me shed some light on this issue

Kind regards - Mads.

[Zilverzmurfen]

I am overwhelmed with terms such as:

French FIE (N) SMcoloured
French MRG/BF FIE blue
FIE Maraging Ecoline VN
FIE Maraging allstar SM

I have not been able to find any explanation of the difference of these blades, although I understand that maraging blades are more durable, and of course "blue" refers to the colour of the blade.

Hej och välkommen, granne!

If a vendor describes it as 'french' it simply means that the tang isn't cut short, ie. it's long enough to fit a french grip on it.

The stamp FIE means the blad is certified by the FIE. Those can either be 'FIE Maraging' (where maraging is a type of steel, others can provide details of it should you inquire...) or FIE (N). The 'N' stands for 'normal' and means it's a certified FIE blade, though not maraging steel.

'Blue' indeed refers to the colouring of the blade (done by elektrolys). 'Coloured' implies the blade is of another colour, usually rainbow-y. There are also gold coloured blades.

BF (Blaise Frères), VN (possible abbreviation for Vniti?), SM (or more often StM) is the forge of the blade, ie. who manufactured it. Sometimes vendors place their companys stamp on the blade, but this is unimportant -- what you want to know is the forge. Example: FIE Maraging allstar SM is an StM blade sold by Allstar.

[bobb121]

here is what the difference is between the blades in order:
-a non maraging fie stm blade with french grip tang
-a maraging fie bf blade with french grip tang
-a maraging fie vn blade (ecoline, with no tang specification)
-an fie stm blade distributed by allstar(again no specification on tang length)

[fencerbill]

Blades are almost always sold with a tang long enough to use a French grip.

They also almost always have the threads come close enough to the end of the tang that they can be cut short for an orthopedic grip without having to extend the threads. Unless it is for a child size grip or for someone who uses a really short grip.

Almost all fencers will be able to use most blades without having to do more than cut off part of the tang.

[Cookeit]

Wait, so what is ecoline?

[erooMynohtnA]

Wait, so what is ecoline?

Vniti

Don't worry about what the manufacturer calls it, just the FIE stamp.

[Mads]

Well, this certainly has helped a lot. Thanks a lot everyone