Inexpensive, decent blades?

[Russ]

I'm the armorer of my club and I've been noticing something disconcerting. At the begining of last year, we bought several new, complete epees from Absolute. So far, three have broken, and on two of those the blade broke inside the barrel. Has anyone else noticed this with AF blades, or is this just a random occurance?

I'd like to recommend a different brand to the treasurer the next time we put an order in. If we had the money, I'd replace the club blades with Vnitis. According to the AF website, STM blades are about the same price. Anybody know if they are of decent quality/ know of a similarly priced good quality blade?

[D'Art]

If you can get the equipment review section to work, then I suggest taking a look at that. Failing that, LP blades are almost unbreakable, though do have a slight tendency to get bad kinks in them if abused. I would recommend them above almost any other blade if it's only for club use though. I'm sure the full time epeeists may have their own views though.

[Nolano]

The LP's last a very, very long time. The STM's get soft rather quickly, IMO. Vniti's also last forever, but are a little spendier, as you've pointed out. I can't speak for the durability of many other blades.

[SJCFU#2]

Many people consider STM's to be about the best low-price (i.e. non-FIE) blades in terms of cost vs durability.

[Delta]

I'll second the StM opinion.

The UNC fencing team ordered at least thirty AF epee blades thirty last year, but I don't recall anyone's blade breaking inside the barrel.

[telkanuru]

STMs rust like nothing else.

Personally, I believe it's worth the money to invest in Vnitis, even if it means doing it gradually. It takes several years to break a Vniti foil blade, and I've never broken a Vniti epee (except in the tang, and that's because I pommel french and flick).

[KD5MDK]

Right, but when you have to outfit 15 fencers, that gradually can take a VERY long time.

[aamct2]

I also favour STM for non-FIE blades. If the coloured blades are an option, that will help prevent the rust.

Yes, they rust. But all blades rust eventually. If you end up having a rust problem, look at where your keeping them relative to the uniforms (if you have 2 closets, keep the weapons in one and uniforms in the other). Otherwise, there's always elbow grease.

Still, it should reduce the number of breakages for you, which is what you wanted.

[CvilleFencer]

At my club, after having given up on the Chinese blades early on, we had initially outfitted all the loaner/club blades with StM non-FIE blades. After doing the math and figuring out that we went through several a month, we started getting in Vniti foil blades and a mix of LP non-FIE and Vniti epee blades, all using LP points for durability and commonality of parts. It is more expensive, but it becomes more of a one time or yearly expense than a monthly expense and I have certainly not regretted it. The only exception is our #2 blades for the kids, those we are still using StM for, as they are not as hard on the blades and those weapons just don't get as much use.

I would strongly suggest going with Vniti for foil and either LP non-FIE (very light, super long life but an odd feel) or Vniti (heavier, damn near indestructible) for the epees. For saber, we use F.nets house brand as it seems all saber blades break at about the same rate in diverse and sometimes inexperienced hands...

[Robert Smith]

I stopped buying STM blades after a number of them broke in that same place - right at the base of the barrel. Two of three FIE blades and at least three non-FIE from a batch of five. I've re-threaded all of them, but it was still a pain, as it renders both the barrel and the wire useless, and it takes time to re-thread and rewire.

Speaking of which, though, wonder if the OP considered rethreading the broken blades? I haven't had to do it on epee blades, but it's easy enough on foil blades.

At the same time, we have fencers with FIE and non-FIE STM blades that have had no problems, so I suspect it was just a bad batch one way or another. Are there common steps in the making of FIE and non-FIE blades? Dunno.

If we had the money, we'd buy Vniti blades for club weapons, both epee and foil. But we don't, and we'd far rather people bought their own weapons, so we maintain only a small number of cheap blades. I think when we replace broken ones. it will probably be with cheap STM foil blades (don't like them, but there's not much alternative at the price) and LP "folded" epee blades.

[Russ]

You make a good point about rethreading, I hadn't considered that. I'm fairly new at the armory game, I got the position because I had a set of jeweler's screwdrivers and had done some repairs on my own gear (All my blades are Vnitis and I love them). When the club's previous armorer stopped showing up/graduated (we're a college club), I took over the position. I know the basic principles of armory, though I'm short on first-hand experience.

Since we're a college club that fences all three weapons, we have a limited budget divided three ways, which makes even slowly working Vnitis in nearly impossible. For the price we'd be getting only one blade when we need three.

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

Go with the LP.

My club bought them two years ago, and we havent broken any of them yet.