Do Cold Blades Snap Easier?

[chinbeard]

Last night before my first practice bout, I noticed that my epee had a slight backwards bend (nothing too wild, I just wanted to make sure that it had that slight arc in it), so I bent it the right way, not forcefully at all, as I have done many times before. It snapped in my hands. One of my clubmates said that it was because the blade was cold. It seems plausible. It was a cheap blade, and I'm not sweating it, but I don't want something like this to happen to one of my good blades. Should I "warm up" my blades when they're cold?

[trafl926]

I have some anecdotal evidence of that. Some winters, after a long drive in Ohio to a tournament, there have been an increase in snapped sabers. Often they will snap at the bell and go flying across the room without much blade contact(none at all sometimes!)

[Hauptman]

I suspect that the changes in temperature that we humans find extreme are very mild to a steel blade.

Seriously, I would be surprised if a change in typical winter/summer temperature ranges could affect a fencing blade. But where are the metalugists when you need them?!!

[Allen Evans]

After overnight exposure to extrememly cold temperatures (-40 to -50 C), I 've had experiance with non-maraging blades snapping very easily. Cold temperatures effects the ductility of metal depending on their make up and their structure (You can read more about that here). I suspect that since the blades I was using at the time were non-maraging, they were very suseptiable to this sort of failure. I might expect maraging blades to behave much differently.

Note that my experances were with very cold temperatures extremes. I doubt a change of 10-15 degrees C would have much of an effect.

AE

[Immelmann]

After overnight exposure to extrememly cold temperatures (-40 to -50 C), I 've had experiance with non-maraging blades snapping very easily.

I just want to know what you were doing and why you were doing it to endure -50 C temperatures.

[erooMynohtnA]

Short answer, probably not

[Nolano]

Well, I'm not a metallurgist, but I am majoring in Fabrication and welding and have been working with metals since I was about 13.

Cold enough, yes, they will. The colder a blade gets, the harder it is to bend. Metals tend to get harder as the temperature goes down, and softer as it goes up, how much being based on it's melting temperature, usually.

For example, Tungsten, the metal with the highest melting point, of approximately 6200F, is harder and more brittle than all hell at room temperature. The tungsten electrodes used for TIG welding will often break if you just drop them.

Lead, close to the other end of the range, melts at 620~ degrees. As you most likely know, it's so soft you can imprint it with your thumbnails. It's also very ductile and tough. Lead simply doesn't break or snap. It will eventually shear if you bend it back and forth due to the work hardening effect that this causes, introducing stresses.

Steel is somewhere between the two, with a melting point between 2400~ and 2700~, typically. 100 degrees temperature really can make a difference, though. Although I'm betting that if your blade snaps due to the temperature, it was on it's way there anyways, except in extreme examples(see Allen's post).

[Fencergrl]

I just want to know what you were doing and why you were doing it to endure -50 C temperatures.

He used to live in the far north. -40C is not uncommon in most of Canada at some point in the winter. My sister lives in the Yukon and it'll drop to even -60... mind you after a certain point, it really doesn't matter... cold is cold.

As for the original poster. Yes... warm up your blades if you want to reduce snapping, or better yet avoid storing them in cold places.

[Immelmann]

He used to live in the far north. -40C is not uncommon in most of Canada at some point in the winter. My sister lives in the Yukon and it'll drop to even -60... mind you after a certain point, it really doesn't matter... cold is cold.

Ah, thanks for the explanation. Here in the South Carolina Lowcountry, we have no concept of winter, or cold in general. The only snow we have comes in paper cones with cherry flavoring, and we freak out whenever it drops below 70 F for more than a few days.

[ejemyr]

My (limited) experience is that after pouring acetone on a blade (for cleaning) it can be very cold and then breaks easy, if one tries to bend. This implies a "yes" to the OP's Q.

Vänliga hälsningar,

[EdGardner]

so I bent it the right way, not forcefully at all, as I have done many times before

Occam's razor applied to the question might suggest an explanation...