Fencing.Net - Your Guide to Fencing & Fencing Equipment

Squall_Leonhart · 10-11-2003, 05:44 PM

My school started a fencing club, and our show up for the past four meetings has been consistent with at least ten people. We're now at the stage where we are seriously discussing equipment and we currently have three options:
1) cheap quality= cheap (money wise)
2)medium quality = medium rate
3) uhlmann quality = medium rate

leon paul is evidently not in our price range. I think our director has narrowed down the brands to uhlmann, triplette, and blue gauntlet.
What can you tell me about each? I am serious into the sport, and plan to use the equipment for years. should I invest in uhlmann? (we plan to order at least eight sets of equipment, so we do have a chance in discount).

SJB · 10-11-2003, 09:23 PM

Personally I would purchase the Uhlman gear over the other choices.

I use, and my club also uses, Uhlman equipment and it tends to hold up quite well.

Windsor · 10-11-2003, 11:19 PM

I think for a school club that Triplette or Blue Gauntlet would be good cost effective choices. I fence with 2 clubs and one uses Triplette the other Blue Gauntlet, no problems with either.

In this case I would go with whatever is the best deal.

nahouw · 10-11-2003, 11:35 PM

You say equipment, but you are not differentiating between personal equipment and scoring/reels equipment.

But either way, I think your best bet would be to go with Blue Gauntlet. Since you will be buying in bulk, they can give you a discount.

swordsen · 10-12-2003, 04:43 AM

Personally for most general stuff I would go with TCA. I did when i started up my schools group. they too will give a discount if you call and talk to Walter about it.

Peach · 10-12-2003, 09:33 AM

All our shared equipment in my little club came from Blue Gauntlet (weapons, jackets, plastrons, masks, gloves) and has lasted quite well for several years.

downunder · 10-12-2003, 09:51 AM

i use a BG lame, and it's an awesome fit... sits right on my hip - can't get any better fit than that

so i'm biased kinda towards them... cept i use Uhlmann WC 800N jacket and breeches

***Craig*** · 10-12-2003, 11:48 AM

You say LeonPaul is not in your price range, and then state that you're looking at the Uhlmann gear. The LP and Uhlmann are quite similar in price and quality, so I wonder what is giving you the impression that LP is a great deal higher than Uhlmann...

Craig

Squall_Leonhart · 10-12-2003, 01:58 PM

uhlmann I thought was a tad bit less expensive, and was told they last forever till the dawn of time.
Thanks a lot for your advice!
Do any of you know if I can get a hold of an ambidextrous jacket with the stretch nylon and cotton blend? I could only find the ambi ones with the cotton material. Thanks.

seak · 10-13-2003, 02:39 PM

I am a past president of the fencing club at the University of Md and we have faced this same issue. We tend to not buy Ulhman as it is to expensive for our budget and we have found that both blue gauntlet and triplette gear is good enough for our purposes. Personally I prefer Triplette because I think they have more of a range especially as far as foil is concerned, but I know some of our sabre fencers prefer blue gauntlet. Either one is fine and should give you many good years of fencing life. Whomever you go with you stand a decent chance at a discount but you should ask when you order

Seak

MikeHarm · 10-13-2003, 08:54 PM

My BG lame fit great too. Then, 4 months later it was a bad lame and I needed to buy a new one. I like the super duty triplette ones a lot better for surviveability.

Quote:

Originally posted by downunder
i use a BG lame, and it's an awesome fit... sits right on my hip - can't get any better fit than that

so i'm biased kinda towards them... cept i use Uhlmann WC 800N jacket and breeches

downunder · 10-14-2003, 03:44 AM

yeah mine tend to have a bit of a jumpy resistance.... nothing like turning up to weapon control and having some areas jump up to 7-9 Ohms

ahh well, thats what the window cleaning spray is for....

i've found a great way to clean it is using wool mix, and lemon juice.... keeps the resistances down

broncofencer · 10-14-2003, 04:02 AM

We use mostly BG stuff and have never had a problem I prefer to do large orders from them because I can do them online and type in my order so that it does not get fouled up tCA is still not in the 21st century and you have to call them and in a large order stuff always gets messed up that way. Their equipment is still good however.
As to your other question I don't know of anyone who sells an ambi jacket in stretch nylon probably because those that know they want the nylon material know they want front close jacket and those don't come in an ambi style.

oiuyt · 10-14-2003, 12:40 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Craig
You say LeonPaul is not in your price range, and then state that you're looking at the Uhlmann gear. The LP and Uhlmann are quite similar in price and quality, so I wonder what is giving you the impression that LP is a great deal higher than Uhlmann...

Craig

Most of the time the Paul stuff that I've seen has been a bit more than Uhlmann gear ordered from a US vendor. Once you start ordering from Germany there's a huge price gap. Unless LP has dropped prices noticibly since I last looked Uhlmann can be considerably cheaper and they're both high quality.

-B :)

40Saberthieves · 10-16-2003, 11:16 PM

Dont get the triplette sabres.

I got my first set of equipment from them last year. I am happy with everything but the sabres.

They weigh a lot

Toecutter · 10-17-2003, 08:41 PM

I think you get a lot of bang for your buck with Triplette.

cmorra · 10-19-2003, 01:15 PM

For the price, Blue Gauntlet holds up rather well. My four-year-old BG lame still passes inspection. My high school club always did fine with the company, and they tend to have good discounts. If some people want to buy their own stuff later, Leon Paul or Uhlmann are great.

I've found Blue Gauntlet electric foils, however, to be unreliable. If you buy weapons other than sabres from them, be sure to invest in extra tips and springs.

fence1848 · 10-20-2003, 01:49 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by cmorra
I've found Blue Gauntlet electric foils, however, to be unreliable. If you buy weapons other than sabres from them, be sure to invest in extra tips and springs.

I second that. Many people have said that BG has been great for their equipment, but I have personally seen too many of their electric foil blades break.

If you're talking about just the dry equipment (jackets, masks, dry foils, etc.) then both BG and Triplette are great for these. Dry equipment is expected to wear over time, so even if it's not the best equipment, it's no big deal. If I were you, though, I would be more selective when looking at electric equipment. With the new CDC warning on sharing equipment, you will no want to skint and get shoddy equipment. Electric equipment can generally wait, though, for a club. You can tell fencers that they need to get their own electric equipment (which is advised anyways).

tiger fencer · 10-20-2003, 08:23 PM

This was the philosophy at my club.

For club equipment,
cheap jackets/knickers
better masks (triplette brand)
cheap to better blades
better lames (triplette ultralights)

We’d get cheap jackets and knickers, b/c club members never take care of things aren’t theirs, no matter how much you police them, and you can easily end up doing more policing than coaching if you’re not careful. Club equipment is going to take some abuse whatever you do. Especially with jackets, they’d always end up dirty and sweaty with rust stains all over them.

With some things we felt were worth a little extra money, like masks, blades, and esp. lames. We’d get cheap practice blades, and then a mix of cheap and better ($30) electric blades(all non-FIE). The veterens ended up using the better blades, and that was fine since they were less likely to kink or break them. For lames I recommend NOT getting the cheap copper ones. It helped our sanity when we had to make or test out 20 weapons a few days before a comp, to not have to worry about giving our lames a bath or rub out dead spots. Just looked at the Triplette site, the ultralights are more expensive than they used to be, but I’d still say they’re worth it, or the stainless are only $12 dollars more. If you’re a small club you probably only have 5-7 competitive members, so the added cost won’t be excessively high, ~$200 more. One thing you can do is make your competitive members pay a higher membership fee since they’re using more equipment. Usually they’re the more dedicated ones, and don’t mind a higher price.

Depending on your budget you might have to go cheaper in all areas, but since you were considering Uhlmann uniforms I assume you have a decent one. If you have a $500 dollar budget you’ll have get everything cheap.

Once people had been fencing a year we’d encourage them to get their own stuff( though we didn’t make them), especially if they complained about the club equipment. Another reason not to get great club equipment is that people have no incentive to get their own stuff!

Another thing you can do is make everyone buy their own practice weapon.

As for the difference between Triplette and Blue Gauntlet, overall not much difference. Both probably have things that are better than the other. I like Triplette's jacket material but not the fit, I like their lames, masks and bell guards particularly.

Squall_Leonhart · 10-25-2003, 05:22 PM

Thanks all. Well, there was a parent meeting on Wednesday, and even though we are not filthy rich, only two people voted for BG (myself included) and the rest for Uhlmann (about 10?), and they were all parents. I suppose they wanted the best for their little cherubs and absolutely no chance of eye-gouging.
My director has found a way to get a beginner set from them for about $140 excluding s&h. Is that an insane bargain?