Titanium guard

It's not titanium at all, it's aluminum alloy, and not a particularly strong alloy at that.

If it was really titanium, it would be either made thinner or would be substantially heavier, and would be more expensive, since Ti is about 1.7 times heavier than aluminum, and considerably more costly.

IMHO, the "Titanium" name on these is simply bad translation and misrunderstanding of the name of european products called "Titan", meaning Large, as it is close to the 12cm maximum guard size.

This guard is lightweight, strong, and ugly. It's also way behind Vniti titanium/aluminum as my favorite guard.



There are a couple things that land this guard behind Vniti. The shape is just aesthetically displeasing to me, the Vniti is finished just a tad better, and I think the Vniti is much stronger. I'm also not sure about the extra wide wire groove in the guard (probably doesn't have a positive or negative effect).



I can torque a Vniti guard with all my strength, and I can't even start to bend it. While I couldn't break the fencing.net guard, I can see it start to flex a little when I apply a lot of pressure. The Vniti guard also has a pronounced lip around the edge which makes it a little stronger and I think it looks nice.



That being said, the guard is not weak by any means. And it's also only $12 compared to a Vniti at $18-20. You'll probably get more life for your money out of the fencing.net guard, unless you're some sort of guard crushing monster.



This guard comes as a free upgrade on complete weapons from fencing.net. You can't beat that deal. There's no reason not to get it.



The fencing.net guard is certainly one of the lightest guards I've ever seen (lighter than the Vniti), probably the very lightest. If you like a light weapon, this is definitely the guard for you.

I have used a lot of "titanium" style guards over the years. I run the extra large Vniti's on my foils and the Vniti guards on my epees. I have also used the Uhlmann/Allstar, FWF and Chinese other Chinese made versions of these guards.



The F.net guard is the first one I have ever used that was colored! The color is a nice touch. I have a blue and a couple of matte finished ones. The blue color is very, very pretty when new. It offers a definite wow factor when people first see it. The finish is reasonably durable, although it will scrape off and scuff with use.



However, IMHO the color is just a nice extra. It makes it easy to tell your weapons apart from the crowd and offers a good way for schools or clubs to differentiate their weapons and help keep them from walking off.



The reasons to get the TI guards for me is the very light weight and the extreme durability. These are, judging by feel (I did not have a letter scale handy) the lightest of all the TI guards on the market. They fit very well over the tangs of most blades including Vniti, StM and BF. A small amount of filling/fitting may be required for the tangs of some older BF or StM blades that tended to thicken out towards the shoulder, but no more so than any other TI guard.



Impact and dent resistance is very good. After some very hard hits, both blade to guard and guard to guard, the finish scratched off in places, but there was no deformation or denting of the guard itself.



The only slight area of concern is that there is not a rolled edge or lip on the guard. As such, I think that it could become "serrated" after a lot of hard use. However, I was able to take down any burring or serrations along the edge with just a few strokes of a heavy file so I don't consider that a serious issue.



Summery: A very light weight, high life guard at a great price. The colors are nice, but don't expect the finish to stay pretty for the life of the guard. All in all, the best TI foil guard on the market for the money IMHO.