Absolute Ultra FIE Maraging Foil Blade

eroomynohtna was correct in the kinking of the blade. The foible actually kinks upwards a considerable amount in my entire batch. I like the feel, but it breaks in uncomfortably for me because I had to constantly fix it.

I picked up one of these last week with the new german barrel while in store, I read some of the opinions on this site and from others. I was of course a bit weary, so I grabbed this one and a Vnity. Amanda and Rich both assured me that the kinks were worked out after that first batch and I must agree.



Following eroomynohtna's review, the blades are superficially the way he described them, they're shaped much like the chevalier and prieur fie blades, and have an interesting deep-blue-purple hue.



I broke it in over the course of two nights, probably 7-8 hours of drilling and fencing, it's a proper medium stiffness blade with a good balance of flexibility and strength and I've been able to get some decent flicks out of it.



I've abused it pretty well, the german NextGen tip has inspired me to be rather aggressive as of late, so I've worked in a nice bend. It doesn't feel as durable as the Vnity, but it feels much better than the Mr. Chen FIE I bought last year. I've not had the same troubles with strange soft spots or bends, it's definitely worth the $76 I paid, I'll be using this to replace my Chevaliers as they break for sure.

My friend got two of these blades at my recommendation because they were so cheap. I don't know if he'll ever trust me again.



After about ten hours of fencing with one, it took an extreme kink upward about three inches from the foible (a sharp bend at about a 60 degree angle). He managed to straighten it out without breaking it and continued fencing. However, it kept kinking in the same place.



He got out his second blade and started fencing. After no more than 30 minutes, the same thing happened. Except this time the angle was even more severe. This time he didn't try to straighten it out and is going to ask for a refund.



I know vendors don't usually give refunds or exchanges on used blades, but this is ridiculous.



The only reason I gave the blade fair instead of poor is that they haven't actually broken yet, and maybe it was just a bad batch and Absolute will replace them with a good batch.



Also, the blades are light, particularly in the foible, and they have massively thick fortes. They're on the more flexible side, but not as whippy as a Prieur FIE.



Edit: My friend e-mailed Absolute about the blades, and they felt that their blades are a higher quality than that and offered to replace both. They even wanted to know the batch number (same for both, I believe) for quality control. We'll see how the new ones work out, but I certainly have a lot of faith in Absolute now. I'll edit my review later to reflect how the new ones perform.