Electric épée blade Leon Paul maraging

Product Details
Leon Paul's Epée is manufactured in a unique way to form the worlds lightest FIE approved blade. The blade is made from a special type of rolled maraging steel which is hand made in small batches for us in Sheffield. The sheet steel is folded up on itself at an elevated temperature. In a normal blade the heating and forging process can introduce stresses and fractures and this is avoided in our method. The lightness of this blade does not mean that we have compromised on safety or durability. In extensive independent testing the Leon Paul blade has been shown to have 2.49 times less stress in the break area than traditional shaped blades. This is why on average it will last up to 5 times longer than other blades.
Guest
Summary: caaaamaaan
June 12th, 2005
These blades are awesome. I purchased around 8 blades, been given 6 and have two FIE leon pauls. Now, these blades are a little goofy because of their reaction to hits (vibrating) and its smooth but slow(not flicky) bend, but those can be excellent traits when you get used to them. Now the only problems that affect it are common manufacturing nuances that come with every blade. For instance, one of my leon paul's had to be executed(-,^,-*-) for continuously failing. Upon inspection the blade was somehow shaving bits of the blade onto the contacts, leaving it useless. The only problems that could occur commonly enough would be the apparent weld of the tang to the blade (much more obvious and disastrous on the non-fie. I actually bent one off!) which may cause a consistently loosening bell guard, which is very annoying considering the vibrating blade. Other than that I have found it is dang near impossible to break these things with normal fencing. My two weapons have lasted much longer than my random assortment and they have never left me scared to hit hard, unlike my stm fie which left an extreme bend and an incredible odd smell after both of us plowed through each others' clavicles. Of course, with any blade punching or releasing your fingers will find the weakness in the metal, but if you handle weapons properly, these never break. And believe me, there are weapons out there that can be destroyed with beats (imagine 4 of the same blade breaking to beats from an idiot that can't control himself, then the leon paul fie stopping him in his rampage)
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Gav
Summary: Good blades
October 13th, 2004
I switched from Non-FIE to maraging a while back. These blades have a good wright and take a nice bend. The newer ones have a slightly different profile [apparently - although I couldn't tell the difference]. Good bladess. Recommended.
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Prefab
Summary: Broken!
September 16th, 2003
I had a maraging LP epee for exactly 2 months before it snapped. This was only fencing 5 or so hours a week in club - no comps durring this time. I liked the feel and balance of it, but I was expecting a much, much longer life span.
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