[Ansteorra-rapier] Pros and Cons of change

Chris Zakes dontivar at gmail.com
Mon Oct 15 08:51:58 PDT 2012


At 08:19 AM 10/15/2012, you wrote:

>I agree that the data in the survey is anecdotal, but so is your 
>response to it. How often a "serious injury" is reported is a straw 
>man argument switch for the frequency of breakage.

But your original point was a claim that an alleged higher breakage 
rate meant these blades were not safe. The recorded injury rate says 
that's an erroneous conclusion.

In my experience, back in the days when foils and epees were the 
standard weapons in Ansteorra, you might see one blade break in a 
tournament every few months. If it happened, the break usually made 
enough noise that it was obvious, everybody would call hold, the 
fighter would replace the blade and the bout would continue.


>Tivar, would it be more accurate to say that light blades have a 
>shorter life expectancy?
>
>Ciao,
>Pug

That depends on what you're comparing them to. My foil blades usually 
lasted several years, but I've heard of people needing to replace 
epees ecvery six months (not necessarily due to breakage, it could be 
that they'd developed a soft spot where they were more likely to 
break if you kept using them.) Arguably, if we're going to be 
paranoid about broken blades, the ones we should worry about these 
days are Hanweis, not foils or epees. Those have been known to 
shatter and throw multiple pieces about the field.

         -Tivar Moondragon




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