[Ansteorra-rapier] Pros and Cons of change

[Chris Zakes]

At 11:47 AM 10/15/2012, you wrote:
>On Mon, Oct 15, 2012 at 11:51 AM, Chris Zakes <dontivar at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > 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
>
>....
>
> > 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.
>
>Twice.
>
>
>Frequency matters in statistics.
>
>Eyrny


It's been more than just the two incidents at Pennsic last year. You 
may remember an incident in Ealdormere back in early 2008, where a 
Hanwei shattered and one of the broken pieces flew up and landed on a 
second-story balcony near where the king was watching. I've also read 
reports of similar breaks in Lochac and the Midrealm. (And reading 
through that section of the KRMs email list, there's one mention from 
the Outlands of an epee breaking in multiple pieces as well.)

Does it happen often enough to ban the blades outright? No, but I 
*would* put Hanweis in the Caveat Emptor category.

         -Tivar Moondragon