Effects of cold temperatures on Sport Fencing equipment blades
Effects of cold temperatures on Sport Fencing equipment blades
(OP)
There has been a lot of discussion in the Sport Fencing community about the effects of relative cold temperatures on fencing blades and the need to "warm them up" using friction to 'Room Temperature' prior to use. The temperatures that I am referring to are between -20 degrees F and 50 degrees F. Many fencers claim that if the blades are not warmed up thathtey become brittle and are more prone to breakage if they are not warmed up.
The general kinds of stresses applied to these blades are impact (blade to blade contact, blade to guard contact and blade to 'target' contact) and flexing in a single plane.
Steels used in these blades are either of Maraging steel or of — 45Si7, 45Si Cr Mo, 45 XH2 MFA.
My assumption is that these temperature ranges would have minimal effect tothe ductility of the metals, but is has been a LONG time since my failure analysis class, and I was never that good in my chemestry. Any thoughts on this would be nice.
The general kinds of stresses applied to these blades are impact (blade to blade contact, blade to guard contact and blade to 'target' contact) and flexing in a single plane.
Steels used in these blades are either of Maraging steel or of — 45Si7, 45Si Cr Mo, 45 XH2 MFA.
My assumption is that these temperature ranges would have minimal effect tothe ductility of the metals, but is has been a LONG time since my failure analysis class, and I was never that good in my chemestry. Any thoughts on this would be nice.





RE: Effects of cold temperatures on Sport Fencing equipment blades
It isn't impossible that freezing would be cold enough to cause a noticeable reduction in ductility. But I thought that these grades had better toughness than that.
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Plymouth Tube
RE: Effects of cold temperatures on Sport Fencing equipment blades
Regards,
Cory
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RE: Effects of cold temperatures on Sport Fencing equipment blades
RE: Effects of cold temperatures on Sport Fencing equipment blades
RE: Effects of cold temperatures on Sport Fencing equipment blades
And yet another question - Is there a way to VISIBLY determine impending failure of a blade due this kind of damage? I have been told to look for 'whitening' of the afffected area that might show multiple microfractures or loss of ?structural integrity? Most weapons will be subjected to multiple ?deformations? of this kind prior to final catastrophic failure.
Sorry, I;ve been working as an IT tech for 10 years now and my old vocabulary on mterials and testing terms have long ago left me.
RE: Effects of cold temperatures on Sport Fencing equipment blades
RE: Effects of cold temperatures on Sport Fencing equipment blades
The same cannot be said for high carbon spring steels. Having spent some time in the spring wire business I can tell a couple of stories of spring makers that took coils of wire off of trucks in the winter and went straight into production. Shattering spring steel is hard on tooling.
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Plymouth Tube
RE: Effects of cold temperatures on Sport Fencing equipment blades
RE: Effects of cold temperatures on Sport Fencing equipment blades
RE: Effects of cold temperatures on Sport Fencing equipment blades
This was my whole question from the beginning of the thread. I've seen fencers take their blades from their blade bags and proceed to "warm up" their weapon by rubbing it with an old piece of towel, all the while proclaiming that this is the only way to ensure the blade doesn't shatter.
Would you recommend the judicious use of a file on the non-champhered blades to reduce failures?