Fencing Weapon Blades

February 10, 2007 edition

FIE and Non-FIE Blades

FIE blades have been tested for conformance with FIE specifications for the physical characteristics of foil and épée blades. The FIE quality label on such a blade makes it particularly easy to identify the actual manufacturer of the blade. The 7 mm wide FIE quality label contains "FIE" at the bottom, the manufacturer's mark in the middle (usually two capital letters), and the month and year of manufacture at the top. In addition to the FIE quality label, the blade might also be stamped with a mark identifying the seller of the blade. But, even when a mark of the seller appears, the FIE quality label always clearly identifies the maker in a simple and unambiguous fashion. (It should be noted that just because a blade has an FIE quality label, it might not actually be an FIE blade. Before its bankruptcy, France Lames was known for selling épées with FIE quality labels, even though they never were FIE blades. There was a story about how they anticipated a rule change which would have left them FIE-approved, but the rule change did not happen even though the blades were prepared in expectation of it. There are other stories about deceptive trade practicies. From time to time, the FIE publishes a list of the foil blades and the épée blades which have been inspected and approved. Historically, this has been done as an attachment to an FIE urgent letter, but more recently lists are published in the FIE magazine Escrime Internationale. As of February 7, 2007, the last published list is dated July 1, 2006, and appears on p. 50 of the July 2006 issue of Escrime Internationale, No. 56. But, the most recent list, unpublished, is dated January 22, 2007.) Non-FIE blades, by contrast, might or might not have any marks at all. When marked, the markings might relate to the seller, to the maker, or both. And, a mark might be distinct and unique but not immediately obvious as to its meaning. This collection of makers' (and sellers') marks is primarily aimed at providing a key to the marks on non-FIE blades (which aren't required to have a clear indication of the maker).

Absolute Fencing Gear

Épée

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Made for sale by Absolute Fencing Gear, unknown actual maker.

Foil (electric)

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Made for sale by Absolute Fencing Gear, unknown actual maker.

Blade

Saber

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Made for sale by Blade, unknown actual maker. This saber blade was very weakly stamped so only parts of the first two letters of "Blade" and only the waist and above of figure of a fencer in a fleche are visible.

Blue Gauntlet

"SG" blades are made for sale by Blue Gauntlet, unknown actual maker but usually said to be a Chinese manufacturer with initials S. G.

Épée (electric)

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Foil (electric)

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The stamp "01-12" is on a face adjacent to the one stamped "SG". It could be a date of maufacture.

Coulaux

(Coulaux & Cie. was a state-owned French military arms company bought by the Coulaux family early in the 19th century -- because it was deemed uncomfortably close to a foreign border for a military supply company -- which went out of business in the middle of the 20th century.)

Foil (Electric)

Scans

This image shows scans of opposite faces of the same blade, a blade broken at the tang owned by John Trojanowski. With difficulty (because the stamping was not done evenly), the bottoms of the characters "COULAUX&CI"[E] can be seen on the first face, with what seem to be minor pieces of a couple characters visible opposite the "CI" on the first side. Note the "5" overstamped on the crown at the base of the first side.

Dinamo ("Dynamo")

(It is said that two different Ukraine firms, "Dinamo" and "Vostok" merged, and the single company is in Lugansk, and this company is sometimes referred to as Lugansk. The discussion here refers for simplicity just to "Dinamo", a name still in use to describe the products. The corporate logo described here is said to come from the "Vostok" side of the company's ancestry, and contains the Cyrillic letter ? (analogous to the English V) of ?????? (Vostok).)

Dinamo corporate logo

Épée (Practice)

Physical Chess Illustration

Although stamped for Physical Chess and not Dinamo, this blade Physical Chess "Fleche" blade otherwise is identical to a wired Physical Chess "Fleche" blade clearly bearing the Dinamo stamp.

Épée (Electric)

Physical Chess Illustration

(This Dinamo blade is also stamped for Physical Chess, which calls it a "Fleche" blade.)

Scans

The first scan is without doubt a modern Dinamo blade. The second scan, where the blade is stamped "MADE USSR" and has within a diamond a logo, the year "1975" and the digit "3", is probably but not provably a Dinamo blade. In 1975, Ukraine was part of the USSR. The logo appears similar to although clearly different from the modern Dinamo logo, but in over a quarter century one could reasonably expect corporate logos to undergo some changes.

Foil (Electric)

PBT Illustration

(This Dinamo blade is also stamped for PBT, which calls it a "PBT Ukraine" blade.)

Scan

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(This Dinamo blade is also stamped for PBT, which calls it a "PBT Ukraine" blade.)

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(This Dinamo blade is also stamped "T", for Triplette Competition Arms, the vendor selling the blade.)

France-Lames

Épée (Electric)

Scans

At least on one occasion, France-Lames manufactured blades for Asahi, and stamped them "Asahi" as well as with their normal marks.

Note: France-Lames is known to have manufactured blades not conforming to FIE requirements, but stamped them "FIE". A story suggests they did this in anticipation of a rule change (which never occurred) which would have made those blades eligible to be FIE. Another story suggests that they deliberately stamped the blade with the "F" and the "E" of the FIE logo to imply that it was FIE, but arranged for the location of the "I" of FIE to coincide with the groove, so they never actually stamped "FIE" on a non-FIE blade.

Foil (Practice)

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The meaning of the "S" stamp (note that it is in addition to, not instead of, the size stamp "5") is unknown.

Scan

This image shows the forte of a practice Italian foil blade owned by John Trojanowski. True Italian blades (as contrasted with orinary blades mounted in a grip utilizing a false ricasso) have to widen sufficiently to provide a ricasso, the portion of the blade actually gripped by the thumb and index finger inside the guard. Note that in the left third of the image, the blade widens maredly from normal width for a foil to an unusually-wide parallel-sided section. (This blade does not get thicker, only wider.)

Foil (Electric)

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Megastar

Megastar uses at least three identifying logos on its blades, an italicized star with italicized "S" (see below), an italicized star by itself, and just the letters "MS".

Foil (Electric)

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PBT

PBT corporate logo

Note that when PBT stamps the letters "PBT" on equipment, the three letters seem to be identical to the arrangement of the three letters in the corporate logo, with all other details of the logo missing. In particular, the mask mesh within the "P" is gone (although the left end to the top of the "T" does emerge from behind the left side of the "P"), the bottom of the "B" is a simple loop instead of filled in, and the blade passing through the bottom half of the "B" as if it is a guard is gone.

Foil (Electric)

PBT Illustration

This blade, made by Dinamo and sold by PBT as a "PBT Ukraine" blade, has typical Dinamo markings stamped on it, but is also stamped with the PBT logo.

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This blade, made by Dinamo and sold by PBT as a "PBT Ukraine" blade, has typical Dinamo markings stamped on it, but is also stamped with the PBT logo.

Physical Chess, Inc.

Épée (Practice)

Physical Chess Illustrations

(Actual manufacturer unknown; "Made at the Lugansk mill in the Ukraine ..." -- may or may not indicate Dinamo. Physical Chess calls these the "Fleche" and "Fleche wide" blades.)

• The Physical Chess "Fleche: blade, "Made at the Lugansk mill in the Ukraine ...", appears to be a Dinamo blade. They have an illustration of a practice épée which has no stamp on the flat side of the blade base, but otherwise appears to be identical to a wired blade clearly bearing the Dinamo stamp.
• The Physical Chess "Fleche wide" blade has the appearance of being made by Dinamo, but there is no illustration available of (for example) a wired "Fleche wide" blade bearing a Dinamo logo.

Prieur

Foil (Electric)

Scans

Saber

Scans

Scaroni (Fratelli Scaroni)

The Fratelli Scaroni forge is now owned by Alslstar/Uhlmann, and it is one source of blades sold by them. FIE blades with the initials "FS" are from this forge. It is reported, but not absolutely confirmed, that the "FS" in an ellipse (see below) is the logo used by Fratelli Scaroni before closing and being bought.

Foil (Practice)

Scans

"Solingen"

Foil (Practice)

John Trojanowski's Illustration

Solingen is a German city which is a blademaking center (like Spain's Toledo). It is not yet clear what (presumably) Solingen-based company manufactured this blade (and whether this "SOLINGEN" stamp refers to a city or is an actual trademark of the maker. Identification of the logo stamped on both sides of "SOLINGEN" (and, apparently, stamped a third time weakly at the left) should resolve all questions.

STM

(STM, akso known as Sportservice, in the Ukraine, is sometimes referenced as the manufacturer of a blade as "SM".)

Épée (Electric)

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Foil (Electric)

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Saber

Scans

Triplette

Foil (Electric)

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Made for sale by Triplette, manufactured by Blaise Freres.

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This blade, made by Dinamo and sold by Triplette as a Dinamo blade, has typical Dinamo markings stamped on it, but is also stamped "T", for Triplette.

Unknown Unidentified #1

Foil (Practice)

(Sold by Blue Gauntlet.)

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Vniti (Внити)

Vniti is sometimes known as a Russian company, but it is Urkanian, in Lugansk.

The mark on the blades is sometimes said to be "BMI", but it is not. The mark is in Cyrillic, not Latin, characters. It is Внити in cursive (depending on your browser, "Внити" might show the cursive characters, although not strung together), where the character "т" ("т" in cursive, if your browser cooperates) is written similarly to a Latin cursive "m".

Foil (Electric)

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WKC (Weyersberg, Kirschbaum, and Cie.)

WKC corporate logo