08-24-2011, 12:53 AM
Quote:I ask because I ordered what's intended to be a stage blade from a fencing company and rather foolishly failed to ask about the thickness. It's only 3mm at the spine. I've just called and the company is unable to provide the specific alloy, only that it's high-carbon. So I dunno whether to keep it or send it back and keep searching.
High Carbon is a bit meaningless, you need to know alloy, temper etc etc etc. Most metals have a designation, which you can lookup on the table of several manufacturers.
Here is a cross reference table with designations (from Kennametal) from DIN / AISI / Anfor etc. After knowing the metal you can lookup it's properties, you'll be looking for it's Young Modulus and breaking strain. The higher the better, but you should also look at it elongation graphic.
[attachment=1526]TabelaComparaoMat.Metalicos.pdf[/attachment]
Now this is all very theoretical and very very boring, so what I found that works equally well is to have a piece of rail some 50 cm long and whack it 2 or 3 times as hard as you can with your blade, if it doesn't dent or break it's a good one!!!
"insert t-shirt here reading: Trust me I'm an Engineer"
