We broke a Purple Heart III

[Richard Marsden]

Pictures pending

[ShaunnM.W.]

You guys are on a roll...

With the Hanwei blade I can understand, the heat treats are so hit or miss with them, but a PH3?? Did you guys leave it in the sun and melt it or something?

[JohnPatterson]

Nice cool day out here. It broke right at the quillons where there is less then 1/8th of an inch of plastic on each side holding it together.

[Mike Ruhala]

I heard one or two broke at Fechtschule America too and that area always did look a little thin to me. I don't think that makes them bad tools though, anything made by man can be broken by man.

It might just be my imagination but the PHIII's felt stiffer to me when I was at Dixie Krieg 2011 than they did at a Freifechter gathering a couple months ago. Has anybody else gotten the impression they get a little more flexible with use? I know the Pro-Line Extremes get a lot more flexible over time, that might just be the nature of synthetic wasters.

[Richard Marsden]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kh7udl4Uv2Q

[zarlor]

I didn't think any of the PHIII Longswords broke at FA, just a couple of the prototype single swords.

As for this break, I gotta admit that seems like the most likely spot for a break and pretty much if I had to have one break that would be a good place for it to do so. Ours our still going strong (and we're definitely not slouches when it comes to striking with intensity!) So congrats on breaking that one!

[jayromandell]

How much use did that thing see before its failure? Every tool we have has a limited life, just the way things are. As the poster above mentioned, its right where I would expect the failure to occur.

[Richard Marsden]

I think about 6 months.

It was used every Friday by the High School kids for a few hours.
It was used just about every Saturday by the adults for a few hours.
Here and there we used it for a few hours on off days.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th3_SBBSJR0
Its one of these that later breaks that day. Sadly, we just missed it on film.

[RJ McKeehan]

We had one break in Kron, apparently the tip snapped right off, the member returned it and got a replacement as it was brand new, but I'm wondering if anyone else has broken one yet?

[Jeffrey Hull]

Oh, that is just some of that there engineered obsolescence.

(Edit: To correct misspelling.)

Thanks for sharing, Richard.

Non-sequitor video : Richard Falls