“Explorer” Feder Review
Introduction
Today, we’re taking a quick look at the Explorer feder made by Flower & Sword. After using it for several months, I have thoughts that I figured were worth sharing.
Handling & Performance
I got this feder from North Armoury. I paid for it myself but with the intention to test, evaluate, and review it. I ordered it, and the feder was quickly shipped arrived very well packaged. It also came with a little baggie of thermal plastic to tip the sword, which I thought was a really nice touch. I love how it shows these guys pay attention to community developments and the little details. Great experience overall, and I would highly recommend ordering from them.
I wanted to see how much the lower price point affected this feder, and whether I’d recommend it for my beginners looking for their first steel. After a few months of using it, I honestly like it more than my Sigis. It’s a standard length like my Sigi Gothic, but it feels as light and quick as a sigi shorty due to the low 3cm point of balance. Plus, it has zero flop, even when I tried. When I went back to the Sigis, I honestly just gravitated back to the Explorer pretty quickly because it felt like the best of all worlds.
The extreme distal taper is the main reason for this. The strong of the blade is super thick, so it’s stiff and strong for parries, binding, and winding. Parrying with this thing feels like you’re parrying with a brick wall. But the weak of the blade is thin and flexible, so it flexes very nicely on the thrust. It literally feels like the best of all worlds.
I really enjoyed how quickly I could transition between a very strong parry into a very fast and snappy counter. I was able to develop a really strong Kron/Zwerch game because of how strong I felt in my positions, yet I was able to immediately snap a fast counter the moment I took away their momentum. Something I had more difficulty with with my sigi gothic since it felt a bit more sluggish in comparison.
The thrust is another highlight. It has a very soft, safe flex at 9kg using the Franklin method, which is great for your thrust development and your training partners’ ribs. I’ve landed some very strong thrusts on people because they stepped into my very dedicated thrust and they were perfectly fine with no injury. If I was using my Ensifers, I have no doubt that it would have hurt my training partner.
Having such a rigid blade still be soft on the actual thrust felt so much better to me. I just felt in better control.
Durability & The Weak Point
We tend to go pretty intense at our club, so if there’s a weak point in our training tools, we tend to find them very quickly.
My main concern is the foible. The thin, flexible end section does take a set after a hard thrust. In my experience, it’s usually a minor bend that’s easy to straighten out.
The real question is long-term durability. While it makes me wonder how long it will last compared to other feders, recent understanding suggests it’s not a death sentence. We see other thin feders taking sets and being straightened repeatedly every session and lasting for years. So, while annoying, work hardening may not be a concern here. The warranty is the same as Sigi (six months), and my Sigis all have sets in them too.
I have been told that new batches are also much better at avoiding taking a set since this was somewhat frequent feedback. And of the batch I am a part of, North Armoury told me that they haven’t heard of any issues from any of the ones they've sold. Hopefully this is a reduced issue moving forward, although that’s not something I can personally confirm.
Fit & Finish
When looking at other budget feders, I often find that they still look nice but then their handling is terrible. That’s the opposite here: the handling is great, but this training tool does look terrible.
The grinds on the blade and crossguard are uneven, and I had an issue where they clearly rushed the 45-degree bevel on the blade edge because it actually left a burr that was somewhat sharp. It took me ten seconds to fix, and they’ve been made aware of that issue, and said it won’t be a problem for future batches. But clearly how this thing looks is very low on their priority list, but it’s not the worst I’ve seen either.
The handle wrap feels cheap and can be a bit slippery. For me, it was functional, but others might dislike it far more than I do. Overall though, if that’s what needs to be sacrificed to keep the price down to this level, then I’m perfectly fine with that. These are training tools, they’re going to get beat up anyway, so it doesn’t matter. The steel is going to get scratched and oxidized, the handle is going to take hits, and I may have to rewrap it anyway.
Value & Final Recommendation
The handling is on par or even superior to many feders costing far more. At $375 CAD, it’s the best value I’ve found. If it were $100 more, I’d still find the performance worth it, since the handling is punching well above its weight class.
That said, I’d like to see an extension to the warranty.
North Armoury at the time of this review is sold out of these feders, but will be restocking them. I highly recommend keeping an eye on these in the future.
