PART 2: Equipment

Equipment & Maintenance:

Foil guards vary mostly in diameter, being between 9.5 and 12 cm across. The largest guards (eg. Negrini) may fail the weapon guage check if they are dented or misshapen.

Epee guards are almost always the maximum diameter (13.5 cm) for best protection, although they can vary considerably in shape, depth (3 - 5.5 cm), weight, and eccentricity (up to 3.5 cm off of center).

"Mini epee" guards are available from some vendors, but they are recommended only for children or possibly Pentathletes.

Sabre guards come in left- and right-handed versions (the outside of the guard being larger). Competition guards include attachments for the capteur sensor. Sabre fencers may wish to insulate the outer edges of their guards to prevent it from shorting to their cuff.

Many fencers have experienced trouble mixing their points, barrels, and wires. They are best used in matched sets.

Points are regularly tested in competition. Both foil and epee points must pass a weight test, by lifting a mass (500g for foil; 750g for epee) after the point is depressed. (Technically, epees only have to lift the mass 0.5 mm, whereas foils must lift it to the top of the point travel.) In addition, epees must pass two shim tests, the first to make sure that there is at least 1.5 mm of travel in the tip, and the second to make sure that the point doesn't light until the last 0.5 mm.

If the weight test fails, the main spring can be replaced or made heavier by lightly stretching it. If the fencer thinks his point is too heavy, the spring can be replaced, compressed, or softened by heating one end in a flame.

If the epee 0.5 mm shim test fails, the secondary contact spring is too long. It should be adjusted or compressed. If the 1.5 mm shim test fails, your point may be improperly set up, or may be mismatched with the barrel.

Most points are held together by a pair of screws on the side of the barrel, and adjusting the springs requires disassembly. Some (Italian and Russian?) epee points are screwless and are adjusted using a small wrench.

FIE epee points use a solid contact in place of the secondary spring. Lighting distance can be increased by carefully filing the contact.

Epee points work by closing the circuit between the two blade wires when they are depressed. Dirty or faulty points will normally cause the weapon to fail to register touches. Foil points work in the opposite manner, by opening a closed circuit between the blade wire and blade. Dirty or faulty points will usually cause the weapon to produce spurious off-target lights. See Troubleshooting (sections 2.13, 2.14), below.

Blade wires are typically insulated with cotton to facilitate gluing and cleaning. Nevertheless, inexpensive wires can be made at home using plastic-coated wire-wrap wire from an electronics store. Use the cup from an old wire, and attach the new wire by heating the solder connection with a soldering iron.

Blade tips are threaded metric 3.5 x 0.60 for foils and 4.0 x 0.70 for epees. Rethreading with a die is difficult, but possible with adequate preparation. Pre-filing the tip into a long, blunt cone (5.5 mm long with the top 1.5 mm narrower than the inside diameter of the die) will assist in guiding the die through the initial turns; the extra metal left behind can later be removed with a file. The leading edge of the wire groove should be rounded and the groove filled with epoxy putty or similar hard compound to prevent the die from jamming on the groove edge. The putty must be removed afterwards, of course. No more than 4 mm of threading is needed to affix the barrel.

The primary question with foil and sabre body wires is bayonet (eg. Paul brand) vs. two-prong (eg. Uhlmann brand). They are equally functional; the primary difference is in cost and maintenance. Two-prong is a simpler design, and usually less expensive, but also has a reputation for being less reliable (depending on the brand). Naturally choice of body wire also determines the choice of weapon socket (or vice versa). One of the primary considerations in deciding which format to go with should be the prevalent format in your club or region. Going with the local favourite will make it easier to borrow weapons or wires when yours fail.

Epee body wires are all of the same basic 3-prong design. Some (French) designs have metal sheaths on the prongs that can accumulate grime underneath them over the years. If not cleaned, the dirt can break the circuit at inopportune times.

Recycled blades must be cleaned before they are re-wired. Solvents such as acetone can help, but 10 minutes with a utility knife (foil) or wire brush (epee) to remove all traces of glue residue from the wire groove also works. New blades sometimes require a small amount of cleaning as well, to remove grease and grit from the machining process.

Popular wiring glues include Duco cement, 5-minute epoxy, and cyanoacrylate glues (eg. super-glue). Cleaning and gluing techniques will vary depending on your choice. Thin, quick-drying glues such as cyanoacrylates are best put down over top of the wire as the wire is held in the groove. If you use a thicker glue such as epoxy, you can carefully prepare one surface first. For foil wires, coat the wire in glue, and then gently pull it tight and lay it into the groove. For epees you can alternatively lay a bed of glue down before setting the wire in the groove, then make a second run of glue over the wire to seal it in place. Top glue the blade, and let it dry while the blade is held in a flexed position with the point in the air.

An acetone bath for cleaning blades can be constructed from a length of copper tubing, sealed at one end. Fill with acetone, drop in your blades, and let soak overnight.

A blade-bowing tool for holding blades flexed while the glue dries can be constructed from a length of cord or chain attached to some small cups (film cannisters work well). Place the cups over either end of the blade, and the tension of the cord will hold the blade bent for as long as you need it. Alternatively, stand the blade up with the point bent under the rim of a counter or table.

The scoring apparatus consists of the reels, floor wires, and indicator box, and optionally a timer and scoring tower(s). In sabre, the capteur sensors can also be considered part of the scoring apparatus, since they are provided by the tournament organizers.

Modern foil scoring boxes should display only a coloured light or a white light for each fencer. Older boxes (or ones with older firmware) may display both if an off-target touch is immediately followed by an on-target touch.

It is possible to defeat the foil scoring circuit by grounding your own weapon to your lamé (your opponent's touches will fail to register, but yours will register). This is illegal, and scoring boxes must be equipped with a grounding light to detect when fencers do this. Some newer boxes have an anti-fraud feature to eliminate this hazard and allow touches to be scored in spite of grounding. Boxes without such an anti-fraud circuit are useful for detecting dead spots on lamés (ground the lamé, and then poke the opponent in various locations; white lights indicate a dead spot).

Many sabre scoring boxes come with a variety of special options or programs for variations on the standard rules; for example, fencing without sensors, or with modified whipover timeouts.

Reels are typically portable, spring-wound devices (either "turtles" or "snails"), although some salles have permanent overhead installations involving pulleys and bungee cords. The overhead variety is normally more reliable, since it has fewer mechanics and no electrical brushes.

The Parcival, K.U.Leuven Fencing Club has a schematic and instructions for constructing a scoring box at their website:
http://lcbdindy.fys.kuleuven.ac.be/fencing/fencing.htm

Wireless scoring systems are currently prohibited, largely due to the difficulties in distinguishing between real and forged signals. Various modern electronics technologies hold the promise of circumventing these problems, and some wireless designs are currently in development. The FIE is expected to rule on the use of these wireless scoring systems in the near future.

Simple "buzzboxes", compact battery-powered devices that signal touches with a light or buzzer, are available from various sources, but have very limited functionality. As a rule, they cannot distinguish between targets (on/off, bell hits, etc.), or distinguish the timing of hits, and do not work with sabre at all.