Salle Boise Fencing Club • How To

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Removing the Old Wire and Barrel (This assumes that the blade is not broken. If it is, then throw it out and buy a new one.)
1. If tip has not yet been removed, then remove it by first taking the tip apart. Then grip the blade near the tip but below the barrel with a vice or vice grips. Use a monkey wrench or pliers to grip the barrel near the base (away from the end the tip goes in) and turn counter-clockwise. DO NOT grip hard enough to deform the round shape of the barrel (griping near the base helps prevent this). Most modern barrels have flat sides near the base for pliers to grip.
2. Taking the barrel off will break the wire, but we are assuming that you are rewiring because the old one is bad anyway.
3. The plastic cup from the wire will probably still be in the barrel. Remove by inserting a small screwdriver into the threaded end of the barrel (the end the blade went into), and pushing the cup out. Throw the cup away.
4. BEST METHOD: soak the blade in acetone for several minutes. After soaking, the wire should either fall out on its own, or pull out with very little force. If the wire will not come out, soak some more. We use a steel pipe with a cap on the bottom filled with acetone to soak the blades in. Any home building supply store can provide this. (Do not make the pipe so much longer then the blade that you cannot reach it once dropped in). Alternatively, acetone can be squirt onto the wire groove and allowed to soak in. The steel pipe method is by far the best.
5. Warning: Avoid prolonged or repeated breathing of acetone vapors. If strong odor is noticed or you experience slight dizziness, headache or nausea, ventilation is inadequate. Please read and abide by the warning label on acetone container.
6. NOT SO GREAT METHOD: Gently pull one end of the wire. You can often pull just hard enough to get it out of the groove, but not hard enough to break it. Once the wire is out, use a small flathead screwdriver to scrape out the groove and clean it. Although this method is not nearly as successful as the acetone method, I used if for years before I constructed a "Pipe-o-acetone".