r/Fencing

Opinion post by Phil Andrews in Insider Higher Ed.

Hi all,

I have recently joined a club and am a pretty broke student XD

After club fees etc etc,

I'm not left with much for kit.

I'm pretty savvy and will probably be able to find what I need for cheap, but I'm a little confused about size. I'm 6', slim, 28-30inch waist, size 11 shoe. I have fencing appropriate shoes already, and I can probably borrow a lamé and helmet from my club. But all the undergarments are so gross and sweaty, I'd rather have my own. I also need some breeches, as I am looking into joining the team as we have low numbers

Thanks for any sizing advice you can give.

I have a Leon Paul epee that started not registering touches a while back. I take the tip apart, see the contact spring is a bit crushed. I give it a twist to make it longer, put it back, check conductivity on my multimeter, which is good, and put the screws back in. I go fencing, score a touche, then I'm not scoring anymore. Take it home, repeat, go fencing, and it fails on me again.

In frustration, I switch out the tip, check conductivity, screws in, go fencing, same thing happens again. I take it home, check conductivity without disassembling it, and it is weak, only about half strength, so it is getting resistance somewhere.

I disassemble again, check the spring, it looks good. I put it back in the barrel, no screws, and check conductivity again, and it is perfect, no resistance. Fixed, right? I put the screws back in, and this time I check again. And again, I'm getting resistance. I take the screws out, check, and it's perfect. Screws back in, resistance.

I figured it could be the cup has come loose, so I use my tip setter tool to check, and even though I can't see nor feel anything wrong, I give it a tiny whack with a hammer on the tip setter, just to make sure. Repeat the process yet again. No resistance with no screws. Screws in, resistance.

Maybe I shouldn't have given up on that first Leon Paul tip for this Leon Paul barrel and wire. Trouble is, I've lost it on my armory table, and I have no others to compare with. I only had the one.

Can any master armorers out there give me a lead as to what's going on? Thanks.