What's a good place to get cheap colored (perferably red) lames?

[akaiyuki]

My school team just got some $ for lames, and we want ones that are most importantly, cheap (we have over 25 fencers and only 4 school lames right now, and we don't have much $). Red lames would be good because that suits our school color

[DHCJr]

I am not sure where you are located, but if there is a vendor near by, you could talk to them and try trading a discount for publicity, like putting up a banner.

Now for the Red part. First of all many of the lames out there are illegal, because they are too dark. If you are willing to go with a pale red, I have a suggestion, do what the vendors do, dye them. Some things to look into, get a delicate dye and probably half the amount, so it doesn't get to dark. Also you want to make it even over the whole lame.

[telkanuru]

Armoury 251- Colour theory? How exactly do you decide that a shade is too dark?

[DHCJr]

As they say 'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder'. The wonder of the French Rulebook is that it has never been good as a 'Rule' book. All the rule says is light. But then except for the last almost 20 years that Dan has been on the SEMI commission, there has been almost no tolerences.

What they should do, and maybe they will get to this is define what is acceptable by the contrast between the lettering and the torso. The reason for the light rule is so the names can be decerned.

In fact at one I believe it was at the Junior Worlds in Turkey, they banned almost all of the Red and Blue and all of the Infinity lames, because they were too dark. A few of the pale blues and pink were allowed.

What you might try is if you have a lame that has been lettered is dye that slowly first and see how well the lettering remain visible. I wish I could give you a better answer. Rule 25.3 is a poorly written rule and leaves too much to interpretation.

[Pho]

ya gotta be careful with cheap colored lames, since most cheap lame are copper and they tend to oxidize. Green on red is a bad bad colour.

[Craig]

Donald,

I wish they would change the "Name in navy blue" rule to be "name in contrasting color". That way I could have a dark blue lame and my name/country in white, just like other sports do with their "road" uniforms.

The name color rule was written when there were no colored lame's. Now that we have colored lames, the rule on names needs to be revisisted. Such a change would also support the FIE's stated goal of making things better for TV viewing.

Craig

[DHCJr]

You are talking to the choir. I also think the USA was the best thing for television. It is too late for the FIE meeting this time, but when Dan gets back, I am going to push your idea.

[akaiyuki]

Dying the lame sounds interesting. I'm not quite sure what dye to use exactly and how to dye them.