New Members - How did you find Fencing.Net?

[Laike]

I recently found an opportunity to take up fencing. Wanting to be somewhat prepared, I read a book! The book (The Art and Science of Fencing, by Nick Evangelista) recommended something I've found to be true in numerous other hobbies: Buying one's own equipment is generally recommended. Having your own gear not only provides consistency for better learning, but investing in equipment also helps to "anchor you in the game," as he put it.

So, in an effort to find out more about the available equipment, I searched for fencing equipment reviews on the Google-nets, and this site is about the only one out there with anything resembling comprehensive reviews, much less an open community, on the subject. If there are others out there, by all means, let me know.

Amusingly, what I've learned from reading the forums here for the past few days has not proven as useful as I've hoped. The only things people seem to agree on are that the One-piece Vniti guards are awesome, and that shelling out for a high end mask (the LP X-changes in particular) is a good investment. For every other piece of gear that someone recommends, someone else has a horror story about that same piece of gear, and recommends something else.

But that's a discussion for the armory forum. I'm new (one lesson so far, and it was free!), but fairly hooked. I don't plan on competing (or even bouting) until I'm comfortable enough in the sport, so large investments aren't necessary. Having a community, however, is invaluable.

So... thanks!

[antonsilver]

Greetings!

Colored epee guard! - Seems like I can't find them anywhere than here... Was a bit put off by the cost to get it mailed to europe (34 dollars?), And found the forum while I was still wondering how to solve that problem, and now I am kind of stuck here! (has to look by, once in a while, to check if the epee guards is still there!)

[Cmuncke]

Friends,

In a fit of nostalgia, I tried searching for my old fencing master, Julius Alpar. I found a reference to him on this forum and I followed it... ergo---here I am! I was a pupil at Berkeley in the earley 60's, and I was fortunate to be in the Dramatic Art dept. As such, I wanted to learn to fence and so I took first, Foil and then Saber. Learning from Maestro Alpar was a daunting but very rewarding experience. He was an excellent teacher and would be very careful to correct errors and help with problems... at first. However, if one persisted in making the same mistake, it was not uncommon to feel the flat of his blade where it would teach the greatest physical lesson! All of us who were blessed to be his students loved and admired him. One thing he was a stickler about was punctuality. I clearly remember arriving at a private lesson one day at the precise time, waiting for the Campanille Bell to strike and walking into the hall only to find him occupied with another student! I was furious! This was MY time and MY lesson! He kept me waiting for a quarter of an hour before stopping his lesson and telling me to fight with the other student. I was more than ready to show this guy up for stealing my lesson time and I charged onto the piste ready to kill! Needless to say he easily cut me down to size and deflated my ego back to a more reasonable size. When he had delivered five straight hits, Alpar called a halt, we removed our masks and I was introduced to my opponent...Marcel Marceau... He was in the Bay Arera performing in his One Man Show in San Francisco. Many years later, when I was an establishe jobbing actor in London, I went to see M. Marceau. Going backstage after the show, I was delighted that he remembered the encounter with some affection. It has been many years since I held a sword, but the ideals and concepts which M. Alpar taught me are still a great part of my life.

Chris Muncke

[Archren]

Hello, just poking my head in. I'm in my second season as a referee (used to fence foil, but taken out by injury), and figured that I should check out the online community as well.

Hi!

[UnidentifiedFencerOnline]

well i was searching for fencing tips cos i have a competition in the weekend and it looked pretty cool with people giving each other advice and stuff so i decided to join =D

[redheaded_sabreuse]

I was looking around for L.A. area fencing clubs when I decided to take it up again, and the site seemed to have a lot of useful information.

Now, can anybody tell me off the top of their head how you go about learning more about right of way rules, refereeing, and line judging? As a relative sabre n00b, it'd be nice to be able to follow the action better on the strip, and would probably reduce my coach's frustration level considerably if he doesn't keep having to explain every darn thing to me.

[Inquartata]

Download the rule book and the practice tests, take a referee seminar,watch videos and pester Oiuyt, Catwood, KD5MDK, Notalent and the other refs on this board with numerous questions.

And, of course, practice...

[sevenblades]

Gotta love google...does anyone know what we did before the internet?
Oh yeah! Those things called paper...

For your information, I actually got this site by searching for Fencing Equipment Suppliers.

[TripleTTT]

I found this place When I was trying t ofind fencing jokes. I was on google, followed a link and here I am. I am glad google led me here. Love this Place

TC

[Lovely World]

I found Fencing.net through Google Search Engine .

[dekomusic]

I found this site from another website called theadminzone where it is listed in the forum directories and here i am. I've been a big fan of fencing since i ve seen the sport for the first time in the 2004 Olympics live. From then on i wanted to learn more about it. My main hobby is tennis so i have a good hand-eye coordination and i thought i could apply some of it trying to learn how to fence. Unfortunately since my time cause of work and family is limited my progress is very slow. Hope to learn more and faster now that i have discovered this great site.

[tat668]

It had been many years since I last fenced in a competition, if I recall correctly it was the 1970 WIFC. I went into the military services not long after that competition. Picked up my old swords for a short period during the time when my youngest son started high school fencing in 1994. Now I am digging up my old gear again, this time it is my grandson starting his after school activity in fencing. He turned 6 last October.

Found this site when I was rewiring some of my old weapons, the Duco cement was cracked and missing in some places and I Google to find new replacement brand. The discussion on this site gave me the direction of search. The result of my search is the Loctite 438, it is a bit hard to locate, but a lesser item, Loctite 380, can be mail ordered for about $4 for a 3-gram tube.

The spec sheet for the Loctite 438:
https://tds.us.henkel.com//NA/UT/HNAUTTDS.nsf/web/F66CF7A27F58D7FC882571870000D78E/$File/438-EN.pdf

I think that the Loctite 435 dries clear and the 438 is black. I like the colored glue better for I can spot and trim off any excess from the blade. I like the tensile strength and the much improved impact strength of this product.

I am actively searching for a sabre coach in my area, so that I can get some work out for my stiff joints before my grandson works me over. It is hard to find coaches who provide the proper classic forms instructions and demand perfection from their students like the old Hungarian coaches in the 50's and 60's. May be those demands are classified as emotional and physical abusive in our modern day society.

A thank you is order for Craig in providing such a great cyber meeting place for fencers as well as making this an indispensable resource.

[happyfencer]

For those that found the site via google - was it from typing in "fencing" and getting to the front page of the site, or were you looking for something more specific and came in to a thread/topic on the forums or in the news sections?

I get a ton lot of traffic from Google, but it comes in all over the place.

In dreamily looking for fencing equipment that I was never going to be able to afford, I stumbled across Fencing.Net from Google. I joined the newsletter and later the site itself because it looked fun. Never regretted the decision.

[Silvertongue]

I found it because a few of my friends who had been fencing longer (I had just started at the time) kept referencing it. I've lurked off and on for quite awhile now, but only just now decided to actually register.

[sgard]

I recently joined a salle after some inactive years and needed to gear up. This site was recommended by the instructor and several members. My research told me these were some of the best prices, so here I am.

Search Terms: fencing gear, fencing equipment

[EldRick]

I was doing some searching on fencing uniforms and equipment, and found a couple of videos on YouTube, which were very helpful, and pointed me to Fencing.net (and Leon Paul).

[sabour25]

I am working as an SEO expert so I was just looking for some forum sites on google and I found your forum there. As I am doing fencing for few months on weekends so I have decided to join this forum and I hope that I will find a lot of good information about fencing here

[sirena.alex]

Hi All........

I was searching something on Google than i saw this forum and found quite interesting and now m here. Glad to b a part of this forum.

Regards...
Sirena.

[Windblowswolf]

For me I was double checking how to spell "epee" and so I typed it in on Google and found this website. I read some things and decided to join.

[justme16]

I found it while searching "fencing school for kids"..

Thanks, and my name is Angie