Straightening the weapon on the strip

There are rules regarding straightening the weapon on the strip. Are
these rules enforced all the time, or only on grounded metal strips,
which could be damaged from the straightening?

--Harold Buck


"I used to rock and roll all night,
and party every day.
Then it was every other day. . . ."
-Homer J. Simpson

Harold Buck <no_one_knows@attbi.com> wrote in message news:<no_one_knows-1039DE.16263420032004@comcast.ash.giganews.com>...
> There are rules regarding straightening the weapon on the strip. Are
> these rules enforced all the time, or only on grounded metal strips,
> which could be damaged from the straightening?
>
> --Harold Buck
>

They're not enforced nearly as often as they ought to be--I saw many
people straightening their sabres on the strips at NCAAs. The rule is
mainly for the benefit of the metal strips, and my feeling is it ought
to be enforced firmly when those metal strips are used. Otherwise,
there's not much reason.

In article <a02e0196.0403290714.4ff746d@posting.google.com> ,
dmturner@dmturner.org (Delia M. Turner) wrote:

> Harold Buck <no_one_knows@attbi.com> wrote in message
> news:<no_one_knows-1039DE.16263420032004@comcast.ash.giganews.com>...
> > There are rules regarding straightening the weapon on the strip. Are
> > these rules enforced all the time, or only on grounded metal strips,
> > which could be damaged from the straightening?
> >
> > --Harold Buck
> >
>
> They're not enforced nearly as often as they ought to be--I saw many
> people straightening their sabres on the strips at NCAAs. The rule is
> mainly for the benefit of the metal strips, and my feeling is it ought
> to be enforced firmly when those metal strips are used. Otherwise,
> there's not much reason.

Were you refereeing at NCAAs, or did you just go to watch? One of my
former fencers--Matt Stearns from Notre Dame--was fencing there,
although I'm always careful to point out that he didn't learn very much
of what he know from me (he was second in Minnesota as an 8th grader, a
year before I met him).

--Harold Buck


"I used to rock and roll all night,
and party every day.
Then it was every other day. . . ."
-Homer J. Simpson

In article <no_one_knows-DA300C.11151829032004@comcast.ash.giganews.com>,
Harold Buck <no_one_knows@attbi.com> writes:

> They're not enforced nearly as often as they ought to be--I saw many
>> people straightening their sabres on the strips at NCAAs. The rule is
>> mainly for the benefit of the metal strips, and my feeling is it ought
>> to be enforced firmly when those metal strips are used. Otherwise,
>> there's not much reason.
>
>Were you refereeing at NCAAs, or did you just go to watch? One of my
>former fencers--Matt Stearns from Notre Dame--was fencing there,
>although I'm always careful to point out that he didn't learn very much
>of what he know from me (he was second in Minnesota as an 8th grader, a
>year before I met him).
>

Delia was watching her daughter Jessica fence Epee for Brandeis. I saw some of
the blade straightening as one of the armorers. But what I saw was the fencer
stepping on the blade to take the curve out. Not pulling the blade under their
foot as they do to straighten out Epees or Foils.

As an armorer I still don't like it.

It has been explained to me that the rule is not to protect the strips. Rather
fencers would drag or push Foils and Epees on the strip in order to raise a
burr on the tip so it would catch on fabric better. Which wouldn't help in
Sabre.

Bill Hall