Coloured Masks and Weapons

[jBirch]

Hey Guys,

What are the rules around coloured face masks and weapons? Does anyone know of a good conductive blade dying compound?

I've got a couple of technically inclined students who have painted their masks and are looking to paint their blades too. I want to make sure that I'm feeding them accurate information on what they can and can not do with their kit.

Thanks.

James.

[smeric28]

i don't know about masks mabey DHCjr will post about those. i have herd that they have been disallowed at tournoments because of whining opponents. i know i would tell whinners to shove off unless they could show me the rule to specificaly disallow it. anyways paint is unacceptable for the blades. any covering on the blades must be electrically conductive and impact resistant. meaning there are options but for do it yourselfers? your options might be limited. most blade colors from manufactures are probably phosphoric conversion coatings. this is a chemical conversion, infact you can buy rust converter in the stores that will leave the metal a gray/black. The new phosporic conversion coatings come in colors but i have not seen a way to buy the chemicals (and i have looked hard). i have only found jober shops advertizing the ability. proabably too expensive for ones and twos. there are other options you could zinc plate or cromate plate (chorme) the weapons that would maintain electrial conductivity and be fairly cool (blind your opponents with your mirror polished blade anyways if your really interested search the internet it is full of info use key word "colored phosphoric conversion coating" or "steel coating" otherwise you'll get all kinds of metal coloring techniques that don't apply to iron.

[Ryne]

I wouldn't paint your blades.

Blades already come in lots of colors... If you hold the blades over a flame, they turn different colors

But don't try that if you don't know what you're doing.

Blades come in colors from gold to black...

And besides, paint is going to chip and flake during bouting and get EVERYWHERE.

[Point_Left]

Originally Posted by smeric28

zinc plate or cromate plate (chorme) the weapons that would maintain electrial conductivity and be fairly cool (blind your opponents with your mirror polished blade

Chrome plating involves highly toxic compounds (unless there is an alternate method I haven't heard about). However, there are other plates that you could do. Gold, silver and copper. Gold would be expensive. The compounds used in silver plating leave little black spots on your hands. (They don't seem to be a problem...I've got one on my hand right now.) Copper salts that could be used in plating shoud be fairly accessible. Or you could go more exotic with platinum. Copper is probably the cheapest to do. Eventually the blade will turn a nice green colour. If you want chrome plating, take it to a professional. Chromic acid is not something to fool aroung with. It is capable of destroying the vast majority of organic compounds. You are a collection of organic compounds.

[DHCJr]

There is no problem painting a one color mask, except Sabre of course. The FIE doesn't like designs. It would be interesting what the FIE reaction would be to a putrid green or a dung brown.

[Purple Fencer]

Originally Posted by Point_Left

Chrome plating involves highly toxic compounds

Which is why brass musical instrument makers don't chrome their horns anymore....not to mention chrome plating REALLY makes a brass instrument overpoweringly "bright" musically....we used to call those "chrome rippers"

[smeric28]

i looked into it a little more stm rainbow blades are a colorized phospate coating, i'm almost sure. the only other kind of colored blades i've experenced are a blue chevalier, gold triplette. these last 2 are oxide coatings, blue oxide, yellow oxide. i think this because i easily removed the coloring on some of my blades with a rust converter. the blue oxide would be converted to another chemical and loose it's color. apperantly the metal coating industry is extreamly secrative and don't like to share info because it took me a while to look this stuff up.

[PeterGustafsson]

Hi!

A Niobium blade would present many possibilities. Niobium (Nb) is a metallic chemical element which can be colored by electricity alone, and many different colors (not red, though) can be obtained. The coloring will not chip, and it is electrically conductive. This unusual quality is used to make multicolored Niobium jewlery.

Niobium has a somewhat lower Elastic modulus, and somewhat higher density, than iron. It is completely nontoxic (used for some surgical implants) and has a corrosion resistance which makes it useful for really difficult chemical plant applications. In short, a Niobium blade would handle as a somewhat flicky blade, which will never rust, and can be colored in any way you want.


Have a nice time!

Peter Gustafsson

[CvilleFencer]

Niobium would be a very cool metal to work with for a fencing blade, but the main problem with it I would think would be the price (around $75 a pound) and it stress fracture resistance. I am no completely sure on this but I was under the impression that the reason it was no longer a favored "dream metal" in aircraft and spacecraft design was it relatively low stress and impact durability properties (its tendancey to develop microfracturers from repeated hard impacts, such as aircraft landings).

I could be completely wrong on that as what little I know of its use comes from engineer musings on the cancelled A-12 naval stealth fighter. That metal was never used in the program in favor of less exotic metals with titanium and aluminium subframes and I will grant that fencing is not as hard on metal as carrier landings!

[KD5MDK]

Don't the FIE requirements describe exactly what kind of steel your blade has to be made out of? Complete with lists of trace element limits?

[Purple Fencer]

Originally Posted by KD5MDK

Don't the FIE requirements describe exactly what kind of steel your blade has to be made out of? Complete with lists of trace element limits?

For FIE blades yes....not so for non-FIEs that I've ever seen.

[CvilleFencer]

Oh, but don't forget the new FIE-N designations. I am not sure but I think they only have to pass the mechanical tests and can be made out of any kind of "steel" that will survive the impacts.