Grips

[Elbethil]

What sword grips do you prefer for what weapons?

Personally, I prefer french grips all 'round. I find the french grips are better for dexterity.

In foil, with the pistol grips, I usually just wind up with a death grip on the sword and wave my arms around to move it. It's quite awkward for me.

As for sabre, I've never come across any other grips than the french ones. I don't fence epée often, can't really give an opinion there.

[glowstix]

french grip, eh?? you're a sitting duck with that in foil. in epee, its much more useful, not my thing but it works for many.

personally i use a russian for both foil and epee; good point control with the fingers and the lack of finger grooves means i'm not giving it a death grip. it would seem illogical that i use it since i have small hands but somehow i make it work..then again, nothing about my game is logical or orthodox.

[restlesscheese]

I've only fenced foil and used the Belgian pistol grip. I tried French grip, but it just feels weird after being raised on Belgian.

[CvilleFencer]

Welcome to the board. The death grip issue is a matter of training and a little practice. No one who is any good and under 60 uses a French grip for foil. It just don't work once you get to a competitive level. Pick a good pistol grip that feel comfortable to your hand and then go a size smaller. Suck it up through the cramps and focus on using your fingers to control the action. You should be able to slip the finger of you off hand in between your palm and the grip, even if you have to jam it in a bit. Some of the most common pistol grips are what are, in the US anyway, called the Italian Visconti and the Belgian. Some fencers prefer different grips for various reasons. One of our regular posters, Mr. Epee love the Zivkovic grips more than words can describe for example.

All pistol grips are not created equal either. TCA grips tend to be heavier and chunkier then the German counterparts. Most Chinese made grips tend to run smaller, but the finish is not as good. I would avoid the LP Visconti grips but their various Belgian grips are aboslutely great and come in a range of sizes. In short, go to a big event and check things out. You can start buy just going around the club and seeing what is common near you. Just lose the French. Unless you end up fencing me. Then hold onto it. Really tight...

[HDG]

Cville,
What's your specific complaint about LP viscontis? Just wondering.

[CvilleFencer]

Cville,
What's your specific complaint about LP viscontis? Just wondering.

It tends to fall more in the realm of personal preference, but I feel that the very full nature of the "palm" section of the grip tend to lead to more use of the wrist and whole hand than the fingers. It really fills the hand up, which is good from a comfort point of view, but in my experiance it adversley affects the use of proper finger work. It seems to be a trend across the whole LP visconti line, regardless of the size of the actual grip. If it is the right size for your hand, it gives you a lot of grip to hold onto with your whole hand, as opposed to just the fingers. I also find that the deep grooving really fixes the fingers into place and can make sublte angulation a bit difficult. On the plus side, they can let you get some serious leverage behind beats, takes and binds, but I feel that the same effectiveness can be had with proper bladework and distance as opposed to relying on the grip to let you "slop" through the action.

I know some good fencers who use these grips and do very well with them (at least one of them is on the points list) but they just don't work well for me and I don't recommend them for my fencers. The same is true for some of the American Fencing and old Santelli grips of this style (they may actually be LP grips, I am not sure).

[JackSparrow]

Cville,
What's your specific complaint about LP viscontis? Just wondering.

The worst leon paul visconti grips are the carbon fibre ones. By going superlight, leon paul have managed to completely ruin the balance of the foil. It's a problem that can be addressed by adding weighted tape to the end of the handle, but it's still not a particularly nice shape. I've known people to buy LP flickmaster blades and customize them to fit an allstar visconti grip. Quite a lot of work, so I can't be the only one who really hates them.

[Gav]

There have been a NUMBER of different threads on this topic. Please performa search.

[Gav]

The worst leon paul visconti grips are the carbon fibre ones. By going superlight, leon paul have managed to completely ruin the balance of the foil. It's a problem that can be addressed by adding weighted tape to the end of the handle, but it's still not a particularly nice shape. I've known people to buy LP flickmaster blades and customize them to fit an allstar visconti grip. Quite a lot of work, so I can't be the only one who really hates them.

You what? As I understand it, visconti's are an orthopaedic grip, the only carbon fibre are grips are french variants. In a sense I agree - they are not my cup of tea - but least one highly ranked uk epeeist uses them [and there is a second although i've not seen him around for the last few months].

Please compare:
visconti
or
carbon fibre grip

Do you mean this?

Using the the appropriate tool you can fit said carbon fibre grip to most blades whose tangs have been cut down to fit an ortho' grip.

And adjusting an ortho's tang [say LP] to fit another manufacturers grip [say Allstar]* normally just involves hacksawing a piece off the tang, but only if absolutely necessary. It takes about 10 minutes, a couple more if you want to file the edges down.

*I can't remember if you have to cut LP's down to fit Allstar grips or vice versa.

[DHCJr]

As Gav stated, the only Carbon-Fibre is what some call the Tennis Racket. They do make a light-weight PLASTIC Belgium. There is also a special HEAVY pommel for that also. It uses a 1/4" allen wrench.

[CvilleFencer]

Just to add to the confusion (or maybe illistrate the point about the name of a grip being very different depending upon country) the ortho grip that Gav shows is what is commonly refered to over here as a Short German Visconti. A fair bit different than the Italian visconti, especially LP's version (its the second one down) of it.