10-03-2008, 02:24 AM
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#21 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 278
| Quote:
Once, at Nationals, an armorer told me that lubricant should never be used on epee tips. Because of the way they were made (he said) lubricant was unnecessary. I found that a pretty strange notion.
At the end of my time fencing epee (late 90's) I was using Break-Free CLP on my tips, applying it with a cotton q-tip. I felt that I had good success with that, but I don't think I used it long enough to see if it had any effect on the plastic parts. Since then, there are probably better, and cheaper products out there, yes?
| I never used to clean my epee tips. After four years both LP epees developed the same fault - neither point would connect unless hit directly on. If the initial contact was say 45 degrees the blade would bend but the tip would not connect even if, after bending blade, it was at 90 degrees to the surface. I was losing quite a few touches as a result.
With the first tip I gave it a quick swirl in an acetone bath (with some trepidations), let it dry and applied a squirt of G96 gun treatment. It cured the fault instantly. With the second one I just used the G96 with the same success. Neither tip is showing long term ill-effects (6 and 1 months respectively). | 
|  | | And now for this message... |
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10-03-2008, 11:45 AM
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#22 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Philly
Posts: 685
| If you keep your point properly cleaned, you won't NEED lubricant... At least not on the FWF points I'm using.
And I clean them before each tournament at least, and uswually also inbetween rounds. Then again, I'm a bit anal a bout that.  | 
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10-03-2008, 02:01 PM
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#23 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Pacoima, ca USA
Posts: 5,942
| You should not lube your tips in any case....lubricant tends to attract dust and dirt like a magnet...you'll do more harm than good. | |
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10-03-2008, 08:48 PM
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#24 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 979
| How often you clean depends on how much you use your weapons, and how dirty the environment where you use them is.
If you have patience, you probably could figure out an optimal schedule by cleaning, using them for a month or so (probably the longest you want to go between cleanings if they are in use a couple times a week) clean and look at the cotton swab. If it's really black, you waited too long, cut down a week and repeat. Some crud is inevitable, but it should be quite faint.
You ALWAYS clean before a tournament.
If your think you made that last touch but the machine claims otherwise, try cleaning. If the swab comes out black, you probably did.
Cleaning fixes many ills.
When you clean, the barrel really is the key part, but also wipe off the tip. On a foil tip, look carefully at the surface that hits the barrel rim. It often gets some black gunk that has to be scraped off with the tip screwdriver. On a german foil tip, look carefully at the collar and make sure you don't have some black gunk on it. Another scrape away spot.
I use a generic swab. They have less cotton than the name brand, and fit in a foil barrel with no futzing around. I use 90% alcohol and NO LUBE. | |
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10-04-2008, 03:34 PM
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#25 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: IU Bloomington
Posts: 513
| So... for foil.
All I would need to do is remove the tip tape,
take the two screws out,
remove tip,
remove spring,
swab,
and replace?
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10-04-2008, 08:52 PM
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#26 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Pacoima, ca USA
Posts: 5,942
| Quote:
Originally Posted by Cookeit  So... for foil.
All I would need to do is remove the tip tape,
take the two screws out,
remove tip,
remove spring,
swab,
and replace? | Add 2 more steps and you've got a good routine.
1) Sand off BOTH ends of the spring (corrosion builds up there and blocks the signal easily)
2) Get a small bit of brass pipe that will fit into the barrel to scrape any corrosion off the brass cap AND the bottom flange of teh tip.
Other than that, you've got it. | |
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10-04-2008, 09:08 PM
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#27 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: IU Bloomington
Posts: 513
| Quote:
Originally Posted by Purple Fencer 2) Get a small bit of brass pipe that will fit into the barrel to scrape any corrosion off the brass cap AND the bottom flange of teh tip. | I don't understand.
Brass cap? Is that the thing the wire is connected to?
Also, couldn't I like, glue/wrap some sandpaper on a cue tip to scrape the inside of the barrel?
Why does it have to be a brass pipe?
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Last edited by Cookeit; 10-04-2008 at 10:49 PM.
Reason: my quoting skills are lacking..
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10-04-2008, 10:09 PM
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#28 | | Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Pacoima, ca USA
Posts: 5,942
| [quote=Cookeit;740837] Quote:
Originally Posted by Purple Fencer
I don't understand.
Brass cap? Is that the thing the wire is connected to?
| Yep....that's it....I thought you understood...my bad. Quote:
Also, couldn't I like, glue/wrap some sandpaper on a cue tip to scrape the inside of the barrel?
Why does it have to be a brass pipe?
| You COULD use sandpaper on the inside of the barrel to get out grit and dirt, but a q-tip with rubbing alcohol is quite sufficient there.
The brass pipe is to make sure you can scrape the brass cap where the spring sits, since that's your connection to the wire...same for the underside of the tip where the other side of the spring sits. | |
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