electric foil tape & glue

[zhenqing]

Here is one for the armourers. Which tape and glue would you say is the most durable and reliable among the several brands available? Also, how much tape (dimensions) do you recommend using? I've been told by a friend (who is also an armourer) to avoid using super glue since it is too brittle. What is the function of a mandrel on performing electric foil maintenance? As always, many thanks for sharing your vast knowledge on the subject.

[rusty epee]

We always used colored duct tape or a heavier-weight electrical tape on our weapons. And regardless of the glue you use, none of it is worth a crap if you don't make absolutely sure your groove is clean before you begin to rewire. We used an awl to clean out the groove, and found that indeed, super glue was too brittle (as well as hard to clean out of the groove -- what a mess!) I wish I could remember what brand of glue we used -- but I do recall it was something quite common.

Best of luck!


------------------
The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvellously.
-- Henry Kissinger

[cleghmor]

Nihao ma Zhenqing

Super glue is the way to go! It is fast and easy. Any other way is just lame. Just make sure you have a clean blade and hell, make your own wires! I buy a roll fron radio shaft and it lasts me a year ( up to 30 re-wires0 before I have to spend another $4.00 again. Tip tape? Just buy some regular tip tape from a distributor or if you want to go cheap buy some tennis racket tape.

[neevel]

The tapes I like best are the 3/4" Prieur tip tape (comes in a _big_ roll from American Fencers Supply), the Gosen 1" tape sold in smaller rolls by American and the Fencing Post (it's actually racquet head protector tape, but good luck trying to find the stuff at a sporting goods store or even on online racquet sports sites), and gaffers' tape (available in duct-tape sized rolls from theater supply dealers). All three are strong cloth tapes with good adhesion. Blue Gauntlet sell Gamma racquet head tape for tip tape, but the adhesive on that brand doesn't stick to metal all that well. The rules specify that the lower 15 cm of the blade must be taped. Run a length of tape from right below the barrel to the desired point, and then wrap a separate piece around the barrel. For German points, first wrapping a narrow piece just around the screws can help protect them from getting mashed.

R.E.'s dead on about cleaning the blade being the absolutely critical element. If you've got the groove down to bare metal, just about any reasonable (i.e., no Elmer's or mucilage or the like) will work fine. Duco is what a lot of beginning armorers use-- it can be messy and needs an overnight cure, but because it cures slow it's forgiving of mistakes, and it won't make you have hallucinations of Ted Koppel's hair-piece attacking you. Chuck Allen likes Fletch Tite, an archery glue-- make sure you've got good ventilation if you use it, though, since the stuff really fumes (see above reference to Ted Koppel's hair-piece).

Your friend is wrong about superglues. I, and many other USFA armorers I know, use some form of cyanoacrylate (i.e., superglue), most commonly Zap CA or the equivalent. CA is a super-thin, very-fast cure glue that will have the blade ready to use in about 10-15 minutes. The trick is that it's so runny you need to adjust your glueing technique to make sure it doesn't get into the point or glue the wire to the tang. What you want to do is, once you've the blade bent in the jig and the wire pulled snug and taut in the groove, run a bit of the stuff 5-6 inches down from just below the barrel, with the blade angled up so it won't run into the barrel. Wait about 20-30 seconds, and then glue 5-6 inches down from the tang with the blade angled the other way so the CA doesn't run onto the tang. After another 20-30 seconds, glue the rest of the blade and let it dry bent and inverted (so any excess glue will run to the center of the blade) for 10-15 minutes, and then build the weapon. Since it's so thin, there's no need to bottom glue-- the stuff will immediately seep down and fill in the groove around the wire. Zap CA is also great for spot fixing wires that pop out of the groove.

While I've never had problems with CA being brittle, Zap does make a flexible cyanoacrylate, FlexZap-- it's not as fast curing as CA. You can find Zap glues (or an equivalent brand) at hobby shops, or online at Micromark.com.

A mandrel is used to round out barrels that have gotten dinged out of shape so that the tip can't move freely. Allstar makes them in the specific dimension for German barrels, but I don't think Prieur makes one in the dimensions for their foil points.

-Dave Neevel

[fred]

Babolat racquet head tape. Local sporting goods store had it. Stuff could take McEnroe racket abuse all day, but the adhesive is nasty to get off the blade when you have to remove it.