What Makes a Foil Point Sticky?

[ysbadadden]

This is a nearly-new French-made foil tip. It often stays depressed after a hit (no psychological jokes, please); it doesn't rotate freely, and it clicks.

What can the causes be? What is the cure?

[Zilverzmurfen]

While I'm not familiar with foil points you can get the same problems with épée tips.

Probably the spring (the big one) that holds the weight has it's 'ending' sticking out at bit so that it catches on to the actual tip and 'disturbs' its movement. You can try to fix the current spring or put a new one in.

If the tip 'stick' to the barrel you can also 'grease' it with graphite powder. If you don't have the powder you can use a (preferably soft) pencil and use it in the little openings in the barrel whilst depressing and releasing the tip.

(Hope this makes any sense, I'm not good at describing these things in english and have probably used confusing terms... )

[rory]

Or the barrel might be bent.
Or it might be dirty.
Or you've over-tightened one of the grub screws.
Or one of the grub screws is damaged.
Or the cup isn't correctly seated at the bottom.

[brtech]

It's usually just dirty.
It can be a deformed tip
It can be a deformed barrel
It can be a problem with the screws holding the tip at an angle.

First loosen the screws half a turn on both sides. See if that frees it up.
Then take the tip out, and the spring, and clean the barrel and tip with a cotton swab soaked in alcohol.

Then, without the spring, put the tip in and see if it moves very smoothly in and out of the barrel. If it doesn't, first try changing the tip. If that doesn't work, first look down the barrel with a light to see if the cup is deformed. You can often use the point setting tool to make sure the cup is sitting in the barrel correctly. If that is not it, you can try reaming or using the right size mandrel to reshape the barrel.

If that doesn't work, rewire with a new point.

If the tip moves freely without the spring, put the spring in and make sure it moves smoothly with the spring in. If it doesn't work, first change the spring, and if still doesn't work, it could be the spring is not sitting in the cup correctly (rewire may be needed, but first try using the point setting tool and a hammer...LIGHTLY), or it could be the tip not sitting on the spring well, try changing the tip.

If the tip slides smoothly with the spring in place, put both screws in, but don't tighten them. Try it again. If it's not smooth, try changing the tip. If it's smooth, tighten both screws reasonably tight and try again. If it binds, loosen the screw a little bit.

In a german point, it's most likely dirty or a deformed barrel.

[oiuyt]

Originally Posted by ysbadadden

no psychological jokes, please

You're new here, huh?

Okay, guess we'll have to come up with some other types of jokes.

Originally Posted by ysbadadden

What Makes a Foil Point Sticky?

Taking a bit of fallen wood and taping it to the end of a car antenna?

No, that's what makes a stick foil pointy....

Hmmmmm......

Using your foil barrel as a pencil sharpener?

-B

[the ancient one]

My old club used to practice at a run-down gym. Every now and then a big fat cockroach would scurry by. I do mean big, this was Texas after all.

Upon sight, our coach would stop whatever he was doing to deliver a well-aimed cut. Frequently, after that, the half-cock roaches would continue on their journey.

Not great for the foil point, but fantastic incentive to parry.

[XanderHal]

I have a leon paul regular foil tip that was giving me some problems recently. Usually I clean with a q-tip and alcohol but that didn't work. I noticed that the end of one of the two tip screws was a bit mashed, and the tip worked fine with only the one normal screw in. So I replaced the mashed screw and I'll check it out at practice this week but it seems to be OK now.