I am a club armourer. One of my customers wants me to introduce a quite strong inwards cant in her epee so that, basically, she does not need to bend her wrist to cavee. Is there any rule regarding how much angulation an epee can legally have? What she's asking seems rather unsportsmanlike, to me.
There is no explicit rule I can recall, other than it can't extend beyond the maximum guard size. We test this with a cylinder, and the entire assembled weapon has to fit through the cylinder. For an epee, that would be (at m.17)
and the grip requirement (at m.4):The guard, which must have a circular edge, must be able to pass
through a cylindrical gauge having a diameter of 13.5 cm and a
length of 15 cm, the blade being parallel to the axis of the cylinder.
Note that there is no explicit cant rule for foil, but it has the same requirements as epee except the cylinder is a diameter of 12 cm and a length of 15 cm.The grip must be able to pass through the same gauge as the
guard.
Nothing unsportsmanlike at all really. Some fencers use extreme cant on their blades, some don't. Some have so much bend that they have to put their socket on the opposite side from normal or have to file down or trim the "paddle" down on their grips to keep it legal. Not just epee either, you will see a lot of extreme cant in foil as well.
Personally I use a "just legal" cant on my French grips, a fair amount of extra tape to give a solid grip surface and the grip itself is very heavily curved downward, again into the "just legal" range. Think Turkish flintlock pistol and you would not be far off.
Different preferences/styles is all. If you plan on armoring, know the rules and fulfill any request that does not go outside them. Unless they are your student, I would stay out of the "not sportsmanlike" trap so long as they are not asking you to build something against the rules or that is plain cheating. And if you armor long enough... someone will!
Just another lost soul saved by the (hit) First Church of EPEE!
Bona Na Croin. "Neither Collar nor Crown"
Does anybody know the average diameter of most common epee guards? If I see that my opponents (probably french) handle extends well outside the range of the guard, can I ask for an examination? What should I do if it appears to me that my opponents weapon is illegal but the referee has not spotted it?
** My opinions are my own and do not necessarily represent the views of the Metropolitan Division, the New York Athletic Club or my fellow teammates **
Interesting question, and in my experience regardless of what "should" happen it varies a great deal depending on where you are fencing. I have never seen or heard of this actually being tested for except at weapons control of some WC/GP events. At a NAC, in theory if you made an official protest they could call over an armourer, but if they did not have the official testing rig to confirm the weapon is not valid at the event, I am not sure what they would do. On the local level, if there are no armourers on duty at the event and/or the referee is not familiar with that section of the rules, they will usually let it slide.
I have had several occasions where my opponents equipment was non-conforming in a subtle way that would bug an armourer but when I point it out to the referee it is dismissed. Usually with a "we don't test for that here" sort of comment. It does bug me though. I keep toying with the idea of welding an extra 5 inches of tang onto one of my epees and seeing if anyone local notices and if they do, what they do about it!
Just another lost soul saved by the (hit) First Church of EPEE!
Bona Na Croin. "Neither Collar nor Crown"
If you protested in a NAC, they would call the armorers, and while we don't have the cylinder in our normal kit, we could definitely determine if it was conforming with a piece of paper, some tape, an approximation of pi, and a ruler. If it was reeeally close, we'd likely claim a paper cylinder deformed too much and let it slide, but if the handle clearly caught up on the cylinder, we would fail it.
I'd love to see that in action.
Originally Posted by CvilleFencer
...I keep toying with the idea of welding an extra 5 inches of tang onto one of my epees and seeing if anyone local notices and if they do, what they do about it!
You could take a blade with the tang cut for a french grip and attach an LP carbon fibre for close to those 5 inches
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