Rewiring foils -- who's the most reliable?

[akaiyuki]

From your experience, who's the most reliable in rewiring your foils (excluding yourself)? The foil wires and my foils just don't seem to be getting along lately. Had a couple of foils rewired at the Atlanta NAC, and the wire from my favorite blade decided to leave my foil today - the day before a tournament.

Maybe it's a sign that I should be rewiring my own foils again... but they never look as pretty as when other people do it Nor does it last all that long...

[Mergs]

Don't know who did your re-wire job at Atlanta, but I will almost bet that it failed because the wire groove wasn't clean.

Of all the folks that I know that I would want to rewire my weapons, next to, as you implied, myself, would be Dan DeChaine.

But as you alluded to, the best person is yourself. If you follow the correct procedures, especially cleaning out the wire groove properly.

There are several discussions on this forum and resources, to include my book (link below), that will tell you how to rewire, of which there are numerous techniques.

[Purple Fencer]

From your experience, who's the most reliable in rewiring your foils (excluding yourself)? The foil wires and my foils just don't seem to be getting along lately. Had a couple of foils rewired at the Atlanta NAC, and the wire from my favorite blade decided to leave my foil today - the day before a tournament.

Maybe it's a sign that I should be rewiring my own foils again... but they never look as pretty as when other people do it Nor does it last all that long...

Are these ones I've done??? You can tell me tomorrow at UCI.

[yeoldearmourer]

I have over 30 years of doing it. I am way better than anyone else on this board. Just from the sheer numbers I have done.

[Mr Epee]

I have over 30 years of doing it. I am way better than anyone else on this board. Just from the sheer numbers I have done.

You should have a slogan....

"If it's good enough for Bob Marx, then it's good enough for you."

[akaiyuki]

Are these ones I've done??? You can tell me tomorrow at UCI.

Tehee nope. Thanks for gluing the wire that popped out again. I don't want to rewire it!

[yeoldearmourer]

Come to think about I have done both Mike and Bob Marx weapons. over the years

[KD5MDK]

I presume you already went to Swordmasters? I think their equipment booth is just an excuse to set up a repair shop.

[FoilyDeath]

Random question, is there a significant differences in a first time wiring of bare blades by manufacturers or vendors and a rewiring when it comes to screwing them up? I've been using LP bought blades, (LP budget maragings, etoiles and France back in the day, and now BFs and Vinitis...my LP budget maragins didn't deal well with new timing) and in 12 or so years of fencing, I've only had one instance of a wire coming out, and that was slight enough so that I shoved it back in and never noticed it again. Of course, these we're all directly from LP, not rewiring of faulty blades, so I'm not sure whether this is relevant. My coach used to rewire my blades, now I do them all myself, and I'm still perfectly happy.

[brtech]

I presume you already went to Swordmasters? I think their equipment booth is just an excuse to set up a repair shop.

Actually, they have a contract with the USFA to provide repair services at all NACs. This assures there will be at least one repair service available. I believe if they wish to sell equipment, they have to pay for a table like any other vendor.

I think they do a good job. I appreciate being able to recommend them when anyone needs a repair.

As with any handiwork, skills and techniques vary from one individual to another, and no one is perfect, but generally, all of their repair work I see (and I see a lot) is good.

[brtech]

Random question, is there a significant differences in a first time wiring of bare blades by manufacturers or vendors and a rewiring when it comes to screwing them up? I've been using LP bought blades, (LP budget maragings, etoiles and France back in the day, and now BFs and Vinitis...my LP budget maragins didn't deal well with new timing) and in 12 or so years of fencing, I've only had one instance of a wire coming out, and that was slight enough so that I shoved it back in and never noticed it again. Of course, these we're all directly from LP, not rewiring of faulty blades, so I'm not sure whether this is relevant. My coach used to rewire my blades, now I do them all myself, and I'm still perfectly happy.

Like anything else, if you do it a lot, you can get really good, or consistently bad. It seems that the LP wiring technique is well thought out, and well executed, by people who do a whole lot of wiring of new blades. I don't see quite the consistency, and quite the uniform quality, from some of the vendors who buy parts and put together weapons. I will say that every Uhlmann factory wiring job has also been consistently good, but I haven't seen nearly as many of those as LPs.

[akaiyuki]

I've been to swordmasters. The one blade I had rewired by them had its wire popped out after a month. I gave the blade to them with the old wire attached, since I had nothing to clean the blade with. The rewiring job was done fairly quick, so maybe as Mergs said, the wire groove wasn't clean enough.

[Morion]

Nobody commercial is going to do as good a job as you can do for yourself! The reason? You can take all the time in the world to do it right. Someone who is doing the job for a living (no matter how well intentioned) is trying to get the job done quickly so they can get on to the next job and thus make a living!

[Nmfencer]

Rocky. The armourer here in the Rocky Mountain region... he's just an awesome armourer all around.

[yeoldearmourer]

I always took the time to make sure the weapons were wired to my spec which is very high. My wife has fenced with weapons that I wired five or 6 years ago.

My kids are libile to break a blade before I have to rewired.

[KD5MDK]

Particularly when they fence sabre...

[twisterfencing]

akaiyuki:

I can see how this happened.

When your at a NAC, the lighting is always terriable. You soak a blade in acetone, dremel it out and outside of getting a flashlight and a jewelers loop to see if all glue is out of the blade, you have to go with what you see.

Once the glue is dry, you test the blade to insure you have a good bond (bend the blade backwards to see if there is any wire poping out) and then assemble.

It can happen.

Gary Spruill

I've been to swordmasters. The one blade I had rewired by them had its wire popped out after a month. I gave the blade to them with the old wire attached, since I had nothing to clean the blade with. The rewiring job was done fairly quick, so maybe as Mergs said, the wire groove wasn't clean enough.

[twisterfencing]

Morion,

Not intended to cause trouble, but I am going to disagree with you 100%.

You are correct if you know what you are doing and do it yourself.

I cannot count how many times I have taken a weapon from someone with the statement "well I tried to do it myself and.....". This is really just a lack of practice and knowledge.

Other item, I personally only know of (2) two armorers that repair weapons for a living. Most of us are volenteers and charge a fee for time and parts. Don't get me wrong, I am expensive and admit it! Yet, I have paid the dues with time and trial to make what I do. Yet, there is no way I could make a living at it.

Gary Spruill

Nobody commercial is going to do as good a job as you can do for yourself! The reason? You can take all the time in the world to do it right. Someone who is doing the job for a living (no matter how well intentioned) is trying to get the job done quickly so they can get on to the next job and thus make a living!

[Purple Fencer]

Other item, I personally only know of (2) two armorers that repair weapons for a living. Most of us are volenteers and charge a fee for time and parts. Don't get me wrong, I am expensive and admit it! Yet, I have paid the dues with time and trial to make what I do. Yet, there is no way I could make a living at it.

Gary Spruill

There are times when i wish I could clone myself....like when one particular HS coach walks in with 30 epees!!!

And morion, you're missing one BIG advantage to doing it commercially....I see FAR more weapons than the average fencer...even more than the average club armorer....that makes me a LOT more aware of the multitude of things that can go wrong....like the epee brought to me the other day with a constant A/B short.

No stripped wire....no grounding against the guard...took the point out to discover the weight spring had been replaced (probably after being lost) with a FOIL spring....which acted like a large contact spring!