D.I.Y Leon Paul Carbon Fibre Grip

[omakammars]

I started fencing using a French grip, about 1 year in I relegated said grip to the bottom of my use list and raised my Leon Paul pistol gripped Vniti Fie , reserving it for use on scrubs at high school tournaments. A couple weeks ago i discovered the Leon Paul Carbon Fiber French Grip, and realized i must have it. Unfortunately, it is a little pricey for my Budget and in this economy a little DIY couldn't hurt. So does anybody know any DIY ways to do this or possibly knockoffs by any of the other companies?

[Nolano]

None that I've heard of. Carbon fibre is an incredibly expensive material to work with, especially when it comes to irregular shapes.
I knew a guy who made his grips out of wood. You could make a similar grip and wrap it with racket tape, but it wouldn't be as light.

[Craig]

Get a block of light weight wood and tennis raquet tape. Drill out the block of wood to fit the blade and wrap with tape. Let us know how the DIY experiment goes.

Craig

[Alex_Paul]

You could try fibre glass as it is cheaper than carbon.

The materials aren't that expensive, the cost is in the labour as it is a real PITA to work with.

Alex

[CvilleFencer]

If you use the LP as a template, I am fairly sure that unless you are using Ebony or something like that, few woods are going to have the same dimensions without shattering under the stress. Remember, the LP grips use a pistol grip cut blade and a larger than standard (10mm IIRC) nut. You could maybe try making the channel smaller, say 8mm and use a normal hex nut on a french grip tang, but then you are not going to be using the original as a template. I would personally gladly pay the money as my time works out to being worth a lot more per hour! Good luck if you give it a try though.

[telkanuru]

Or just spend $20 on a Reith grip and live happily ever after.

[trickery dickery dock]

Or just spend $20 on a Reith grip and live happily ever after.

Seconded.

[telkanuru]

Seconded.

Stick your head in hot oil.

[EldRick]

Search for carbon fiber tubing; here's one source: http://dragonplate.com/ecart/categories.asp?cID=41

Then get a pommel and some tennis-racket tape, and make half a dozen for a few bucks.

[Nolano]

Carbon fiber tubing won't come in the right sizes to fit a tang and a pommel well.

[EldRick]

Carbon fiber tubing is neither exotic nor expensive, until you get into large sizes.

Carbon fiber tubing is available here in sizes up to 10 and 12mm O.D. for a few bucks, which should work just fine after wrapping with tennis-racket or golf club tape.
http://www.goodwinds.com/goodwinds/m...ultrudedcarbon

A typical external pommel fits a 15mm O.D. french handle, or just put an acorn nut on the end of the tang with a metal ferrule or washer to protect the end of the tubing. If you want a snug fit on the tang, sleeve one size tubing inside another. Hold it together with superglue.

You wouldn't be saving an awful lot over just buying one from LP, as Cville pointed out, but it could be a fun project, and you'd have enough material to make several grips.

[Alex_Paul]

The problem is that you need the pommel to be clamping down on something that isn't carbon fibre otherwise it very quickly falls appart.

[rory]

I switched to epee for a couple of seasons and made several knock-off 'LP' handles.

Take a length of PVC tubing of the right thickness for your hand.

Cut a 2" piece of dowelling of an external diameter that is about the same as the internal diam of the PVC.

Clamp the dowelling in a vice (vise for you lot), and carefully drill a hole down the length in the middle, to take the tang.

File out the hole to tang-size, and use a square edged file to make one end of the hole square.

Glue a metal washer to the end of the dowel that will be inside the pipe.

Apply superglue to dowel.

Ram dowel into end of pipe until flush (you might need to use a knife to trim the dowel diameter slightly).

Wrap assembly in tennis grip tape.

You need a long handled Allen key; should cost you about £2 in the UK.

Workls fine, the only issue is that the round x-section is slightly less easy to control than the square x-section of the real LP handle.
And it's (slightly) heavier.

[Alex_Paul]

Does the PVC tube not flex like crazy?

I am suprised that it is strong enough not to...

[EldRick]

...you need the pommel to be clamping down on something that isn't carbon fibre otherwise it very quickly falls apart.

That's why you use a metal ferrule in the ends, glued solidly to the tubing.

[Robert Smith]

How about moulding a grip to fit your hand? There's a plastic marketed as "Polymorph" in the UK and "Friendly Plastic" in the US that becomes pliable at 62C and could potentially be used to form a handle to your gloved hand directly onto the tang. No need for a pommel nut as the whole thing would also conform to the thread on the tang. Might not be possible to unscrew and transfer to a new blade, but you could always melt it down and start again. I doubt it would work for a pistol grip, but it might for a french style grip.

[Pescados666]

How about moulding a grip to fit your hand? There's a plastic marketed as "Polymorph" in the UK and "Friendly Plastic" in the US that becomes pliable at 62C and could potentially be used to form a handle to your gloved hand directly onto the tang. No need for a pommel nut as the whole thing would also conform to the thread on the tang. Might not be possible to unscrew and transfer to a new blade, but you could always melt it down and start again. I doubt it would work for a pistol grip, but it might for a french style grip.

But it wouldn't be USFA legal as a French style grip.

[Robert Smith]

But it wouldn't be USFA legal as a French style grip.

I don't see anything that would expressly forbid it. It would fit more into the category of orthopaedic grips than french, as it would be shaped to fit the hans, but that;s why I said French style. What do you think would disqualify it?

[SJCFU#2]

I don't see anything that would expressly forbid it. It would fit more into the category of orthopaedic grips than french, as it would be shaped to fit the hans, but that;s why I said French style. What do you think would disqualify it?

It may not be expressly forbiden however yiour new grip would only be considered "legal" if the modifications were minor enough that it was still considered "French" or it could only be effectively wielded when held in one position where the thumb were within 2 cm of the inside face of the guard.

From m.4

6. If the handle (or glove) includes any device or attachment or has a special shape (orthopaedic) which fixes the position of the hand on the handle, the handle must conform to the following conditions.

a) It must determine and fix one position only for the hand on the handle.

b) When the hand occupies this one position on the handle, the extremity of the thumb when completely extended must not be more than 2 cm from the inner surface of the guard.

It could probably be debated exactly where a grip crosses the line from being "French" to being "orthopaedic" however IIRC a couple of years ago someone had their weapon ruled illegal because they had wrapped enough tape around the French grip for it to take on the shape of their hand. And just because there isn't a large, heavy pommel at the end of the grip to grab onto doesn't mean that a weapon can't be effectively wielded when held somewhere other than the intended position.

[rory]

Does the PVC tube not flex like crazy?

I am suprised that it is strong enough not to...

Nope, absolutely rigid, and not brittle either.
It's about 20mm diameter, thickness is proobably 2 mil.