French Vs. German Epee Tips

[counter riposte]

OK, will someone please inform the ignorant sabre fencer, What's the deal, which is better for both fencing Epee and maintaining these tempramental beasts?

[DHCJr]

The main difference between German, French and English Epee tips is tolerances. The French has the sloppiest tolerances and thus do not move as smoothly. The Germans have two main problems besides price. The first is like most manufacturers they subcontract. One subcontract they had did not meet the tolerance, so they plated both the tip and barrel to close up the tolerance. The problem is they started to flake, causing all sorts of problems. This is not an ongoing problem, but it shows you have to be careful. The English Epee screws, which also fit the new Foil tips, have the best tolerances of all. If a French or German tip appears to be stripped, then use an English screw and it will hold better. Do not do this on a regular basis, only after French or German tips will not stay in. Once you put in an English screw, you will not be able to use any other type,

[sallearmourer]

Donald just for information the Leon Paul tip is not new but its about a 27 to 30 year old design My wife used them before. If I look around my box maybe I can dig up a old one to see what if change they have made.

Tim

[DHCJr]

Tim,

I don't understand why you brought that up. I know the design is that old. I even have some of the older design and knew about that. I also know that Leon Paul has recently redesigned their Foil tip and it now uses the Epee screws. But that and the age of the design has nothing to do with what this thread is about. The current French and the German are also come from around that time or even a little longer. The only thing I said was new was the Uhlmann wire. Why did you mention about the Leon Paul and why direct it to me?

[DHCJr]

Tim,

I may have misread your post. It appears that you were discussing the Foil tip. If so I apologize. I didn't mean that the design had changed. I have not replaced a Leon Paul Foil tip in over 5 years. Since the British does not send an Armorer with the Junior Team, I do help out when I am there with adjusting weight and all. But as you know, all you have to do is loosen the screws. So I have not looked at the screws on Foil carefully. From what I remember they were smaller, but not the same size as the Uhlmann Foil screws. I should have said the Leon Paul Foil makes use of the same screw as the Epee. I just assumed they did not redesign, just thread a larger hole in the barrel.

If you were talking about the Leon Paul Foil and not the Epee, I apologize and thank you for pointing that out.

[sallearmourer]

Donald i was informing you about the foil tip that leon paul redesign because you mention in the post. I ran into one at Saratoga Springs and a UNKaine one that takes a 1.5 mm hex wrench to take the set screw out. Didn't have a 1.5mm hex wrench made one out of a old dental tool. I get broken dental tool from my dentist and use them for various things.

Tim

[counter riposte]

So the answer to the question, Which one should I buy is....?

[sallearmourer]

I would go with the german epee point for the smoothest of the tip. The french epee tip tends to be a little slopping and the contact spring tends to slip and not to hold for shims test.


Tim