Sabre handles on Epee/Foil

[FullContactEpee]

At my club, there are a few coaches who prefer to attach sabre handles to their point based weapons.

Is this advisable, let alone legal? And say you wanted to pommel with it, could you still put a heavy cant on the tang along with a regular pommel?

Cheers

[SJCFU#2]

What makes you think that it might not be legal? If anything a saber grip is even less orthopedic than a traditional French grip (for one thing they tend to be more symmetric - which makes them easier to use with either hand).

As far as canting is concerned, same rules apply as with any other grip.

[EldRick]

I recently bought a Leon Paul sabre grip to try this. It is almost exactly as long as my French grips, and, as noted above, is symmetrical right-to-left.

However, it also has a bend downward, like a Coach Reith grip, but without the need to bend the tang of the blade to fit - the aluminum core inside is straight.

My thought is that this downward bend might work well for pommeling?

[CvilleFencer]

I have set up several weapons for pommelers like this and have a couple at the club. It works very well if you use the steel core saber grips.

[the ancient one]

You said coaches.
This is just a convenience to give lessons from the right and left hand.
It is not some magic grip that gives them an advantage.

[Danny]

Coaches just use these when training young students, and they may often get hit in the hand.

[Alexander Kai]

I did it once on a club foil and it just feels WEIRD.

But hey, whatever floats your boat.

[shalini2006]

a light cutting and thrusting weapon that uses a valid target area of everything above the waist, except for the hands. The sabre is primarily used to slash, so hits with the side of the blade as well as the tip are scored as valid. Like the foil, this weapon follows the rules of "right of way", and only one fencer can score a hit at a time.