Non-conforming lame?

[NeverWas]

Given m.28.5.b) :b)"In no circumstances must the use of a conductive jacket be allowed if it has holes in it, or patches of oxidation or other defects which may prevent the registration of a valid touch."

And my recent sobering experience of having an opponent's weapon break quite forcibly on me (didn't puncture the lining of the lame).

lame hole.jpg

Is this the sort of thing I just have to hope gets overlooked or am I ok as long as it passes Ohm testing and the hole doesn't get bigger? The rule seems to hinge on that last phrase, "defects which may prevent the registration of a valid touch." If the hole is smaller than the point of a weapon and there's no significant loss of conductivity... should be ok, right?

[Beloit Fencer of Old]

That won't be a problem at most local competitions, especially if you don't point it out to anyone, or circle it in pink marker, or anything. You would be smart, however, to patch it with a piece of good lame. Many people use patched lames for local competitions and practice, and they work perfectly fine.

[SJCFU#2]

The picture makes it look like there's little more than a couple of torn threads hole - small enough to where it might get be missed at equipment checks. However holes have a nasty habit of getting larger so if there's any question that a point might get caught in there (and given that this hole was caused by a point it's obviously large enough to catch another point) then the lame is likely to be rejected until the hole is repaired (which is a long way from saying that it can not be saved - even at NAC's you're likely to see some patched lames).

There are several means of repairing a hole. With a small hole it might be possible to simply darn the edges back together, ideally with conductive thread although if the stitching is fine enough it may be possible to do this with regular thread without creating a large enough dead spot to cause the lame to fail the resistance test (the test will be conducted using a probe with a hemispherical end with a radius of 4 mm). The more common solution would be to sew a patch of lame material over the hole (be sure to fold the edges of the patch underneath so as to ensure good metal-to-metal contact between the patch and the lame and keep the stitching tight so as to ensure that a point won't be able to become trapped underneath the patch). Just bear in mind that a repair like this is just as likely to attract the attention of an armorer as the hole itself so you want to make sure that any repair will pass the resistance test.

[Inquartata]

I've got a hole about that size in the back of my competition lamé. It has been passed without remark by the armorers at the last three tournaments, including the Kansas City NAC and Duel in the Desert.

Granted, it's on the back, where it's unlikely to catch a point. But the armorers looked at it, ran their test probes over it, and passed it. I think you'll probably be OK.

Still, I really should patch the thing...and so should you.