Why you should always wear 800 N clothing

[pkt]

All,

I had a bit of a nasty experience last Sat., 03/22, during our Provincial championships:
I was fencing one of my club matres in 'Veteran epee' - to the amazement of the younger fencers who have seen me fence nothing but sabre in the club and competitions - I did an attack, he parried, I got in close, did a counter parry in prime, made a downward riposte hit his right/leading thigh.

Then I realised my blade broke on the attack and I made the contre-riposte with a broken blade.

Unfortunately for Wlade, he was only wearing gray gym pants...

He excused himself from the bout and had his bleeding leg attended to.

I beleive that had he been wearing FIE 800 N pants, all he would had gotten would be a bruise.

Oh, I fenced all 3 weapons that weekend.

Take care, wear your 800 N whites esp. in epee.

PK

[JEC]

About 2 or 3 months ago, I was fencing an epee bout against a "B" in my club. His point hit the seam of my Uhlmann world cup 800 knickers (weapon side), penetrated the seam without ripping the fabric (spandex part or heavy cotton/polyester). The seam's thread obviously got ripped. Fortunately, I only got a 2 inch superficial scrape. A broken blade would have done considerably more damage.

[pkt]

Hence the importance for epeeists to keep thier clothing in good repairs more so than the other weapons.

PK

[daeceg]

All I can say is "ouch"...
What can be more painful is bouting with an unexperieced partner. At an informal competition in our club (foil..we're all beginners here), I fleched my opponent. Instead of parrying or dodging, he threw a picture-perfect shoulder block into my sternum...ugh... Ended up with strained ribs...couldn't cough for a few weeks without it hurting.

[JEC]

Originally posted by pkt
Hence the importance for epeeists to keep thier clothing in good repairs more so than the other weapons.
PK

My knickers were in perfect condition before the bout. The point tip of his epee had a small nick, which might have help in catching the seam of my knickers.

[Gav]

There are a couple of fencers, locally, who have nice scars on their shoulder from where they have been run through despite wearing the required clothing. If a blade breaks and leaves a point on the broken edge then that will still easily penetrate a jacket. Having said that I try to alway wear full kit when I'm fencing - you definitely get less bruising.

[pkt]

Well, in the event of the broken point actually going through everything, and making a nice hole in your person, I'd recommend doing what the Mongols did:
They wore silk underneath their armour.

Silk makes the extraction of pointy things from one's person more smooth, less snags.

Wheher it is less painful or not, I'm happy to report that I do not have the personal experience...

My clubmate, a Pole, did not seem to suffer any permanent damage. He was fencing on Tuesday, a mere 3 days after I skewered his leg.

PK

[Tsu-La]

I have a nice little scar on my arm from when I was taking a lesson from my coach, and took a parry six. His weapon broke over my parry (this was the second time this has happened on the same parry... maybe he really gets mad at my ineptness during lessons? anyways, it only scratched me), and somehow one of the points went into my arm enough for it to bleed a lot and me get a battle scar. My coach, needless to say, went on a cussing spree in his language (I'm almost glad I couldn't understand it).

A couple other experiences I've had were where people were fencing, and got stabbed in the leg (in epee and sabre). Both times they were incredibly non-chalant about it, refusing to stop, while a blood stain slowly spread across their knickers. Of course the people who's blade had broken were going balistic. Sometimes being a man goes too far, I think.

[P_Marlowe]

I once had somebody cut a bit of my mask out at sabre. He cut (from the shoulder as was always his 'style') and hit with the point on my cheek. I felt something hit the side of my face and shouted 'halt'- when we looked there was a neat 5mm square hole in the mesh of the mask......

[remise]

At my very first class, the club champion was showing me how to lunge, and he hit me square on in the chest (which I was expecting). His blade broke on impact (I was not expecting) but his momentum drove the weapon into me and all I could see was steel disappearing into me as his guard got closer and closer too my chest. When he pulled back, my jacket puckered out, and pieces of his weapon extracted out, some did not. I was completely unharmed physically, but emotionally I was a wreck.

After taking off my jacket and getting out the rest of the pieces, my coach put me right back out on the strip. It was probably the best thing he could have done. Had he not done that, I more than likely would have quit on the spot.

[qatet]

Wow. This thread is almost enough to make me stop fencing - and I'm as fanatically in love wit hthe sport as anybody. That said, I bought FIE gear right after my first NAC, where I met a woman with an awful scar in the middle of her chest from being hit with a broken blade through an old jacket.

Once is all it takes.

[Mischa]

I'm having to switch stockists for this very reason. I would buy an 800N jacket from Leon Paul, were it not for the fact that they have British flags all the way up the sleeves, which wouldn't exactly complement the BALEN ISR on my lame.

[pkt]

Mischa,

I'm sure LP sells them w/o the Union jacks...because I've seen them.

On the other hand, you could have dual citizenship, no?

PK

[Lemberg]

LOL Patrick that was some good puncturing Your blade looked pretty darn rusty - did Wlad get tetanus shot just in case?

[pkt]

That's what happens when one doesn't fence epee often. I store them in my laundry room. That epee blade was the lighter weight variety...

I was concerned for Wlade too and I did ask him that Q and he did get a tetanus shot last year. He's a grown man...

PK

[Boo Boo]

Mischa

The Leon Paul Jackets do comw without the union jack strip down the sides: you have to order the strip especially (and pay extra for it). So don't worry, you don't have to have it :-)

Boo