How much equipment?

[Craig]

Little poll here.

This includes all equipment (weapons, blades, uniforms, tip parts) but not stuff like books/movies/videos/lessons.

I tend to buy 2 or 3 blades and a ton of tip/barrel parts ea year.

Craig

edited: added suggested fields above the $300 range as suggested by others.

[Mo]

Originally posted by Craig
Little poll here.

This includes all equipment (weapons, blades, uniforms, tip parts) but not stuff like books/movies/videos/lessons.

I tend to buy 2 or 3 blades and a ton of tip/barrel parts ea year.

Craig

Three fencers, two of them growing teens.... If the family can spend less than 300 at a meet we consider it GOOD!!
Don't even want to add up the yearly costs...
The kids are at camp right now EEEKKKK and there is another later this summer for both.

[Dee EffEll]

I try to keep 4 working FIE bladed epees in the bag. That's over $400 right there. I have one Vnity blade in there now I bought at Greenville. All others purchased there or since are in the recycle bin.

Be interested in hearing from other posters/voters how long their FIE uniforms are lasting.

[edew]

I think you need more choices, like $301-$500, $501-$700, $701-$1000, $1001-$1500.

I buy about $500/year with rotations for mask and jacket/britches and lames once every three or so years. I just got a new fencing bag. $250. That's on top of the regular new tips, barrels, wires, and an occasional blade.

Do non-explicitly fencing equipment count? I often buy pliers and screwdrivers and wrenches, all for use with fixing equipment, but they're not fencing equipment per se.

[schlager7]

I could have voted in a lower purchase bracket until I started thinking of all the tip parts, screws, springs and wires.

I think if foils and epees came with wires and tips that never broke or failed I could cut my expenses to 30% of what they are...

[Dragonfly]

In two years I purchased

four epees = $320 [bg and amer]
three foils = $230. [amer]
mask = $139 [amer]
Body cords = $80. [bg/fp]

Jacket= $80.[amer]
Pants= $80.[ameri]
Shoes= $49. [fp]
Glove - $45 [bg]
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This is my ideal $500. per year.

Because I'm not an armorer I spent $100. on repairs.
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and now, I can't be in that round up in Spring
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"I want to be at the round up in Texas in Spring"
"yedil-odi-yedil-odi-yedil-odi-do"

[Queen of Hearts]

I don't know how much we spend but it is a lot.

[KShan5[PrFC]]

It depends. I am 16, thus I am still growing. I just bought a new lame, not because it failed, but because it didn't fit. Same with shows, jacket, knickers. That is a good $400+. Now for things i bought that were needed dbesides that, i.e. broken sabre blades and body chords, I probably spent $100.

[R. Exnicios]

I think there needs to be a $500 and a $1,000 category.

Now if we throw in travel and such you could add a zero behind all of those.

Bottom line is we spend a lot of money. Imagine how much we spend on the secondary market. (i.e. travel, hotels, meals, Advil).

Just food for thought.

Cheers

See ya' in Austin

[Philistine]

Also, tournament entry fees.

I probably spent ~ $200 on entry fees this past year.

--Philistine

[Peach]

Now that the categories have been changed, any way I can change my vote to the $501-1000 range?

[R. Exnicios]

I voted in the first poll. The revision looks good. I spend a bout $600 a year on equipment and then there is also my wife who spend about $500 a year on equipment.

I know this is a different storey but the club spends about $3,000. Our members purchase about $200. So doing some of that math and adding all the members of the club, the club and my wife and I we get to well over $7,000.

Food for thought for future sponsors of tournaments?

Thanks for the poll

[JEC]

Whow! You can negotiate directly with manufacturers.

[R. Exnicios]

You would think we could. But unfortunately we order in several smaller orders and even on the bigger orders the discounts they offer are not that great.

[Zelda]

I pay about 3000 odd Aussie all up including airfares, entry fees, affilation fees, accomadation etc. Actual equipment I dont spend that much. Maybe tape and new washers for my foils, but they are all fairly new at the moment so are working well. My next BIG expense will be getting a custom made fencing bag from the company which made my travel bags. I plan to have it made in canvas and leather with lots of attachable bits to hold stuff. If/when I get it made I will attach pics and plans.

[pkt]

As a old-timer - OK, OK, veteran - who competes only locally - which includes Seattle - a sabreur, I do not have to buy points, barrels, just blades and more blades. And some of those 20 amp clamps for the head wires - those of you who don't fence sabre do not know how often those 20-amp clips get beat up. Oh, Radio shack do not carry them. You'll have to go to a electronic hobby shop for them. Even then not all of them carry them. I know the head wire costs about $10 each...

Last year I bought 4 - 5 blades [the cold is not conducive to blade longevity] and the silver thread to extend the life of my non-competition lame' and it is working now. It was amazing how many blades break at the juncture between the forte and the tang.

Yes, I do a lot of repairs which includes sewing. Hey, one has to put the silver thread on the lame' some how, eh? I replace the worn out lame' in my electric sabre glove with more sewing. I usu. do my sewing while watching TV - there's not much on TV any way... I did a lot of sewing when I rode my '10-speed' since I used sewn-up tires...

Zippers are replaced by my favourite tailor.

Oh, BTW, I've sewn a piece of valcro - both sides of the velcro, of course - on the top of the zipper in the pants to stop it from providing unwanted and undesirable additional ventilation during a bout...

My non-lightweight guards are worn through by the blade. So I put a washer there to keep on using them. Remember, i do not go to NACs and most people are lenient about that sort of stuff. And if the guard at the thin end breaks, one can rivet an extra piece of metal there...

I refashioned my sabre handles - the aluminum ones, of course, defintiely not the nylon ones - by gluing an extra piece of wood on the handle to make it feel like an old-fashion Hungarian sabre handle. Then I cover them with tennis racquet grip tape. [Bicycle handle bar tapes are too thick for this purpose.]

The mask I take care of by more sewing and by parrying.

I found my home-made elbow guard far superior to the manufactured ones. Mine is a piece of leather sewn on to a tubular tensor from the NFL... It gives support as well as protection from the tingling elbow hits.

Barry, I've got lots more of these product ideas... Do I get a job? I've mentioned one of these product ideas to you already previously...

Oh, one more benefit about all these sewing: it's most relaxing. Turn off your mind and sew.

PK

[Wizardly]

Honestly, I'm not all that surprised by the breaks occurring there. The radius of curvature of the fillet is pretty small. Simple rule of engineering: smaller fillet = bigger stress concenration. The sharper the corner, the weaker the structure. Given that saber blades are subject to transverse impact loads much larger than most other weapons (due to cutting attacks), it makes sense that they break there more often than the other weapons. Perhaps it's time for a redesign? Larger fillet and guards capable of accepting them?

Do any suppliers sell spools of metal thread?

Steel rivets in masks...an alternate would be good. Rust is baaaaaad.

As for uniforms...I wish they'd last longer too.

[pammie003]

I just spent 271 euros this past weekend at the Hochschulmeisterschaft ... mourning the loss of the entire semester's worth of part-time earnings.
New FIE jacket and mask, as well as a new glove. So far this year, I have spent more than I care to think about, but I'm finally finished collecting my own equipment (although I still want a second body wire and second electric epee). Besides, in the long run I'm saving money by buying it direct while in Germany... at least that's what I'm telling myself!

[Gav]

I think I entered the wrong amount as I forgot to include coaching costs, club costs and tourney fees.

I've had a look through some of these posts and I think that some people do spend too much on equipment alone.

[Artisan]

Originally posted by Gav
I think I entered the wrong amount as I forgot to include coaching costs, club costs and tourney fees.

I've had a look through some of these posts and I think that some people do spend too much on equipment alone.

Gav: not trying to pick a fight here, but A) the question was how much do you spend on EQUIPMENT. B) How can you say people spend too much on equipment? Doesn't it really depend on the person, how much they fence when they started and at what level they are fencing?

This is my first year of fencing, and competeing. Doing two weapons means more expense. In the the first year there's additional one-time expenses, like tools and test equipment. There's also some trial and error expenses like finding the right type of grips that suits you. There's the expense of buying cheap stuff and replacing it more often or buying good stuff and replacing it a little later. There's the ongoing expense of blades. Even if you don't break them they do get tired and wear out. To compete you need two weapons and two body cords - minimum. Body cords fail. Gloves get nasty. It took me three pairs to find a fencing shoe that worked well for me. Some people have a mask and uniform for competitions and another set for practice. Two lames is not a bad idea either if you fence foil 3x a week so you can either alternate to let them dry or keep one in better shape for competition.

At our club, where it sometimes gets a bit crowded and you have to wait a few minutes for a strip there is nothing more frustrating than waiting around even longer for your opponent who has to tinker around with his only working weapon, or stop after every touch to tighen the barrel or grip or straighten the worn out blade over and over, or run to the armory to borrow a working body cord.

Consider what other sports, hobbies and (um) "vices" cost annually and you'll see that fencing probably is in the middle of the range, and like all else depends on the degree of participation.

My brother does scuba diving...now thats expensive. Every outing begins with an airplane ticket and hotel at some distant latitude...and the equipment...no logic in buying on the cheap here ...underwater cameras...different thickness wetsuits...egad!