Grounding an electric sword

[ClashofSteel]

Hello,
I was wondering if some of you have had trouble fencing electric, because of a poorly grounded blade. Ive had numerous situations where the electric sword I was using ends up not working because it hasn't been grounded. This happened to even newly bought blades. I wonder why manufacturers of electric sabres don't invest the time in wrapping the little wire correctly.

[Tireur]

Electric sword?

[Peach]

What little wire? There are no leetle wires in a sabre. It's an electrified metal stick.

[shmagoogin77]

Originally posted by Tireur
Electric sword?

you use electric swords in tornuments

[ClashofSteel]

Originally posted by Peach
What little wire? There are no leetle wires in a sabre. It's an electrified metal stick.

You know where the body cord connects with the blade, (Most commonly a rectangular box), among the end of it, a wire strips down to connect the blade and has to be grounded onto the bell.

[Peach]

I use a two-prong connection, and the socket bracket acts as the ground -- no wires.

Manufacturers haven't been selling ungrounded sabres for a while, not since they took the capteurs out. Are yours old? Or do you normally fence with scoring machines which are still set for the capteurs?

As I recall, you can ground them with a paper clip if necessary, though with the two-prong connections it's easier just to take out the insulating washer . . . I think. I forget the details because I don't have to do it any more.

A bigger problem I run into frequently is when an uninsulated portion of the bell or bare metal in the pommel comes into contact with the overglove and your opponent can score against you by hitting your blade. I carefully prepared my weapons before a recent tournament and unfortunately broke two blades, so my unprepared third weapon lost me two points (my director wouldn't let me change weapons, grr).

[Tireur]

you use electric swords in tornuments

Oh, I thought it was like a vibrating sword or like and electric carving knife or something. I've just never really heard them referred to as "swords".

I've never been asked, "What sword do you fence?"

[DHCJr]

Clash of Steel

You are most likely using a Leon Paul connector, but there is the same problem with 2-prong. People and some vendors use some wire to turn a Foil connector into a Sabre connector. This can be done, if it is done properly. The trouble is some are not careful.

The best solution is to use Sabre connectors and insist when you buy a complete weapon that you get a Sabre connector. The Leon Paul Sabre connector is very reliable, considering it was designed specifically for Sabre.

[fencinman89]

umm... Peach the Rule book says that if a blade doesnt work you may change it and the Referee that you had was completly wrong
-Tre

[Peach]

I know that, you know that, and the very well-known and experienced referee who refused to let me change the blade knows that. Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug, and I was the bug that day.

[Inquartata]

Are the equipment retailers making a distinction between sabre and foil 2-prong sockets these days? The last time I looked I did not find them so listed in the catalogs of the major sellers---there was just "2-prong socket", usually in the foil section....

I fenced at a tournament a couple of months back, there was a gentleman just getting back into the sport who had bought all of his equipment, new, just that week. None of his sabre sockets were grounded.

[DHCJr]

This is one thing I discussed with Barry Paul and the U.S. mentality. The U.S. Armorer has to be able to work with every type of equipment, because the fencers here take whatever they can get cheaply. The vendors know that.

You have to go directly to the manufacturers. For example, check Leon Paul. They have both their own and a Sabre connector for a french style 2-prong. Check Uhlmann for their Sabre connectors.

[Phoenix]

This happens in bayonet-soket sabers (like the old one I use at my club). the wire goes donw to the blade. maybe because the guy did a sucky job, delivery, or aliens

[downunder]

Originally posted by Peach
I know that, you know that, and the very well-known and experienced referee who refused to let me change the blade knows that. Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug, and I was the bug that day.

and you didn't call DT cos of it....?

[Peach]

Originally posted by downunder
and you didn't call DT cos of it....?

I've been known to lodge an appeal when it was worth it. In this case, I wasn't going to win any bouts anyway. I'm no kid, it was a high-level tournament, it was my second event in two days, and I was tired and my sciatica was acting up. I like to save my large-scale ill-will-causing acts for situations in which it makes an important difference to me. And a tanking fencer appealing the decision of a high-level referee (even if he had decided I didn't belong there and was a nuisance, and wasn't going to let petty matters of the rules deter him from making sure I got out as quickly as possible), would have caused major ill-will and made both him and me look bad. Politically, that's a lose-lose situation.

However, if it's a situation where winning matters and he's assigned to my pool, I or my coach will go to the DT and ask to be assigned a different referee.

[downunder]

my guess is that unless you can show that he is biased against you, they won't give you another referee...

[Peach]

The request can be made, and is sometimes honored.