Uhlmann Electric Foil Point

I have a serious love hate thing with the German tips. I love that fact that they are probably the longest lasting tips around, I love that I never have to worry that they will pass the weight test, and I love the smooth travel and feel of the tips... Right up until they get used for a while. And then the hate begins.



I hate that the barrels dent very easy. This quickly makes it hard to land a touch as the travel becomes choppy and unreliable. It is a fairly simple thing to use a punch to straighten out the dents in the barrel. So you unwind your tape to begin removing your barrel, only to find that what was a nice screw tip when you put the tape on is now metallic hamburger. The hate grows.



There are a few ways to get the screws out in the end, but it is much more work that it should be, and the weak barrels means that you will need to take them out a fair amount if you fence often.



So, the week barrels combined with horrible screw design keep this from being the best type of tip on the market. In recent years they have made a V2A tip that is a stronger barrel, but has the same flawed exposed screw design.



A friend of mine told me that you can solve the whole problem by taking a soda can, cutting out a piece of aluminum to match the barrel, and just wrap the sheet aluminum around it before you tape it up. While he swears by the method, and it sounds good, I have not gotten around to trying it.

The screws are the most common complaint about the German points. However, my largest concern is the with the softness of the barrels.



Yes, there are reaming tools to "fix" dented barrels, but their long-term effectiveness is a bit suspect.



While these points were the best available for years, the introduction of the V2A point makes them somewhat unnecessary; a rewire due to a dented barrel was a monthly expense for me. Now, however, I've had 4 months of fencing without a single rewire, which more than pays for the extra cost of the point.

The Uhlmann foil point is a great upgrade from the various French points. The metal sheathing on the tip increases it's durability - 2 parried flicks and your tip won't go flying across the room.



So, they've got the durability thing working well with the barrels. The Uhlmann loses points because the barrel gets dinged up over time, demanding that you ream out the barrel to smooth the inside out and get decent travel on the inside again.



The biggest drawback to the Uhlmann are the screws. As you can see from the photo, when fully inserted, the screw heads project above the surface of the barrel. So, you need to check your tip screws after each night's bouting and either replace them or redo the groove or you'll be cursing the smashed screws and trying to find some "hack" to get the screws back out without ruining the barrel.