Personal Armoring

Armory by Ted Li
Written By serge timacheff

September 2023

Most people become involved with personal armoring – the maintenance and repair of fencers’ personal gear – by having to diagnose and repair problems found in their own, their relatives’ or their club’s equipment. Only when they start doing personal armoring at competitions do they realize the scope of the problems and solutions the array of different component parts of fencing gear presents.

Essentially, a personal armorer’s responsibility is to make sure a fencer’s equipment is not only functional, but meets the relevant specifications for competition found in the “M” (materials) section of the rule book. Listed below are tools I have personally found to be most useful.

Basic Tools

  • LED Test box and/or ohmmeter with an Rx1 scale

  • Combination foil/epee weight with a built-in lamé test probe

  • 1.5mm and 0.50mm epee gauges

  • 2-prong, bayonet and epee body cords, or an epee body cord with a 2-prong and bayonet adapter

  • Pommel tightening tools: 6mm inside hex wrench, 8mm outside hex wrench, screwdriver, or specialized tools (e.g. Leon Paul)

  • 1.5mm- and 1.8mm-slotted screwdrivers with magnetized tips

  • Portable bench vise

  • Small adjustable wrench for tightening barrels

  • Swiss Army “tinker” knife for a multiplicity of tasks

  • Precision wire cutters

  • Wire strippers capable of stripping #30 AWG wire

  • Needlenose pliers

    Additional Tools

  • 12kg mask punch

  • 30-Watt soldering iron, electronic flux and rosin core electronic solder

  • Foil and epee point setters

  • Hemostats

  • Mandrel for rounding dented or misshapen barrels

  • 4.5mm and 5.0mm reamers for reaming foil and epee barrels

  • M6x1 die and die stock for chasing tang threads

  • Blade-bending jig for rewiring blades

  • Small hammer

  • Small hacksaw

  • Needle and dental floss

    Supplies

  • Tip tape

  • Thin cyanoacrylate (CA+) glue (“super glue”)

  • Cyanoacrylate debonder

  • Foil and epee tip screws: the screws vary depending upon the manufacturer of the point

  • Spare foil and epee tips: tips are NOT interchangeable

  • Spare foil and epee pressure springs: springs are usually NOT interchangeable

  • Spare foil and epee wires: they may not be interchangeable depending upon the manufacturer of the point

  • Spare batteries for the LED test box or ohmmeter

serge timacheff
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