Hardware

Yesterday I finally got around to tweaking my newer epee with the custom-made grip designed by Dragonetti, which I got from Don. It's taken me a while to get it put together in a way that should work. My first attempt, using blades from my other epees failed because the tangs were all too short. Dragonetti's grip is fairly long—too long for the "XL pistol grip" tangs on my other blades. So I got a blade with a French grip tang and used a hacksaw to cut it down a bit. After a couple hacksawings I managed to get the grip securely screwed onto the tang, although I have to use two lock washers or the nut doesn't quite fit. That done I put the rest of it together only to discover that the socket, in its regular place on the left side, totally got in the way of my hand, and I couldn't hold the grip in a reasonable way. The grip's "end prong" is paddle-like and "canted" quite a bit to the left, which puts my whole hand more to the left inside the guard. Plus, when I canted the blade I think I canted a little more than I meant to. So I tried putting the socket in different places and eventually found a spot that works and isn't too weird.

I'm used to regular Visconti grips like this:

Visconti grip

Visconti grip in hand, plugged in

I'm used to "regular" Visconti style grips, with finger grooves and that long straight rear prong, or tail (see pics). I have mixed feelings about the long rear prong. Sometimes it feels good resting against my wrist, almost like a rudder that helps me keep the blade straight and the tip on target. Then again, sometimes the long tail is annoying, like when doing a prime parry.

Dragonetti grip

Dragonetti grip

Dragonetti's grip has finger grooves like a Visconti, which I like, but instead of a long straight "tail" it has a short paddle-like tail, which angles away to the left. It feels to me as if the paddle tail wants to rest on your lower palm, unlike the long Visconti tail that reaches to my wrist. This makes things like prime parry feel much better, and it seems like it might be good for flick and "pop" type attacks. I'm not yet sure what I think about the way it—I'm not even sure how to describe it—the way it changes all the angles in your grip. The way your fingers wrap around it, the way it fits into your palm, like your palm "wraps around it" somehow, rather than the "straight up the wrist" feel of the Visconti. It certainly feels weird switching between the two grips. I have only barely fenced with the Dragonetti grip, so I guess time will tell. I can imagine how it might be wonderful once I get the feel of it.

Dragonetti grip, held and plugged in

Dragonetti grip, held and plugged in

In these pictures you can see how it looks when held with a gloved hand and how the paddle tail fits in the palm. And remember that that paddle angles off quite a bit to the left. You can also see how I moved the socket from a 9:00 position, which was smooshing my fingers, to something more like a 10:00 or 10:30 position (where 12:00 would be "on top", over my thumb). It looks a little tight in these pictures, and it is a little tight, but seems like it should be fine.

Dragonetti grip, held and not plugged in

In this picture you can kind of see how long the "shaft" of the grip is—the straight part within the bell guard. The "shaft" must be about a centimeter longer than a normal Visconti. I have rather big hands, as does Dragonetti, so this extra length may be just the thing. Then again, it might be just a little too long, making it less comfortable to hold. I'm still not sure. It can easily be held in an "illegal" way, with the paddle higher and snugger in your palm, and your index finger held straight along the top of the grip, with your thumb on the side and back beyond the one centimeter from the guard allowed by the rules. I've seen people hold pistol grips that way—it gives an extra centimeter or two of reach and, in skilled hands, seems to help with picks and flicks. To me holding it that way feels something like pommelling a French grip, which is not something I have tried much or feel inclined to try much. Plus, if I hold the Dragonetti grip that way my thumb is definitely more than a centimeter from the guard, and therefore illegal. Not that directors in tournaments actually check or enforce that rule. In any case, if after a while I'm not happy with the longer shaft I may cut it down a little.

Epee tips and tip screws

Anyway, in addition to getting the Dragonetti grip epee set up better I also replaced the tip and tip screws in my Visconti epee. A couple weeks ago its tip came out while fencing and I couldn't find it on the floor. I have several spare tips, so I put one that looked less banged up than the others, only to find that I couldn't get one of the tip screws in tight. I probably overtighten tip screws a lot, and worry that I've stripped the threads on some of my tips. Last week I lost two or three more screws from this tip with the possibily stripped threads. Looked through the tips I had (see picture) and found one that seemed not too badly stripped. Then I remembered I had bought some loctite a while ago and put some on the screws before I screws them into the tip, hoping that that will help them stay in.

Epee tip screws are tiny!

Assembled epee tip showing screws destined to fall out

The tip screws are really small, and in my attempt to get just a tiny dab of loctite on just the threads I ended up getting loctite all over everything. I worried a little that the loctite might prevent the tip from depressing at all, or make it sticky. But, hooray, it seemed to work fine today. [later note: this was a bad idea, the loctite made the whole tip stick badly, I had to take them all apart and wash everything in acetone]

Don's ingenious washer

While I was taking pictures of these two epees I thought I would get one showing "Don's washer". This is a useful thing. Normally when putting together an epee you put the wires through the bell guard and socket, then "out" from the base of the grip via a small slot. This system works, but there's a million ways you can accidentally smoosh the wires and cause a short. Don gave me one of his washers and explained how he made them. Basically its a relatively wide washer with a small hole. He cuts a little slot from the hole to the edge, for the wires to run through. He also, somehow, makes the washer's round hole into a square one so it fits on the tang. In the picture above (my Visconti epee) the wires go through the hole in the bell guard, then immediately slot through the washer's groove. I put the pad over that and the socket over the pad, then put the grip on. You could put the socket on with the pad over it too, but I wanted the pad under the socket. Anyway, I've come to really like this washer idea.

My toolkit so far

Key tools (mostly)

Finally, just for fun, here's a couple of pictures of my small but ever-growing toolkit. The second picture shows the main tools out. From left to right: magnet (bottom corner and used to keep the tiny screwdriver tips magnetized); two tiny screwdrivers, neither of which seems quite right for epee tip screws; allen wrench for grips; a little triangular file, mostly for cleaning out blade grooves when rewiring; shim tool for tip testing; needlenose pliers; loctite; superglue (runny, not gel!); a bigger screwdriver for socket wiring; a couple smaller screwdrivers for no particular reason; foreceps, which sometimes come in handy when wiring sockets.

Not shown but very useful: a scouring pad for cleaning rusty blades; a simple epee circuit tester box; and a wrench with a "ring" at one end, for canting blades. Things I'd like to get someday: a small vise and a basic dremel/rotary tool. Oh and some more PVC pipe for scabbards; new hacksaw blades; and a metal pipe (or thick/strong PVC pipe) long enough to hold an epee blade and with secure end caps—to use for cleaning blades of old wire and superglue by putting the blade in the pipe, filling with acetone, sealing, and leaving overnight. I tried that once and it did a great job of getting old superglue off, but the pipe was thin PVC and kind of melted. Oops.