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I Forge Iron

Broken epee


FieryFurnace

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I have a broken fencing epee that I want to repair. The tip broke about 9 inches from the very end and it broke off flat. My guess is an over hard spot in the blade. (don't know what took it so long to brake as me and some friends have done some REALY hard and fast coriographed (SP?:rolleyes:) fights with it)
I want to weld the tip back on so that it can be used for light coriographed/practice fights ONLY. NO, go at your buddy and try to run him through, fights!!!!!!!
I figured if I welded it, the part right at the weld would be something like annealed if I let it cool in the air after welding. (Or on top of a dying forge fire.) Then what. I can't re-harden/re-temper the whole blade. Is there anything I can do for just the tip where I weld it? Can I leave it "annealed and would it work ok for light planned sparring?
Once again I am not going to use this for thrusting into the body after/if I fix it. ANY thrusting will be either parried or will be thrust inbetween the arm and body as a "planned" fight. However I don't want the tip to be constantly bending.
Thoughts??? Thanks!!!
Dave

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Fencing blades are made from a very special type of steel and the heat treat is not a "top of the forge" type of thing. As peoples lives are at stake I would advise you to make a shish kabob skewer from it and use a new blade. Really they are quite cheap compared to *1* ER visit even for just a couple of stitches!

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As said, retipping is fine but attempting to weld the broken part back on is an invitation to disaster.

Fencing blades are of very specialized steel designed to break in a safe manner, the flat break you experienced for instance. Trying to weld it back on will produce unpredictable results, it may fail just sitting there let alone swinging it around, even slowly.

This is a BIG don't do it, even if you only want to hang it on the wall, you can't predict what will happen in the future, it may get sold at a garage (your estate) sale, stolen, anything can happen and someone unaware of it's repair may attempt to use it and get run through.

Frosty

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OK! Advice headed!
How do I "retip" it? Is that upsetting the end or welding a ball on the end?...or none of the above? The broken blade is about the length of a standard cutlass now, so if I could retip this one I might downsize my other one and retip it too. Then forge some more traditional looking handguards for reenacting purposes. What size tip do I need?
Thoughts??? Thanks!!!
Dave

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Or how about just putting the orginal rubber safety tips on the broken end, (After it's filed smooth) surrounding that with, say tire tube rubber, and duck tape the hole thing on the end? I taped the original safety tips on the ends before because they kept slipping off and I was afraid that one time I wouldn't notice untill too late.:( It seemed to hold up well. I only suggested putting the extra rubber on the end since the shorter blade would be a little stiffer. This would exclude any welding or whatever to retip! Once again I'm not going to be slamming them into my buddies boddy. Even in the coriographed fights I'll keep it slower now.

Edited by FieryFurnace
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  • 3 weeks later...

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