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Care and Feeding of Weapons, Electrical: Part 3
by Michael Mergens
ADVANCED REPAIRS
Ok. Here we are at the point where you tackle the really tough part, Rewiring. Actually, it is not that difficult and it works the same for foil and epee (Sabers don’t have wires. That would be WAY too complicated for saberists!). It just seems daunting in the beginning. If, God forbid, you are at this point here’s what to do. First disassemble the entire weapon. That includes removing the barrel and tip from the blade as well as the grip, connector, and guard. Save all these parts, especially the tip.
If you are wiring a new blade, skip the next two paragraphs, with the exception, that you should thoroughly clean the blade with IPA to remove any grease or dirt that may have remained on the blade after manufacturing or shipping.
Now comes the tricky and critical part. Removing the old wire and glue. There are several ways to do this. The most efficient is to get a piece of copper pipe 36” long ½” to ¾ “ diameter, a cup and a threaded connector and plug. Assemble the cup on to one end and the threaded connector to the other by soldering them on using standard plumbing techniques. Don’t know a standard plumber? Check out Home Depot, HGTV, or any self-help home repair book. Or find a buddy to do it. That done, fill the tube with acetone and put the blade in it for about 30 minutes. Take the blade out and strip out the wire. Cap the tube and use the acetone for the next job.
Take either a dental pick, small screwdriver, or anything else that will fit in the groove and scrape out the old glue. You have to make sure you get it all out. Re-use the acetone bath if necessary. Once the glue is out and the blade dry, use a folded over piece of fine (220 grit) sandpaper to clean the groove very well. You may have to repeat this step several times. Clean out the grit and dirt with IPA. Once the blade is REALLY clean, you are ready to start putting it together. NOTE: If you don’t have an acetone bath, you can do the same thing using Brake and Carburetor Cleaner. Just spray it on and let it sit. It takes a little longer, but still works fine, but is hell on the carpet and grass, so do it in a well ventilated garage.
Inspect the tip end of the blade and make sure that the inside of the groove does not have razor-sharp edges or burrs. Smooth them down with either a file or sand paper before you start putting the tip and wire on to it. This will prevent you from accidentally cutting the new wire at this critical point at the tip of the blade inside the barrel.
Once the blade is clean, take your replacement wire and unwind it, making sure that you smooth out any kinks in the wire. You can take the old cup and make your own, but that will be covered in another section. With the wire straightened out, pass it through the barrel with the cup end going in last.
Take the barrel and with the wire placed in the groove, start threading it onto the blade. Do not completely thread it on yet. Stop halfway and make sure that the wire slides back and forth freely. Once that is done, complete the tightening of the barrel until you hear a “ting” that means it is set. If you think that the barrel coming loose at a future point will be a problem, you can use Loctite on the threads to hold it in place. There are several grades of this stuff. Make sure you don’t use the “It ain’t comin’ loose even for the Rapture” grade. It is not normally used, but if you insist, be my guest. If you go this route, use only a tiny drop and make sure it doesn’t get on the inside of the groove, on the wire or up into the barrel. If you do, well, go to step one.
Now pull the wire through the barrel to where the cup starts to enter the barrel (you should have the blade secured in a vise, tip up, at this point). If you insist on pushing the wire through, make sure that the wire going down through the top of the barrel equals the wire coming out of the bottom of the barrel! It is easy to ball the wire up in the bottom of the barrel if you don’t pay attention. Now, take your point setting tool and with one hand on the wire pull it through while pushing with the setting tool. If you have the blade in a vise, you may want to lightly tap the cup into place with a SMALL hammer. Once it is seated we are ready for the really fun part.
Place the tip of the blade against something and put a slight REVERSE bend in the blade. That is with the groove up, the blade should bend away from it (groove on the concave side of the bend). The bend should not be more that 1 –2 “ from the straight. Now take the wire and hold it against the tang and start wrapping the extra portion around it TOWARD the tip. Secure it with either a piece of tape, with the end folded over into a tab for easy removal later, or a small clamp. Release the pressure on the blade and the wire should pop into the groove.
Take the wiring chain and put the tip in one cup and the end of the tang in the other. Shorten the chain like we discussed earlier for fixing popped out wires (14 to 16” bend). Make sure the wire is fully seated the entire length of the blade. With the tang end down, start gluing with the super glue AWAY from the tip for about 10 to 20 cm. Let that dry for about 10 minutes. Now turn the blade the other way with the tip lower than the tang, but still above the point where the first gluing stopped. Apply glue from the base of the blade (where it goes into the guard) to the point where you stopped gluing the first time. Make ABSOLUTELY sure you don’t let glue run into the tip. If you do, well, hell, you’re already in this section, so you might as well start over at the beginning. Let it hang this way for about 20 minutes (or overnight if you have the time) or until you’re satisfied it’s dry. If you use an accelerant, the drying time is significantly reduced.
Once the glue has dried, gently release the tension on the wiring chain. Don’t let the blade snap loose. You could loose an eye, or woise. Make sure the wire is completely glued in and that there are no areas where it is above the groove. Now take a razor blade and gently scrape away the extra dried glue from the blade. Remember, this is non-conductive also and will cause off-targets in foil, but more annoying, will give your opponents points in epee!
Now you are ready to reassemble your weapon. Just use the techniques discussed earlier. Make sure once you are done to do a functional check.
CONCLUSION and STRAY THOUGHTS
This is a pretty comprehensive discussion of how to take care of your weapons, but by no means all there is to know about them. There are about as many ways to do this as there are Armorers, these just happen to be mine. Other things you can do is to make sure you have reliable equipment, such as PVC pipe either ½ or ¾ “ diameter and cut them to 36” lengths and keep you weapons i.e. blades, protected. Also, don’t store your wet clothes in the same bag as you weapons.
Another item you may want to have on hand is acetone based nail polish remover. It does the same thing as regular acetone with respect to removing superglue, but generally smells nicer. It is also much easier to use for small clean up jobs, like removing the adhesive residue from tip tape (it’s also good for getting stuck fingers apart without ripping the skin off).
A small table mounted vise is good to have in case you are working on weapons at the venue. Or at home if you don’t have a regular workbench set up in the garage. You can go crazy with this, too, and get a portable workbench, Dremel tool, etc. You know, the whole Tim Allen thing. The Dremel is supposedly really good at cleaning out the wire groove, but I haven’t had much patience for it. Also if you get the superglue too hot, it creates vapors that aren’t especially good for you health (and really stinks, too!). But I do use it to trim the tang when I wire new blades (most come with French grip length tangs; they do come in pistol grip length, but sometimes cost more. I’m just really cheap, what can I say.). Some folks are using bolt cutters to trim them. What ever works for you.
When using new blades, check to make sure the threads on the blade match your pommel nut. Normally blades from Europe come with 6mmx1 threads. However, there are a few English and Chinese blades that are 12 x 24, which don’t even come close to the other. If you are really ambitious (or a cheap bastard) you can cut the 12 x 24 to 6mm with a die set. Same for changing a 12 x 24 pommel nut to 6mm, only use a tap, dies won’t work well.
As for making your own wires, well, you will need a 30W soldering iron, wire-wrap gauge wire, solder and hemostats. Remove the copper button from the inside of the cup. Hold it with the hemostats (lock it in place) and then put the handle of the hemostats in the vise (remember the table top one I suggested?). Take a 40” length of wire and strip off about ½” of insulation off the end. Heat the button with the soldering iron and use the un-insulated end of the wire to push out the old broken piece. There should be enough solder left over to make a good connection with the new wire, if not, wick a little more on. Thread the free end of the wire through the hole of the cup and seat the button and you are in business!
There are other techniques for bending the tang of the blade and other such adjustments. If you REALLY want to know how to do this, contact the Author. Have fun and good fencing!
Best of luck,
Michael
Tool List
Magnetic strip
Wiring Chain
Clamp
Dental pick
Vise grips
6” Crescent wrench
7mm box end wrench (foil connector)
8mm box end wrench (foil connector)
Large bladed screwdriver (epee connectors)
Small tipped screwdriver
Jeweler’s screwdriver
Hemostats
Point setters
Nippers
Pommel nut tool (8mm outside hex, 6mm allenwrench, ¾” deepwell socket (you can also use a sparkplug wrench) or large bladed screwdriver)(or if you want to be a hero on strip, all of them and carry them in a little bag with you)
Test weight(s)
Epee shims
12kg Mask punch
Test box (good to carry to the strip with you)
Ohmmeter (analog is preferable)
Springs
Screws
Q-tips
Tip tape (1” gaffer’s tape will work very well, as well as vinyl electrical tape)
Razor blades
Superglue
Acetone
Nail polish remover
Isopropyl Alcohol
Scotchbrite pads
220 grit sandpaper
And of course, a box to put it all in!
back to Part 1
back to Part 2
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