"The Lady in Red"

Another step in the creation of a custom Classical Fencing foil, "The Lady in Red" is a commissioned weapon ordered by one of my local fellow fencers.  The grip for this foil was my third attempt to get the thickness and spacing of the under cord just right to allow the wire and leather windings to properly nest on the main leather body.  Thinning the edges of the red glove leather at the overlap points was an education in itself.  The decision to completely tear down the first two efforts wasn't an easy one since the under cord and main leather wrap are cemented with tanners' glue.

This foil features a German Figure 8 guard from Andrew Chin, a fused layer pad and one of the few remaining carbon steel blades from the original Blaise Frères forge before it was sold.  Of course, every lady should be properly dressed so I included a red wrap for the blade guard.

The foil also showcases one of the six urn-shaped pommels that I recently made.  As mentioned before, while each pommel in the set is similar, each one has a distinct feature to set it apart from the rest.  The six were named after the stars in the Constellation Orion and this one is "Alnilam," which is Arabic for "String of Pearls."

As always, many thanks to Joel Mason of Jacob's Armoury, whose design inspired the "Fabulous Machine" that made the windings on many of my grips possible and to Scott Wright, a member the Classical Fencing Group, for inspiring me to add color to my leather grips.

"El Paladín" (The Paladin)

This is the first of six new guard designs in brass for the Classical Fencing foil.  Originating from the Latin palatinus (of the palace), "Paladin" later came to refer to high level officials in royal courts.  In later romantic folklore and legend, the name was used to refer to the closest companions of Charlemange and were comparable to the Knights of the Round Table in Arthurian legend.

The name was chosen because the center bar supports the strength and stiffness of the guard and allows it to be made of thinner material than the traditional Open Figure 8.  The guard is cut with jeweler's saw blades from 1/8 inch brass rather than 3/16 inch as would normally be required.  Even with the center bar, the guard weighs only 51 grams.  The center hole has been drilled but will not be squared until custom mounted on the tang of a blade.

As with many projects done for the first time, there was a lot of testing and hand work required so the completed product took more time than I anticipated.  If I can't reduce that time significantly, the six designs may turn out to be "one of a kind" items.  Still to be tested is the life span of the guard under regular use.  So far, I haven't seen any significant impact on guards made of the same brass alloy.  I plan to make a similar guard in a vertically shortened form.

For the curious, the playing card shown is the Knight from the Spanish card deck.  As with early similar decks, there was no Queen in each suit so the three face cards were the Knave (or Page), the Knight and the King.

"Alacrán Negro" (The Black Scorpion)

The incorporation of two new elements for a Classical Fencing foil.  Shown with the Fabulous Machine that makes winding multiple cords and wires simultaneously possible, the Poplar wood grip core is covered with a combination of cord, black glove leather and double silver-plated wire.  My attempt to create a fully spiraled leather wrap was abandoned because the spacing between underlying cords was too wide for hand comfort, was extremely laborious and the result wasn't aesthetically pleasing.  I also found that durability might be an issue unless the leather and underlying cord were heavily glued down to prevent shifting if the leather stretched over time.  The leather is soft calfskin and is skived at the edges for smooth transition at the overlap.  The blade is a #5 SG Premium blade refined to a thrust force of 2 lbs 9 oz at nominal bend.  It's very light and intended for a skilled, advanced fencer.

The guard is a steel Figure 8 from Benjamin Arms and is backed with thick black leather.

The wire wrap is actually two, 20 gauge, silver-plated wires twisted in opposite directions to achieve a braid effect.  The ferrule at the end of the grip and the pommel are both stainless steel.  The ferrule is countersunk to cover the end of the grip and prevent mushrooming.  It is also center-drilled to maintain alignment with the pommel.  The full-faceted hex pommel isn't cast but is cut on a vertical mill.

Once again, I'm pleased to be able to credit Joel Mason, Director of Jacob's Armoury for his generous sharing of his knowledge and skills in grip windings.  Wishing him great health and happiness!

A Classic Style

A new direction in pommel creation... the Urn-shaped pommel.  Created in brass, the new pommel is inspired by pommels often found on foils of the late 1800's and early 1900's.  I found one example on a foil owned by Instructor Kim Moser, my instructor at Palm Beach Classical Fencing.  The other (shown above) is from a set of vintage foils in my collection.  While my reproduction models the shape and proportions of the originals, it is sized 108% larger to obtain a target weight of 100 grams.  The original pommel was cast and had no internal threading so it was drilled through and had to be peened onto the foil.  As a result, it's relatively light for the foil weight.  The reproduction is machined from a solid brass blank and is threaded 1" deep to retain maximum material density.

Creating the shape on a metal lathe required the custom grinding of several new shapes for the cutting bits as well as lengthy lay out time on the brass blank and repeated changes in lathe setup.  

The conical and faceted shapes require accurate machine setups but cutting is rather straightforward once the operation is underway.  In addition, a number of identical cuts can be made, one after another, after a particular setup is made.  The Urn shape, however, doesn't lend itself to repeated cut duplication.  I don't have access to a lathe replicator or CNC machine so the entire process was uniquely "hand controlled" and required an extraordinary amount of time to produce this one item.  While I've solved many of the difficulties in machining the intricate details of this new pommel, creation time is still a cost factor to be overcome.  For now, this unique pommel is reserved for a very special weapon still to be created.

Thanks to some lessons learned in making the original pommel and fine tuning of the forming bits, the transition from brass slugs to urn-shaped pommels is now complete.  While each is based on a single classic design of years past, each pommel is, in fact, made slightly unique with different decorative features.  Each will be photographed and named to become a part of a unique Classical Fencing foil.  These are the only six that will be made in this style and material.  Sometime in the future, I hope to create a small quantity in stainless steel.