Why Armourer?

The question has been asked… Traditionally a maker of arms and armour. The term is still used in military and police forces around the world for those that repair and maintain ‘arms’. It seems appropriate to apply it to a sport based on the oldest form of armed defence!

Armourers keep fencers fencing!

Fencing relies a lot on technology and fencing kit literally takes a beating. Springs will weaken, screws and nuts will loosen and blades and wires will break. A foil has 15 points of failure! Fencing kit is expensive. Repairing it keeps costs down and keeps fencers fencing.

From your first weapon an Armourer is needed to ‘set’ your blade to fit your hand. Armourers and Referees help to keep fencers safe by setting up venues safely and checking equipment before and during bouts. Together with coaches we make up your fencing support team.

While many repairs are DIY-able they can also become complicated very quickly. Every fencer will need an experienced armourer at some point.

Our Aims

This site is devoted to widening the knowledge of the skills and standards of armourers by providing good practices, mistakes to avoid, helpful tips, a place for discussion and to ask questions. And to help prepare a new generation of fencing armourers.

The uncertainty that your spare kit might fail is an unwanted distraction at best, induces high anxiety at worst and can lose you points. Armourers are your Plan B for repairs.

If a child is excluded from a competition because of poorly maintained club kit, it can be a welfare issue. Disaffected children or adults can cause long term damage to the sport.

However, there is a shortage of armourers and they are often rarely available where needed – at competitions.

Traditional electrical and engineering skills are being eased out by changes in education policy, health & safety, gaming and online skills. A lack of understanding of an Armourer’s role at some levels in the sport does not help.

There are many videos on Youtube, info on Reddit and many other websites about repairing fencing kit so why this site? Well, ‘many’ is the problem.

Apart from hours trawling through search results, they are too technical or over-simplfied, inconsistent, incomplete in scope, leave out critical information or just not very good. The many choices leave people confused and bewildered. Here we bring you the best techniques available, in straightforward language and all in one place.

Using readily available tools and working on your table top (not your best dining table, though!), we aim to share the skills for basic and more advanced repairs and encourage new armourers.

We aim to persuade more organisers to use armourers at competitions where we can provide a cost effective, high value service, at low cost, to both competition organisers and to fencers.

Our register of Armourers will help you find local help and those who can provide services to competitions, not just repairs but venue setup with FIE standards and safety in mind.

Being an Armourer makes an interesting ‘home hobby’, if you are inclined to the engineering ‘dark’ side!

Do Armourers charge?

Armourers carry a large stock of components and equipment that wears out with use. They have spent many years building up their skills and techniques and do repairs in their free time. So, like coaches and referees we charge for our skills but it’s a small fee on top of the component cost. Good news, though, advice is free!

Who are we?

The Armourers supporting this site have many, many years of experience. Most are, or were, fencers and some are members of the Guild of Armourers. This was created at the request of British Fencing, back in the 70’s, to set up venues and provide weapon control at FIE and higher level BF competitions held in the UK.

Some have gone on to be members of the FIE SEMI Commission (equipment regulation committee) which serves FIE competitions and recommends changes to the FIE technical rules. One is a global expert on wheelchair fencing making fencing accessible and safe.

The Guild has qualifications recognised by British Fencing and the FIE and is developing training courses for the ADP (Athlete Development Programme)

Armourers are also privately funding this website! If you find the information here useful a donation via BuyMeACoffee would be appreciated and comes with some benefits!