Olympic Fencing Epee Blade Rewiring

ID: 142184

Description: Use this guide to replace your epee blade wiring.

Steps:

1. Use an Allen wrench to remove the nut in the center of your weapon handle and pull the handle off of the blade.

2. With a flathead screwdriver, gently loosen the two bodycord sockets closest to each other.
3. With the bodycord sockets loosened, gently remove the black and red wires wrapped around them.
4. Once the wires have been removed, the bodycord socket and beltguard can be removed from the blade, leaving the blade bare.

5. With the curved jaw locking pliers, gently unscrew and remove the tip of the blade.

6. Remove the two tiny screws on either side of the tip removed earlier.
7. Keep the screws in the magnetic dish so they aren't lost.

8. Remove the leftover wire cap from inside the tip by sticking a screwdriver through the barrel of the tip.

9. Pull the bright red and black rubber insulation off of the end of the wires at the base of the blade. Save these for later.
10. Be careful when pulling the insulation off, if pulled too hard the wire could break and wire will be stuck inside the insulation.

11. Remove the wire from the length of the blade by pulling it away.
12. If the wire breaks or does not remove cleanly, you can use a screwdriver to chisel any leftover wire from the blade.

13. Unravel the replacement blade wire and feed the end without the white cap through the top of the tip barrel.

14. With the wire fed through the tip, tighten the tip barrel back onto the blade and pull the wire down the length of the blade.
15. Once the barrel has been tightened onto the blade, use a screwdriver to push the white cap of the wire down into the barrel.

16. Once the wire has been pulled down the blade, wrap the excess around the bottom of the blade to hold the wire in place.
17. Ensure that the wire runs down the entirety of the crevice of the blade.

18. Take the re-wiring rig and place the base of the blade in one end and the tip in the other. The blade will bend into a bow-like shape and pull the wire taut.

19. Carefully drip glue over the top of the wire in the blade crevice, allowing gravity to pull the glue down the length of the blade.
20. After allowing the glue to run down one half of the blade, let it dry, then flip the blade upside down and run the glue down the other half.
21. Be careful not to apply too much glue to avoid having glue come out of the crevice and onto the surface of the blade.

22. Once the glue has dried, undo the tied wire at the end of the blade and slide on the rubber insulators that were pulled off earlier.

23. Slide the rubber insulators up to the base of the blade so that it touches the glued portion of the wire.
24. Slide the guard and bodycord socket back onto the handle of the blade.
25. Make certain that the insulated part of the wire sticks beyond the guard so that it is visible at the base of the blade.

26. Place the handle back onto the blade, ensuring that the insulated wire runs through the small notch located at the end of the handle.
27. Replace and tighten the nut in the center of the handle with an Allen wrench.

28. Take a pair of scissors and gently scrape the non-insulated end of the wire sticking out from the handle to remove the metal and fabric coatings.
29. Be careful when scraping the wire and do not apply too much pressure to avoid breaking the wire.
30. Once the coatings have been scraped from both wires, wrap one wire around each of the socket prongs that are closest to each other.
31. Tighten the socket prongs with a screwdriver.

32. Once the wires have been wrapped around and the socket prongs have been tightened, trim off any excess wire.

33. To check that the repair has been done correctly, connect the epee to an Absolute Fencing testing box with a bodycord.
34. Once connected, stick the tip into the tip barrel as far as it will go. The box will light up green if the re-wiring has been done properly.
35. If the box does not light up green, it may indicate a break in the wire somewhere along the blade.

36. Place the tip spring and the tip itself back into the tip barrel and replace the two small screws removed earlier.