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The Weapons
Introduction
Fencing is a sport comprising three seperate disciplines.
They are foil, epee and sabre.
In the picture below, the weapon in the center is a foil, the weapon on the left hand side, is a sabre and the remaining weapon is an epee.
A fencing mask and two gloves (you never wear a pair of gloves when fencing: only the sword hand is protected by a glove) are also depicted.
Each discipline uses a slightly different weapon, and the different disciplines each have slightly different rules.
We will discuss the weapons and their respective idiosyncracies in due course.
Epee competitions can (officially) be held indoors or outdoors.
Foil and sabre may (officially) only be fenced indoors.
The reasons for this distinction are somewhat unclear, but probably reflect the fact that by the time fencing was codified, in the mid nineteenth century, foil and sabre were exclusively fenced in salles (training halls), as they were, by this time training weapons and not used as fighting weapons.
Conversely, the epee was still seen as both a training and a duelling weapon.
It was thus imperative that the epeeist (and potential duellist) be capable of fencing and indeed fighting out-side of the salle.
The Foil
