Several people who are using the Sintered Tungsten Pommel and the Orthopedic Balance Weight have taken the time to post comments at Fencing.net, which I greatly appreciate.
When I’ve shown theTungstenFencing pommels to people, I often get the question “Why Tungsten?” so I thought I’d post some pictures to make the reasons obvious. To net it out, Tungsten is twice as dense (heavier for the same size) as materials such as stainless steel. Here’s what that means in a pommel. Shown here are two same-weight pommels: the one on the left is a 200g stainless-steel pommel (density 7.7g/cc), on the right is the 200g Sintered Tungsten Pommel (18.5g/cc). Note that the stainless pommel is appreciably larger – 1/8″ longer and 1/8″ fatter for the same weight.
Size comparison of stainless steel and tungsten pommels
But more important than the size, is the balance of the weight…
After a ten-month gestation period and several prototypes, the Orthopedic Balance Weight is now available for all pistol grips.
The OBW-165, for Foil and Épée fencers
The Orthopedic Balance weight is designed to balance foil or épée blades when using pistol- or orthopedic-type grips, by adding weight to the furthest-aft portion of the grip; the tail-extension. It is installed over the last portion of the tail of the grip. The OBW-165 will shift the balance point of the blade from a typical 4-6” forward of the guard, back to approximately 1-1.5” in front of the bell.
Moving the balance point back near the hand offers significant advantages to the fencer:
The OBW-165 installed, original balance point at the white mark.
The OBW-165 weighs 165 grams, and is designed for both foil and épée. The OBW is intended to be semi-permanently mounted on any pistol-grip for foil or epee. In the image above, the original balance point of this épée was at the white mark; the OBW moved the balance 3″ toward the hand, to the point shown supporting the blade.
The OBW-165 has been judged fully legal for competition, by Dan DeChaine, International Master Armourer and member of the FIE SEMI Committee. Quoted with his permission, “Looking at this device for the orthopaedic grip, I see nothing that is in violation of the rules, as long as it is not mounted in a way that would violate the rule concerning the overall length of the grip. As far as I can see, it conforms to the rule requiring that the grip be designed in such a way that it can be held in only one position. This seems to conform.”
This first manufacturing run of the OBW-165 is being sold at manufacturing cost plus PayPal and shipping costs. For US Domestic orders, the cost is US$52 shipped by USPS Priority Mail, or for non-US orders select International Priority mail (US$67.00).
I am also temporarily offering an installation service: for an additional US$25, I will install the OBW-165 on your grip. Please request this service by email, and I will supply instructions for payment and shipping your grip to me for modification.
Installation basically requires:
Total time is estimated at a half-hour or so.
Installed on two sizes of Visconti, a German, and a Belgian grip
For French-grip foil and épée
Those who use a French grip for the advantage of extended reach, often use a Schermasport pommel to shift the balance point as far aft as possible. The TungstenFencing STP offers all the advantages of the Schermasport, only more so, because it is heavier (at 200g), and because the TF design puts 85% of the weight in the aft 3/4″. In the image above, you can see the Tungsten component – the greyish metal at the tail end, and the permanently-affixed lightweight aluminum cone at the front.
The Sintered Tungsten Pommel is now available from Leon Paul Ltd.
As in any French-grip pommel, the TungstenFencing STP screws on to the tang of the blade, behind the grip.
Some fencers will attempt to tighten a pommel almost to the point where the tang will break, to avoid loosening while fencing.
This is not a good idea with the TungstenFencing STP, since the blade tang screws into the aluminum cone portion, rather than a harder metal. If you attempt to make the TungstenFencing STP super-tight on the tang, you could permanently strip its threads. Tighten only hand-tight; this does not mean as hard as your hand can twist. If you should overtighten the STP and strip its threads, it can be repaired by inserting an M6x1 Helicoil. Please contact me if this should ever occur to your pommel, and I will repair it.
TungstenFencing is dedicated to bringing innovative products to the sport fencing community. These initial products are designed and manufactured in small quantities for competitive fencers.
The purpose of the first TungstenFencing products for the fencing sports is to address an ongoing issue with foils and épées: balance. Many fencers feel that it is advantageous in foil and épée to have the sword balance near the guard – within 1-2cm in front of the guard or even inside it, is generally agreed to be ideal.
TungstenFencing pommels and balance weights will move the balance point back toward the guard, which provides a “lighter” feel and improved point control, since the index finger and thumb aren’t working as hard to hold the blade up and don’t have to move the center of gravity of the weapon as far, and so get better leverage on the mass. The tradeoff for easier rotation, of course, is slightly slower lateral hand motion due to the added weight, but there is generally plenty of muscle in the forearm to move the hand quickly.
The TungstenFencing approach to this issue is to use the densest-available metal, Tungsten, for the pommel. Tungsten is a very heavy metal, roughly as dense as Gold. Tungsten is very hard with a very high melting point, and requires diamond tools to machine it, so it is very durable – a tungsten pommel will look new for decades.
The density of sintered Tungsten is 18.5 g/cc, compared to Gold at 19.3g/cc, Uranium at 18.9, Lead at 11.3, or Brass at only 8.5g/cc.
Because it is so difficult to machine, Tungsten is usually formed into its final shape by a process called sintering. Sintering is achieved by using finely-powdered Tungsten, and forcing it into a machined steel mold under very high pressure – enough that the dust-like particles pressure-weld to each other, and the part will retain its shape temporarily. The piece is then baked in a very high-temperature furnace (around 2200 degrees F) to fuse the grains together permanently, a process akin to firing ceramics. Finally, computer-controlled machining using diamond tools creates the final size and beautiful surface finish of the product.
The purpose of using this metal and very costly process is to produce a balancing weight that is as dense, and thus as small, as possible. This allows the weight to be placed placed as near to the blade as possible, so it is maximally effective as a counterweight without needing spacers to set the balance correctly. No other affordable metal is as well-suited for a counterweight as Tungsten.