For starters, it could be tipped with acetone, chloroform, ethyl acetate, hexane, and methanol dried leaf, flower, and seed extracts of Cassia auriculata L., Rhinacanthus nasutus KURZ., Solanum torvum Swartz, Terminalia chebula Retz., and Vitex negundo Linn.
Although with that big guard on there, it’d be damn hard to slash someone on the hand anyhow.
And I disagree with the “fencers have to be good at all types” comment. Sure, we might TRY all types, and hopefully have fun doing it, but the fencers I know all compete at foil, epee OR saber.
With a little Hand-And-A-Half Sword or Battle Axe practice thrown in to keep their “Workin’ Part-time At The Ren Faire” skills up…
ps: I go with a saber for zombies. That slashing stuff? It works.
I brought my youngsters to meet my fencing coach. She asked them, “Would you rather fence foil, epee, or the kind of swords pirates used?” 
They immediately all started fencing, with a saber…
Now that’s evil.
Of course if they saw World Cup-level sabre fencing first, they probably wouldn’t have chosen it. “So…the goal is sprint towards the other person and hit their arm, and then when both lights come on and the director has no clue who has right-of-way, you do it again, 100 more times? Bo-ring!”
Well, the fleche (foot-crossover “run”) was outlawed–when?–in saber. It looked wonderful, when it wasn’t used boorishly.
What is considered a sort of legal consolation prize is the “flunge”–a one-foot take-off: the fleche remnant, that lands as a lunge.
“Flunge” is a gross word (“flushing plunge” to me). On the other hand, the word “sabreur” for saber fencers makes up for it.
P.S. I agree w/ you regarding the uncleanliness of saber, most obnoxiously the way each player instantly pumps his fist at each blessed point and cries “yes,” no matter what.
Saber would be great if they just got rid of the right-of-way.
No, hear me out. If you were really facing an opponent with a sword, there’s no way in hell you’d slash at him AND THEN SIT BACK AND WAIT for him to make the next move.
If you had two people that wanted to, oh, I don’t know, actually poke each other with swords, THAT might just be entertaining. And more logical. And even maybe fun.
Once we fix that, we introduce the pirate outfits. Then the rigging. Then we allow swinging on the halyards…
“The World Cup sabre fencing will be televised live from the poop deck of The Black Pearl…”
It’s been a while since I’ve fenced heavily, but my recollection of saber rules for right-of-way is that it conforms pretty easily to the style of the weapon and is relatively easy to see for observers.
Right-of-way in foil annoys the dickens out of me; even after a few years of practicing foil, I never felt comfortable with it either as an observer or participant. Some cases are clear-cut, but it frequently is very clunky.
Every week I fence against even rated fencers who don’t really know the rules on right of way. I’m getting really fed up with the following scenario:
Them: “Nuh-UH! I had right of way!”
Me: “No you don’t - see the rules.”
Them: “I fence in tournaments, bitch, I know the rules.”
Me: (shows them the 2008/20-whatever rules proving I’m right)
Them: “Well…that’s not the way it’s done. You’d know that if you had a letter like me. I’m still right.”
They’d do great in Great Debates on here. :rolleyes: