The Epee is an extension of the Foil. The weapon itself is slightly larger with a thicker blade and larger hand guard. This makes the epee a much heavier weapon to use.

You must only hit with the point of the blade although, unlike the Foil, the whole body is available as a target area, yes even the feet! Epee is fought to 5 points but because your whole body can be hit attacks must be carefully planned to save yourself from any unexpected stop cuts.

Its tactical nature has been likened to the fencing equivalent of chess.

How it Works

An electrical current is sent from the scoring box to the weapon via the ‘B’ wire. This wire is then linked to one of the epee wires by the bodywire socket. The other epee wire is linked to the ‘A’ wire.

In the rest state there is no circuit. The electrical currents path terminates at the end of the ‘B’ wire.

When the point is depressed, a circuit from ‘B’ to ‘A’ is formed by the contact spring attached to the tip. The current returns to the box via the ‘A’ wire and when the box detects the circuit it responds with a coloured light.

However if the point is in contact with the opponents guard (or blade) which is linked to the ‘C’ (ground) wire, then the circuit instead runs from the ‘B’ wire to the opponents ‘C’ wire, and is ignored by the box. This is because the circuit through ‘C’ has lower resistance than through ‘A’.