The Remise
Item
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Title
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The Remise
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Date
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February 1942
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volume
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7
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issue
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1
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pages
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2, 16
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content
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en
THE REMISE
One does not sit down and write a magazine from page one to the end in one chronological order. A magazine is fitted together like a jigsaw puzzle. For that reason it sometimes happens that one page may contradict another. That is what happened in our last issue and what is worse it happened in bold face type.
Our writeup of the domestic manufacture of blades was set in type before we received the last-minute copy for the advertisement for the Vince Forging and Manufacturing Company. In all innocence we said, “As far as we know, no satisfactory epee has yet been developed by an American manufacturer.” Mr. Vince announced his development of just such a blade. He telephoned us later and asked us to visit his plant. It was agreed that we would eat our words or he would eat foreign epee blades. We are eating our words.
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In the same issue we reproduced a clipping from Philadelphia concerning the fencing record of the late Valentino Argento. It stated that he had held the world’s professional championship in 1930. Mr. Argento was a member of the Italian foil team that year and the Italians did win the foil team championship in 1930. The only world’s professional individual championship held in 1930 was in epee which was won by Nedo Nadi whose unexpected death we reported early in 1940. We owe these two fine swordsmen this clarification of the record.
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The Riposte didn’t mind too much last issue being referred to as a brat, but when our founder stated, “Some people think it takes itself a little too seriously,” we were all burned up. Otherwise we enjoyed the article. How well we remember the furor in the locker rooms after Aldo Nadi finished dissecting the recent local fencing. The magazine was never more serious than when Mr. Nadi was flaying the fencers, the writer included. Whether Mr. Nadi came to the conclusion that he was casting pearls or became tired of the column after having worked over every fencer or near-fencer at least once, we do not know. But we do know Aldo Nadi and he never “finally decided to bow to his critics.” We should live so long. He retired from the column unbloodied and unbowed and if you wish to test this you need only write to us. We will pass it along, duck for the nearest shelter, and listen for the steel-snap of his reply.
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Occasionally a statement made to me in all seriousness about fencing strikes a funny note that more than repays the many headaches that also accompany an editorship. One such was part of a more serious article recently received. Its final refusal was the result of a close decision and I hope that its contributor may skip this reference to it for this paragraph is not intended to be derogatory to the article as a whole. However, in extolling the benefits to be derived from the sport, particularly the mental benefits, the writer became so worked up to the subject that the following sentence popped out, “Comparatively speaking, fencing is like chess in its intellectual aspect, but in practice is much faster.”
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We have long been a supporter of one touch epee competition. Now come developments which will put this type of competition to extensive trial. It has all come about through the rising cost of epee competition. Blades have become so expensive that few fencers can afford to break them.
The Board of Governors of the Amateur Fencers League has ruled that, due to the emergency which has made epee blades scare and expensive, all electric epee contests, both team and individual, shall be fought in one-touch bouts. It has also authorized its various bout committees to be more lenient in their approval of epees for competition. These committees are now permitted to waive the triangular blade specifications as outlined in the Rulesbook (Rule 230) and accept at their discretion epees whose blades are quadrangular. Weight specifications may also be waived although length and non-whippiness are conditions which must be maintained. Heavy foil blades may soon appear in epee contests.
The Board of Governors has taken a definite stand of disapproval of the present scale of prices for standard epee blades. Sharp increases have occurred in prices on imported blades. Until domestic manufacturers are able to meet the demand with a blade whose price is more in line with their former cost, the A. F. L. A. intends to make it possible for the epeeist to compete with substitute blades. The board has stated that it looks with disapproval upon anyone asking more than $2.00 or $2.50 for a foreign epee blade.
