Some idea of what it was like to be a fencer in Victorian England can be gleaned from the records of the oldest club in the country, London Thames Fencing Club, which was founded as the London Fencing Club in 1848. Paying an annual subscription of £5 (equivalent to about £480 today)... Continue reading →

Prior to the 1989 Senior World Championships being held in Chicago, all firms pitching to supply the apparatus for this event were invited to a National circuit competition in Chicago to trial their F.I.E. approved sabre apparatus. Continue reading →

In 1545, the year the Mary Rose sank so spectacularly in Portsmouth harbour, a book on archery was published complaining about the neglect of that sport in favour of fencing, which had masters to teach it in every town. The popularity of fencing in Tudor times was largely due to Henry VIII who encouraged displays of swordplay and who had, in 1540, given the London Masters of Defence a monopoly of teaching arms. Fencing became the passion of high and low. A "prize" fight, or public examination of candidates by the Masters, halted business in the City of London for the day. Continue reading →

"Never was so much owed by so many to so few" Winston Churchill-August 20, 1940 This story doesn’t really have much to do with fencing, but I want to share it with you anyway. It was in 2006, I’d flown to London for work. I was staying with Barry Paul and his wife Joan, who live near the Brent Reservoir in Wembley. Barry is Leon Paul’s grandson and now owns the Leon Paul Fencing Equipment Company. In his day, Barry was a 5 time National Foil Champion of England and he knows the sport of fencing like no one else I have ever met. He is a naturally funny man with great sense of humor and a heart of gold. Continue reading →

I have spent the last few months listening to my brother, Alex Paul, talk about wireless technology. In that time I have learnt many new words like Farad (F). A Farad is a unit of capacitance. Capacitance is an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together…. [caption id="attachment_486" align="aligncenter" width="480"] The Future of wireless sword fencing[/caption] Ok, so now I am just quoting Star Wars and to be honest when my brother starts talking about technology and science I normally zone out. So in short, it is magic and I may have misled you with the title of this blog post. Here is what I have found out about wireless technology in fencing: People are so used to wired systems. They take ages to get used to the changes. People generally don’t like change and as a result are inherently mistrusting of wireless fencing as there are so many half-baked systems out there. Continue reading →

In the new hit TV series “Victoria” the future Prince is seen fencing. If you live in the UK you can watch the series here: http://www.itv.com/hub/victoria/ Here is an extract...

Leon Paul have started up manufacturing fencing blades 4 times during the last century. This is the story of our blade forging history. [caption id="attachment_363" align="aligncenter" width="840"] The history of Leon Paul blades[/caption] The first time we started making blades was before the Second World War when my grandfather Leon Paul went into business with Wilkinson Sword. When the partnership broke up for reasons that are lost in the mists of time Wilkinson made the crazy decision to move into stainless steel razors while my grandfather kept it real in the fencing industry! Continue reading →