Fencing equipment, as each rule book and standard sets it out.

This section is a reference to the published equipment rules for the three weapons of fencing, foil, epee and sabre, and for wheelchair fencing. It is not a buying guide and not a workshop manual. Assembling a weapon, fitting a blade, wiring, straightening, repairing or testing equipment are outside its scope: they belong with a qualified armourer and the officials at a competition. No item is presented here as preventing injury. The FIE Technical Rules (December 2024 edition, t.20) themselves say fencers equip themselves at their own risk and that the safety measures in the rules reinforce safety but cannot guarantee it.

The weapons are never merged on these pages. A foil, an epee and a sabre have different blades, guards, tips, targets and scoring circuits, and their masks and jackets differ too. Every figure below names its weapon, its body, its document and edition, and its article.

Who sets the rules

The headline FIE figures (Material Rules, August 2026)

• Clothing: jackets, under-plastrons, breeches and trousers of cloth resisting 800 Newtons, and an 800 N under-plastron is obligatory (m.25.3.c).
• Mask bib: cloth resistant to 1600 Newtons (m.25.7.d); mesh openings no more than 2.1 mm in wire at least 1 mm thick (m.25.7.a); two different safety systems at the rear (m.25.7.a and m.25.7.e).
• Sabre glove: 800N on the areas the rule's diagram shows, seams at least 200N and a 350N cuff (m.33.1).
• Chest protector: compulsory for women and optional for men at all three weapons (m.25.4.c).
• Blades: maraging steel blades obligatory at foil, epee and sabre (m.2.1).

National rules depart from these below FIE level. USA Fencing's October 2026 rules accept a 350 Newton mask bib and do not require FIE-homologated uniforms or masks; British Fencing's Domestic Variations (6 December 2023) allow 350 Newton jackets and breeches at domestic events and do not require maraging blades. The details, with dates, are on the national rules page.

Gaps to know about

• The text of EN 13567 is sold by standards bodies and was not read. The 350 N and 800 N level figures on these pages come from bodies that apply the standard, chiefly British Fencing, and are attributed to them.
• A current, complete FIE list of homologated makers by equipment type was not found. The only lists reported here are the FIE's own historical lists of 2009, given as the FIE listed them and not as endorsements.
• Two dates are recorded both ways: when the FIE's two-rear-system mask rule began (the FIE SEMI minutes give 2014; Fencing Australia applied it to its own circuit events, and the UIPM adopted it, from 1 January 2019) and when maraging blades became compulsory at sabre. No FIE document dating the foil maraging requirement was found.
• British Fencing lists a 24th edition of its Safety Guidelines (Board approved September 2026) that was not available to read, so section numbers here come from the 23rd edition.

The pages in this section

• Blades and maraging steel: the steel specification, fatigue thresholds, marking and the dated move to maraging steel, weapon by weapon.
• Foil, epee and sabre compared: length, weight, blade, guard, tip and target limits side by side.
• Masks, jackets, plastrons and breeches, gloves and chest protectors and shoes and socks.
• The scoring equipment: the apparatus, lamps and timings for each weapon as Annexe B describes them.
• FIE homologation and EN 13567 and protection levels: who approves what, and how the newton levels relate.
• National equipment rules and youth equipment levels.
• Recalls and incidents: regulator decisions, governing-body withdrawals and the rule changes that followed incidents.

To compare a weapon's measurements with the FIE limits for its own weapon, use the weapon spec checker. Injury research and medical rules are in the safety section.