<head><style>body{font-size:10pt;font-family:arial,sans-serif;background-color:#ffffff;color:black;}p{margin:0px;}</style></head><body><font color="#000000"><font size="2"><font face="arial,sans-serif">What problem are you trying to fix?<br><br>Are to trying to make sure that nobody can make you fight with an epee? Already fixed. Nobody is making anybody fight with an epee.<br><br>Are you trying to get epees off the field? That problem doesn’t exist. They are already off the field, except for very rare circumstance between consenting adults.<br><br>How does the current rule hurt anybody or anything?<br><br>Mateo said, “Change is never easy, but I see this as a welcome step forward for our game.” How is it an improvement to our game when it wouldn’t affect our game? Right now, nobody fights with epee because they prefer rapier (myself included). The proposal is that we don’t get to make that choice, and nobody will fight with epee because they aren’t allowed to. How is that an improvement?<br><br>The legality of epees has affected me only once in the last year or two. A fighter from Bonwicke showed up at Steppes fencing practice with her ten-year-old Ansteorran equipment, and wanted to fight. Since I had an epee in my bag, I was able to fight with her. (And I’m glad we fought with epees. Her blows were much too heavy, even with epees.) I worked with her with epee for months, and last week she fenced with her new Del Tin in Queen’s. But she was able to start with the weapon she knew.<br><br>In my bag right now I have, besides the standard items, an epee, a foil, a chainmail glove, a boffer beer mug, and two parrying dagger scabbards. None of these have been used as often as three times a year in the last few years. The one I've used the most in the last few years is the epee. If scarcity is a reason to ban something, then the more unusual things should be banned first.<br><br>In chivalric combat, any weapon legal in the SCA is legal in Ansteorra. That means that if somebody comes here with their legal weapons, they can use them, and if an Ansteorran goes somewhere else, he can use the weapons there. <br><br>If epees and foils disappear on the SCA level, I will have no problems with it and will retire mine with honor. But as long as they are allowed in the SCA, I want them allowed in Ansteorra as well.<br><br>And having them legal does not force anybody to use them against their will.<br><br>Robin of Gilwell / Jay Rudin</font></font></font></body>