Why I created TOUCH TESTER
As a fairly new “fencing dad”, with first one kid, and then another getting deep into epee fencing, I learned the ropes the same as most other fencing parents... slowly over time learning the rhythms, highs, and lows of going to fencing competitions. The highs are obvious... seeing your children grow their skills, overcome adversity, and learn sportsmanship - being humble in victory and gracious in defeat. The lows are equally obvious... tough losses, early morning competitions, travelling to distant events, lugging heavy bags of fencing equipment around, and of course – surprise equipment failures.
After experiencing weapon failures at one event and then a body cord equipment check failure at another, I decided to look around at what testing equipment was available for me to do my own cord and weapon testing at home. First, I investigated buying one of the testers used at tournaments but found those were bulky and prohibitively expensive. Next, I bought one of the testers you can find on Amazon or at most fencing suppliers... a simple box with lights and a speaker and not much in the way of manuals or instructions. I was excited to get it but quickly found that when I tested that bad cord I’d saved, there was no indication at all it was bad - at least, not that I could tell.
Frustrated by this, I decided in some time off during the holidays to see if there was something I could make for myself – as an engineer with a degree in computer engineering and someone who’s worked in Silicon Valley in software development for nearly thirty years, I had the right set of skills to do some experiments.
This started me down a long and winding rabbit hole that ended up with the creation of... TOUCH TESTER. A small, handheld, touch based, colorful and intuitive device that allows you to monitor the status of your equipment and catch failures before they become critical... helping to “avoid strip drama” as one parent put it...that heart-stopping moment where the on-strip weapon check fails and you must scramble to provide good equipment.
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Every fencer has experienced this at one time or another, and unlucky ones have had two or even three weapons fail on them, losing points and rattling their concentration. TOUCH TESTER is a device small enough to fit in any fencing bag and easy enough to use so that anyone in the sport can diagnose cable and weapon issues quickly and easily. With regular checking of your equipment, you can catch equipment that is about to fail and head off strip drama.
This is a device designed by a fencing parent for all fencers and fencing parents… making advanced equipment testing available to everyone. It’s a labor of love that started as “a little side project to tinker on” that blew up into building custom enclosures, custom hardware, custom software, scouring the world for just the right parts, and constant refinement and redesign based on feedback from average users and professional armorers alike.
Once I had a working prototype, I was surprised at how often I caught cords and weapons failing or about to fail. I was equally surprised to find how certain expensive “higher end” equipment seemed more prone to failure than their cheaper equivalents... it turns out you don’t always get what you pay for.
The overall result was a device I’ve found incredibly useful, so much so that I was motivated to start a small, family-run company to sell them in hopes that other people would find them as useful an helpful as I do. It’s a lot of work to build and sell these and it’s pretty unlikely I’ll get rich, but hopefully I’ll help a lot of fencers avoid strip drama, understand their equipment better, and save money doing maintenance themselves… and maybe, just maybe, it’ll pay for a trip or two to summer nationals for my kids.
Thanks, and good luck on the strip!
Scott Krotz
CEO and Chief Engineer
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NOTE: AFM fencers and families: We will have a limited supply at the Ontario competition. Please use this form to contact us and we will connect at the competition.