Leather foil buttons are the traditional point covering for fencing weapons. A strip of leather covers the blade’s nail head and a strand of tightly-wound waxed cord secures it in place. It’s a simple and elegant button made with with traditional materials. The lifespan of a leather foil button largely depends on use, but averages about six to eight months when fencing multiple times a week.

What You Need

• Pliable leather ~ 1/8″ thick, as wide as intended nail-head. Cut into a elongated & tapered diamond:

• Waxed cord. We use .030 thickness waxed polycord
• Vice with leather or cloth to pad vice jaws
• Scouring pad to clean blade
• Scissors

Prepare Blade

Remove the existing button and the residue it may have left behind. Use a scouring pad to completely clean the blade of rust and adhesives.

Fixture Blade

Use a vice to hold the blade in place while you work. Use pieces of leather or cloth on either side of the vice jaws to prevent damage to the blade. It’s possible to do this without a vice but it will be more difficult to wrap tightly and securely.

Anchor Cord

Anchor the waxed cord to the blade with a double knot just below the nail head. Trim cord about a quarter inch from knot.

Set Base Wrapping

Wind the waxed cord evenly down the blade about an inch. Larger nail heads should be wrapped about 1.5 inches. Once at the bottom, wind the cord back up to just below the nail head with even spacing.

Set & Align Leather

Set the leather strip pointing towards you atop the blade’s nail head.

Loosely Secure

Fold the leather over the nail head and wrap the cord from just underneath the nail head down to the bottom of the folded leather. Wrap moderately tight with spacing between each rotation to simply set the leather in place.

Tightly Secure

Once the leather foil button is loosely secure so that it wont twist or immediately fall off, increase your cord’s tension and start tightly wrapping the button in the same manner as the last step. Continue wrapping until the point is completely secure. Test the fitting by trying to displace the button side to side. The button should not move or shift when wrapped tightly and correctly. Wrap the leather button’s sides as needed to give an even taper and transition from button to blade.

Tie Off

Tie off the cord with a few double knots just below the nail head. Pull the knots tight so that the waxed cord sinks into the wrapping and squeezes off excess wax. Trim the cord about a quarter inch from the wrapping.

Finished!