Epee: the whole body is target, and there is no priority.

A thrusting weapon

At epee, attacks are made only with the point (t.90.1). The epee section of the Technical Rules runs from t.90 to t.95, and unlike the foil and sabre sections it contains no priority conventions.

The valid target: everything

The epee target is the whole body, including the fencer's clothing and equipment. Any hit that arrives counts, whatever it touches: the trunk, the limbs, the head, the clothing or the equipment (t.91). There is no off-target area at epee.

Because the whole body is target, the epee jacket must cover the whole surface of the trunk (Material Rules, August 2026, m.25.4.b), and epee has no conductive over-jacket. The epee mask must not be covered, in whole or in part, with conductive material or anything that could make the point glance off, and its bib must reach below the collar bones (m.30.1 and m.30.2). USA Fencing's Athlete Handbook 2026-2027 adds that foil and sabre masks with an electric bib may not be used at epee at any level, because the metal on the bib can ground the opponent's tip.

No priority: the double hit

At epee the apparatus, not a set of conventions, decides. When both fencers are hit and the apparatus registers both hits as valid, it is a double hit and a hit is scored against each fencer (t.92). There is no question of who attacked first or who had right of way; the foil and sabre conventions (t.82 to t.89 and t.100 to t.106) have no epee equivalent.

Two exceptions apply to the double hit:

• One valid, one not: in a registered double hit where one hit is valid and the other is not (for example a hit on another surface, or one made after leaving the piste), only the valid hit is scored (t.94.5).
• The deciding hit in pools: in a pool bout at epee that reaches 4-4, the fencers fence for one deciding hit up to the time limit, and a double hit is not counted (t.38.1.b).

Hits the referee annuls

Some hits that make the apparatus register still do not count at epee:

• Hits caused by the two points meeting, and hits on an uninsulated floor, are disregarded (t.93).
• A hit on the guard of the fencer who was hit, or on the conductive piste, is annulled (t.94.1).
• Judges, where used, may watch among other things for hits made on the floor (t.48.1).

What stops the action

The epee circuit works the other way from foil: a hit is registered when contact between the two wires in the epee completes the circuit, and the tip must take more than 750 g of pressure (Material Rules, August 2026, Annexe B and m.19.2). Lamps are red on one side and green on the other. The equipment side is covered in the scoring equipment.

The weapon itself

Under the FIE Material Rules (August 2026), an epee weighs less than 770 g ready for use (m.14), is no more than 110 cm long overall (m.15), and has a blade triangular in section, without cutting edges, no more than 90 cm long (m.16.1 and m.16.3). Its guard must pass a 13.5 cm diameter gauge and be between 3 and 5.5 cm deep (m.17.1).

Maraging steel blades are obligatory at all three weapons under the FIE text (m.2.1). For epee, an FIE note reproduced in the USA Fencing Rules for Competition (October 2026, Appendix A) says non-maraging epee blades were no longer accepted for homologation after 1 January 2014 and were not accepted at FIE competitions from 31 December 2015. National rules can differ below FIE level; see national equipment rules. Whether a weapon conforms is checked by the armourer and the weapon control at a competition.

The legs in beginners' fencing

The whole-body target matters for kit. British Fencing's Safety Guidelines (23rd edition, approved June 2026, 4.4.2) say epee fights in lessons and classes must not include the legs as target unless the pupil wears at least 350 N breeches and long socks. British Fencing lists a 24th edition, Board approved in September 2026, which could not be read, so the section number is from the 23rd. Other national bodies set their own rules; the youth rules page compares them.

Where epee comes from

British Fencing's history, by Malcolm Fare, says the epee was developed in France in the 1860s as a reaction against the conventions of foil, to recreate the conditions of a duel without fatal results. Olympedia says it descends from duelling weapons and is heavier than the foil. The FIE's 1914 Epee Rules drew together rules that had evolved in France and elsewhere from 1892 (FIE Rules, Introduction, i.3).

Electric scoring reached epee decades before foil and sabre. The FIE's Escrime XXI history timeline says the electrical epee, introduced in 1933 with the Laurent-Pagan apparatus, was adopted for competition at the Berlin 1936 Olympic Games, and the FIE's historical note dates its electrical epee rules to 1936 (i.3.3). Women's epee came late: the FIE Congress approved it in 1984, with World Championships from 1989 (i.3.4), and Olympedia records it at the Olympics from Atlanta 1996.

Wheelchair epee is different

In wheelchair epee the target is not the whole body. Under the IWAS Wheelchair Fencing Technical Rules (January 2018), it is the upper body above a horizontal line between the tops of the hip bones, plus any part of the wheelchair above that line (t.62). Earthed conductive aprons cover the non-valid areas (t.63). The double hit is kept (t.64.2). More on the wheelchair fencing page.