Fencing clothes get wet. Not wet like swim trunks or rain jackets, but wet from the heaping amounts of sweat that pour out of a fencer’s body throughout the course of a strenuous practice in thick gear.

The real deal with sweat

First off, let’s talk about sweat.

There is something deeply satisfying about getting in a hard workout at the fencing club. Running up and down the strip, feeling those muscles tense and release, it’s good stuff! That good stuff also produces smelly, wet stuff in the form of perspiration.

Sweat in and  of itself is basically water expelled from the skin in order to cool the body down. There’s not actually bacteria in the sweat itself, rather it’s the bacteria on our skin that mixes with the sweat and digests the small amounts of sugar in it that causes the odor.

There’s no reason to feel crazy about sweat, our bodies are meant to do this. It’s healthy to sweat. What’s no healthy is for that sweat and bacteria to stick around and smell like a rhinoceros as a result. The odor gets worse the longer fencing gear stays sweaty, not to mention the risk of bacteria getting out of control. Getting rid of the bacteria and keeping fencing equipment dry should be a priority.

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What’s that Smell? Solutions for Smelly Fencing Gloves:

Recently I opened my child’s fencing bag and strong smell almost killed me. I was thinking about accidental dead mouse was inside it! Nope. Not socks, nor shoes – it was smell of hard work from my child’s fencing glove!

That’s right, it turns out that the humble fencing glove can hide some serious stink. I genuinely had no idea that it was possible for my son’s hand to smell so much!

As a loving and caring mom, I immediately gave my son a brand new glove. He put it on and without a beat told me – “I am not going to Summer Nationals with a new glove – I don’t feel my pistol grip in it!” He was absolutely right. Changing a glove to a new brand is not the best idea!! Before a big competition, changing the grip or the glove or even the blade to something new just means trouble. Familiarity with the equipment is essential in the face of a major competition. Don’t change to something new BEFORE major competitions!

We of course decided to keep his glove and not get a new one before major fencing competition. Meanwhile, I started digging into ways to get rid of this dead mouse smell.

Getting the smell out of a stinky fencing glove

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