I recently had a conversation with one of our fencers where she told me that her favorite epee broke and she does not have time to fix it before her next competition. All of the parts of all of her weapons were different: the guards, blades, tips, pistols. Nothing was the same.
I was surprised to hear that she had been using a Frankenstein-ed version of a weapon cobbled together with different pieces and different blades. While I understand that might have been the only way she could attain the right kind of weapon at the time, it made me realize that there are some very important considerations for you to take when purchasing and assembling your arsenal.