Nestled in the confines of his basement workshop, surrounded by swords and enough tools to make Bob Vila jealous, Ron Herman twiddles away on a broken épée — a dueling sword for fencing — for an Iowa fencing club team member.

As the armorer for the Hawkeye Club Fencing Team, he can spend hours at night repairing and preparing equipment, uniforms, and electrical cords for the team. An armorer is responsible for preparing the equipment so it passes regulations when competing.

“It’s like scrutineering in car racing,” Herman said. “There is a bunch of technicians, we call it control, and they perform a series of tests on the equipment to make sure it meets specifications.”

Not only is Herman responsible for the equipment of the Fencing Club, but he is also the armorer for Team U.S.A., and he has traveled with the team to Athens and Beijing for the past two Olympics.

“I’ve known the German and Italian armorers for more than 10 years now, but I couldn’t even tell you their names,” he said. “But we will spend an hour with one another at competitions and talk in monosyllables, comparing toys. You have no clue if they have a wife and kids, but you feel like you know them very well.”

Hawkeye Fencing Club President Nick Beatty said Herman has a joking personality and is always willing to give advice. He even invites team members to his home to teach them armory.

“We are very happy to have him because he is always willing to help us with a piece of equipment, and a lot of teams don’t have someone like that,” Beatty said.

Team Vice President Luke Voelz said Herman’s experience has been very useful for the team.

“He has so much experience with procedure and how things are done because he has been with the national team for so long,” Voelz said.

After attending Southern Illinois, where he fenced on the school’s club team, Herman moved to Iowa City for graduate school.

Upon his arrival, in 1974, he found the Iowa fencing team had not been in existence for the previous five years after the coach retired. Herman asked Harry Ostrander, the director of Recreational Services, if there was any equipment still lying around.

To Herman’s surprise, Ostrander gave him the keys to a room at the top floor of the Field House that contained more than he could ask for.

“There was this room with an incredible pile of equipment, hundreds of blades, scoring machines, reels,” Herman said. “All we had to do was figure out how to make it all work.”

Herman said he would like to go to the 2012 Olympics in London as a spectator.

“I would like to go and actually watch other events this time,” he said.