A month ago I was discussing basic equipment with Gregory Mele. As he is among the few who use steel helmets with perforated steel, rather than fencing masks, so typical in HEMA around the world. His arguments for this more expensive protection were mainly two:

1. It offers better protection against steel, even with heavier weapons than a longsword.

2. It has a better aesthetic and closer feel to the period protection.

While those arguments are perfectly valid, I thought the fencing masks absolutely sufficient for what we do. Until this happened:

I’ll give you some context – this is freeplay with full gear and wooden wasters. We go in a bind, then high, I zwerch to the arms, but as the distance is short, I continue the strike in a slice. Angel, on the left, pushes my sword down and kinda locks me for a second, than stops. I do not see or feel this, and when my sword slips free, I deliver a full strike on the top of his head. See it again in slowmo, notice how if it was a steel sword, it would have been exactly around the centre of precussion:

Now, Angel was okay after a couple of minutes. He had a nasty bump, a bruise and some of the skin on his head at the point of impact practically tore, but it wasn’t too bad – at least he had no concussion.

Funny thing, I did not even deliver a full strike with full force, which I often train for. I just made a finishing hit, because I was unsure of the results of the first slice.

On the same camp I struck at a mask with a rattan stick and bent not only the mesh, but the mtal rim on top of the mask.

Oh, and do you see Angel wearing a protector on the mask from PBT? It has the mesh engraved on the foam inside.

I just cannot imagine what could’ve happened if that was a steel longsword. So I am currently saving money for this:

That Guy’s Products – http://www.thatguysproducts.com is making those, and they are not so different in basic function from fencing masks. It is not even the whole steel thing that I find most useful. It is the support system, which is based on the same one used in helmets for hundreds of years:

And no, sadly it won’t work under a fencing mask. I’ll try, but I do not think so.

Well, I am not surprised about one thing – as usual, all revelation in what I do come from a blow. Glad it wasn’t my head this time.