ARMOUR AS SAFETY EQUIPMENT
Without a question the single most important function of armour is that
of safety equipment. In a very real and very legal sense martial arts is
a “dangerous environment” and protective gear for martial arts
is “safety equipment”. In the twenty first century this issue
can only become increasingly important. Here at Blankenshield we take a
position that is EXTREMELY unpopular with some competing armour companies.
We will go the extra distance to make “safety equipment” that
can visually appear as period armour for martial arts events that require
“period” fighting gear. We feel that modern safety gear with modern
safety goals can be manufactured entirely using traditional materials like
steel and leather. We do not use plastic, fiberglass, foam rubber, or stainless
steel. We make what is called comprised armour. That is to say it contains
components based on several antique armours. The outline of our great pauldrens
for example is from the Ann de Montmorcy armour and the division of the
interstaciary lames of the pauldren is from one of Henries armours. The
turner of the pauldren is the same as that on many different armours and
so the elements of three different armours have been combined in just the
pauldren alone. In each case the “safest” design we could find
has been incorporated into our library of patterns and combined according
to the customers needs and tastes. Our patterning process is very scientific
and the exact dimensions of each of our armours is determined by a formula
that uses the customers measurements to produce a pattern. In our gallery
are pictures of a six foot five and a five foot seven customer in their
Blankenshield equipment. Exact size replicas do not fit modern bodies. There
are plenty of size seven shoes from the sixteenth century such as those
found in the wreck of the Trinidad Valencera. Sixteenth century armour fits
that size person. It is not “safe” for a size ten, modern American
to try to fight, squeezed into an armour replicated from one made for someone
who was, by our modern standards, half starved and small. In the twenty
first century large men need large armour. Here at Blankenshield no one
will ever criticize the customer or tell them that the style or design of
armour they want is in any way wrong. Any style or custom design is available
as requested by the customer. However no matter what design is requested
by the customer we will always do all that is possible to make certain that
the product is what we would consider to be”safety equipment”
rather than just costuming or replica. Many if not most modern armour smiths
require you to use heavily padded garments and or special harnesses to wear
their armour. These padded garments are to protect the wearer from the armour
and nothing more. Padding serves virtually no purpose in well designed combat
armour as the blows are so well dispersed that any impact is spread all
over the body. While there are clear historical references to heavily padded
garments being worn under armour in some places at certain times the same
references also describe people actually dying from nothing more than that
padding and the weight of the armour. What they called “stifled by
their harness”. Well no one is going to die on a hot day because our
armour needs you to protect your self from it! We do suggest a heavy cloth
garment as there are rivet heads inside the armour. But We have also had
students here on casual play days fighting in our armour wearing T-shirts
and Bermuda shorts. We do not guarantee that no one will get hurt while
wearing our armour. We do not guarantee that no one will ever be hurt by
our armour. Any thing is possible. Especially in an arena of combat. We
can say that, unlike many other smiths, since we started rolling all our
edges no one has been hurt by our armour. And we freely admit that there
were a couple of minor cuts on our armour before we started rolling all
our edges. What we can guarantee, is that we will always do our level best
to produce a product that is designed to provide maximum protection above
all our other considerations. There are other armour companies that will
try to use historical examples as justification for selling you a piece
of armour that is less than safe to wear. At Blankenshield Safety is Always
Our First Concern.
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