[MR] Heavy Helms and inertia

[Neil Brady]

As an Armourer, I'd like to put my input in on this as well.  As the
physics of the matter have been more than thoroughly gone over, I'll avoid
that and instead give my professional opinion of why I make my armour the
way I do.

My job, as an armourer, is to make protective gear.  The stuff I sell you
has to protect you from the sport you are engaged in, not just the first
time you use it, but for years.  It has to protect you both when you are
being smart, and when you get that wild hair and charge the 350 lb Tuchux
with the Greatsword.  Being as that is so, I need to be certain that what I
sell you won't end up injuring you, or allowing you to be injured, if for
no other reason than injured people don't buy armour.  What I am protecting
when I make my helms, isn't your face or head, per se, it is the soft lump
of tissue inside it.

I am aware of many groups around the world that engage in sports similar to
ours, including those that don't demand the stringent armour requirements
that we have.  There is one group in particular that uses rattan and wooden
sticks as weapons with football and motorcycle helmets (along with other
lightweight helmets and armour.)  In the few years that I have been
observing them, I've noticed that they have a high rate of injuries,
including a striking incidence of concussions.  As their armour standards
have increased, their injury rate has decreased.  I believe the same was
probably true of the SCA.  I can certainly say that our incidence of
serious injury to the head (such as concussions) is very low compared to
the number of authorized fighters.  Injuries due to insufficient padding or
poor chinstraps are much more likely and common.

The armour requirements of the SCA has a implicit minimum helm weight,
dictated by the minimum thickness of the steel, and the minimum coverage of
the helm.  This implicit weight is, in my opinion, barely enough to be safe
for the sport we engage in (this weight is somewhere around 6 lbs,
depending mostly upon the style of the helm.)  (To digress for just a
moment, 6 lbs is really on the high end for most period helms.  SCA
reconstructions of period helms tend to be 50 to 100% heavier than their
historical counterparts.  I find nothing wrong with this.  They played a
much different game back then to the one we play now.)  I, personally, have
been hit hard enough to see stars while wearing a 13 lb sallet.  My current
favorite helm weighs 9 lbs, though I find I notice the impact of blows much
more.  As I, and all fighters, want to be able to fight not just on a
weekly basis, but on a daily basis, the more that our armour can allow
this, the better.

Simply, a heavier helm provides better protection through it's mass and
impact absorbsion.  Even if the SCA were to allow lighter helms through
approving titanium (or other light weight material), I would still continue
to make helms of steel, simply for my own peace of mind and for the sake of
my customers.


Frederich Von Teufel, owner of LittleHawk Armoury
Storvik, Atlantia
Journeyman Apprentice to Master Peter of Northstar Armoury