ouch!

[Thorsteinn]

Or a Pembridge or Klappavisor.

[Allan Senefelder]

In this case it was a Rawlings Synthetic sword that did the damage

I was very surprised by this. As with any high risk hobby like say rock climbing or hang glidding, theres always a bit more danger ( like driving a car isn't ) but we take extra precautions, which work 99% of the time so we become accustomed, to things going okay, like driving until you have a wreck, but when theres a mishap, because we take extra steps ( like a synthetic waster ) its always a bit surprising because they work fine most all the time. We forget that theres still inherent risk because our extra safety steps normally alieveiate that.

[Sir Edward]

This is part of the reason I was still pushing for modern safety gear for our renfaire longsword demo. I think we need to make sure we always use some for of perf-plate, even if it's welded inside the occularia of a period helm.

[SirNathanQ]

Wow, a Rawlings?   

That guy's occularums were enourmous tough. I would go for the perf mesh inside a period helm idea.

[Sir Wolf]

but the thing is guys fight in open faced helmets all the time with steel even. i wanna know what kinda thrust did that. seems excessive to me.

[Ian]

but the thing is guys fight in open faced helmets all the time with steel even. i wanna know what kinda thrust did that. seems excessive to me.

True, BotN uses steel and a lot of the fighters wear bar-grills, open faced sallets / bascinets etc...

[Sir Wolf]

ive fought w steel in a spangenhelmet. even staged planned and free for all, the head is just simply a non issue when fighting.

[Thorsteinn]

BOTN doesn't thrust I believe and Laurin doesn't allow face thrusts/strikes for the non-knight class, however I hear these guys did allow body thrusts. One bad parry and you have a head shot.

[Sir Wolf]

body thrusts are in most steel fighting. it's in part of the 5s or 8s depending on what group your with.

[Sir Edward]

Fighting with open faced helms is really only viable in stage combat, and that includes improvised stage combat. Meaning, you're not doing a real martial art. If you're fighting true to the arts, there are plenty of thrusts, and the face is one of your primary targets. Hence the need to have perf-plates.

Having open faces or bar grills is simply a big risk even if the rules disallow thrusts, because a bad parry is all it takes. So long as the sword tip is smaller than the openings, there's a danger.

[Sir James A]

BOTN doesn't thrust I believe and Laurin doesn't allow face thrusts/strikes for the non-knight class, however I hear these guys did allow body thrusts. One bad parry and you have a head shot.

Yeah, that's what I'm wondering too. Seems silly to go for a face thrust when you know the size of the blade is smaller than the opening. Something seems a little "off", and I'd wager it's on the side of the media not really knowing exactly what happened and just trying to repeat details of things they don't 100% understand.