ANST - Better Bannering

[Keith Hood]

Kateryn Heathrydge wrote:
> 
> The broken rattan in my life has had mushy fibres at the ends.  The
> broken dowels in my life broke with a long, pointy end per piece that
> would *easily* slide through nearly every faceplate I have seen and cause
> severe trauma.
> 


Lady Heathrydge:

Sigh.  I had given up on this subject.  In my last posting I tried to
just joke it away  and quit there.  There are so many people out there
who seem determined to speak against it on any point.  I admit I wearied
of the barrage of critiques and hoped to retire from the field.

Alas it is not to be, for I am betrayed by my own basic nature.  Your
message has pushed the start button on my 'try me' reflex, the one that
tells my hindbrain that my head will explode if I don't get the last
word.  So, with all due respect and absolutely no malice:



I have never taken onto an SCA battlefield any item that I thought posed
an undue hazard to other people.  I have never taken onto an SCA
battlefield any item that I would not be willing to face.  I have never
disputed an SCA marshal's ruling on equipment safety.

I am not trying to talk you into making a sashimono rig from hardwood or
bamboo.  If you'd rather use rattan, do that.  If you don't want to do
it at all, don't do it.  But you and some other people seem to me to be
really upset over my suggestion, and I want you to understand that there
is no reason to be so alarmed.

"Severe trauma"--I admit that such a thing is within the realm of
probability.  I understand the thought concerning rattan in this
matter.  Let me restate:  I have in the past used the type of banner rig
I described, and did not use rattan.  Nothing broke in half and nobody
got hurt.

I think now, after reading the responses I have seen, that people have
not understood my terminology.  To expand:

When I used the word 'lightweight,' I did not mean something in the
class of a fly rod.  I mean lightweight in comparison to a rattan spear.

When I used the word 'dowel,' I did not mean 3/16 inch material suitable
for repairing wooden toys.  I used hardwood.  If I remember correctly it
was 5/8 inch diameter.  The broken dowels in my life have also had
jagged edges and points, but they broke not upon the field.

With the word 'breakaway' I did not mean using material that was likely
to shatter.  I used it in a design sense, as you might refer to a safety
valve or a breakfront holster--something that holds against the stress
of normal use, but when enough force is exerted against it pops loose,
falls free, or otherwise changes mode to relieve the stress.

In the rig I used, the end of the upright was tied loosely to a leather
bracket in back at waist level.  Above that, the upright was attached to
the shoulders of my armor with a piece of cord.  That cord was fixed to
both shoulders and was a foot or two long, so when seen from above it
formed a V.  The upright when in place leaned back about 15 degrees (I
needed that much leeway because my helmet is equipped with fairly wide
skirting), and of course the upper lashing was not rigid, so there was
freedom for the whole thing to sway.  I think I pointed out in an
earlier posting that the marshals had me make sure the ends of the
pieces were capped so they could not enter a helmet opening.

If I had fallen in such a way that the rig had hit someone, that person
would not have been subjected to a strike with my body weight behind it
because the sashimono would have been knocked out of the way.  In such a
fall, had it ever happened, the impact would have been not as bad as
getting slammed with the edge of a shield when fighting at close
quarters, something which happens constantly.

As for the worry about the support pieces breaking in a fall, I suppose
anything is possible.  But as I said, I used large diameter hardwood,
and it didn't happen.  And, there are all kinds of things that could be
done to relieve worries on this point:  heat shrink tubing, tool dip
coating, the inevitable tape wrapping, etc.  Breaking from being hit by
a weapon was not an issue; since the rig was free to sway under impact,
it simply moved aside and that was the end of it.

I used just hardwood dowels--no special treatments.  As I recall, I used
this affair in melees three times.  In all of them I eventually got
clobbered and dropped.  I say again, nothing broke in half and nobody
got hurt.

If you don't want to use something like this, fine.  But please don't be
so worried; what I used is really not as horrible as you seem to think.

-- 
A long bow and a strong bow,
And let the sky grow dark.
The nock to the cord, the shaft to the ear,
And a foreign king for a mark!

      --  Stolen from "The Song of the Bosonian Archers"  --
		     by Robert E. Howard, who should be		    
		       the patron saint of Ansteorra
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