On Memorial day, several of us got together to do to masks what Thomas and Dylan had done to fabric.
In attendance were - Micheal of Castlekeep, Jehan DuLac, Brokk Jarlson, Martin Quicksliver, Myself (Fergus MacRae), and Esteban dropped by later muttering something about Lady Jane and tomorow (or was it tamara?? the mind boggles), as did several other local notables.
Our goal - To determine whether or not 12kg masks are safe for use with schlager (in specific, will allowing head and neck shots endanger anyone, and is the behaviour of masks sufficiently predictable so that we can, with a reasonable amount of assurance, predict when they will fail.)
The third mask was a vintage mid 1970's costello that used to be be used for marshall training.
All tests were performed by mounting a schlager blade in the tupperware container, adding premeasured amounts of sand (1/2 kilo incrememnts) to the container, and dropping the assembly a distance of 30 cm's onto a mask. Further, to guide, aim, and preserve blades, a tube was used to limit flex and assure point control (hence the broken ski pole).
The masks were attached to a wood and padding face - take a 2x4, cut off sufficient length to fit in a mask, and attach to the rest of the 2x4. then pad the top, front, and sides to fill out the mask like a face would. Have someone stand on the 2x4 (not the end with the mask) and commence.
( mask ) is 2x4
|++++++++| ++++ is 2x4 and padding.
ascii art - /
--/
It is important to note that the end with the mask on it is, at this point, suspended in air. We used a set of steps (with a railing) to acheive this. By keeping the mask in the air, so to speak, the force was taken by the points where the mask sits on a head - the chin and forehead. Also, this method allowed some flex in the test - more than placing the mask on a hard surface, less than if mounted on someones head (we tried to get Esteban to lie down for it, but no luck.)
Can an untipped, unblunted, schlager penetrate a mask?
All drops are onto the face of the mask, approxiamatly where the right eye would be. We started with 2kg of weight, which is the amount previously determined to penetrate 4 layers of trigger.
(This will take a while, have a beer.)
Short answer - An untipped, unblunted schlager that cannot bend will penetrate a mask between at about 6 kilos.
Long answer -
drop # weight effect punch test
------------------------------------------------------
1 2kg dent Pass
2 3kg dent Pass
3 4kg big dent Pass
4 5kg 1 wire broke,
no penetration The surrounding wires Pass
(yes, even thou a wire
broke, it still passed.)
5 6kg blow thru Fail
Having seen 6kg go thru an already weakened spot, we moved to a "fresh" one - about where your cheek would be.
6 6kg dent, obvious
damage to wires Pass
7 7kg 1 wire broke,
blade in the mask.
Having now seen it happen twice, we tried it again, on the forehead -
8 7kg straight thru the mask.
Being the destructive sorts that we are, this wasn't good enough, the temple -
9 6.5kg straight thru.
(gee, maybe the mask is a little weakend? nah, have a beer.)
the sides of the mask, by the ears -
10 6.5kg straight thru
11 6.0kg straight thru
and the other side of the face - the left eye.
12 6.0kg straight thru.
Note - No noticeable damage to schlager (so far...)
The tip used was a standard bird blunt, without a metal insert.
(are we ready yet? shut up and have a beer)
drop # weight effect punch test
-------------------------------------------------------
1 6kg none pass
2 6kg none pass
3 6kg dent pass
4-6 6kg dent gets bigger each pass
time
Note - Up to this time, it seems that the mesh is getting
stronger - harder to punch test, except for the last one,
when the mesh started to get noticeably weaker.
7-15 6kg no change pass
16-18 6kg dent more defined,
getting pointy at the
middle. it also appears
that Martin can't count. Pass
19-23 6kg no noticeable change Pass
24 6kg no noticeable change Failed in center.
Notes:
first of all, the bird blunt was not lined with metal, and we realized shortly after this test that the tip had come thru the blunt (this was also difficult to determine thru visual inspection (I was tapping it lightly on some metal when the tone changed...))It is unclear if the blunt failed during the test, or immeadiatly there after. However, it is fairly safe to assume that the mask would have lasted longer if the blunt had had a metal lining. (The lining would have spread the force over a greater area with more consistency.)
Second of all, the dent at this point was over an inch deep. (1.5 to 2 inches deep)
Are we out of beer? No, try the other cooler.
Short answer - no.
Long answer - This one isn't scientific, but it was fun.
In order, Myself, Brokk Jarlson, and Martin QuickSilver took the mounted (untipped) schlager and tried to blow thru a mask.
And to make it easy on ourselves, we used the old costello, and had Esteban wear it.
Both Brokk and I piston lunged (arm and body going at the same time) into the mask 3 or 4 times, each. Martin just lunged.
All of us tried, with as much weight and force as we could muster, to ram the mask and blade out the back of Esteban's skull.
Brokk and I were both putting 12+ inch bends into the blade.
The results:
No broken wires (several were damaged), and the face of the mask pushed in a good 5 inches, at least. (Also note, that unlike the previous tests, this one did not have the 2x4 and padding behind the mask.)And one bent schlager.
Esteban's nose will heal, and smelling salts really do work.
We filed a schlager flat, and reproduced test series 1.
No significantchange was found - denting, and blow thru at about 7 kg.
First, 6kg is alot - 13 lbs. under this load, the schlagers were basically trying to bend themselves in half. The term we came up with was - exhibiting unlimited flex. I've tried to put that much bend into one, and it isn't at all easy.
To put this another way -
Thomas and Dylan have previously determined that it takes 5.88 joules (2kg, 30cm drop) to penetrate 4 layers of trigger. They also determined that that energy was far above what happens in tourney, and that they couldn't impart more energy with anything resembling accuracy.
The energy involved here is 3 to 4 times as much, (7kg of weight, 1 kg of blade and stuff) ie ~23.52 joules.
Second, the tests were meant to be worst case, so we drastically limited the amount of room for a blade to bend to a pipe roughly the diameter of a small bird blunt (3/4" at most)
In all cases, except the ones where the untipped schlager just punched thru the mask, significant denting of a small area occured first.
Can a schlager destroy a mask - yes.
Will a schlager destroy a mask unexpecatdly, with no warning - no. Is the warning noticeable to your average marshal - yes. Why - Modern masks are designed to fail by collapsing, much like the crush zone on a modern car. It is not until the mask has been collapsed (often, it seems, by inches, and is no longer wearable) by repeated excessively hard hits that the mesh was sufficiently weakened to fail a punch test.
BTW, this "crush before rip" behaviour is one reason why modern masks do not have internal reinforcing wires. The reinforcements got in the way and made it much more likely that the mesh would rip before crushing.
The only time the mesh failed catastrophically was under conditions that should not occur -
The Scientific Central Region Association of Goons, Epicureans and Deviants. "Come get SCRAGED with us."