With extensive jousting experience we
at Blankenshield have developed the ideal jousting shield for use with
our armour. Unlike most modern designs our system frees the left hand
completely for use in reining. An advantage that can win tournaments.
The original jousting shield used with chain mail was hung from the neck
on a strap called the guige. This allowed the arm to be stuck through
two straps called enarms and the hand freed for reining. Our lengthy experimentation
with this chain mail oriented method showed that when unhorsed the guige
became extremely dangerous and landing on the shield when tumbling from
a horse can cause extreme strain and possible injury to the neck. Later
plate armour made the defensive nature of a shield redundant but in many
cases it was retained and used as the primary target. In the later examples
the shields and grand guards were attached directly to the arm armour.
Without the guige the risk to the neck is minimal. In our system the shield
balances by itself attached to the elbow cup and the gauntlet cuff by
straps. To use, simply slip the horizontal strap down over the wings of
the elbow cup then buckle the vertical strap over the gauntlet cuff. Then
ignore. Or in matches where presentation of the shield is important simply
lift the elbow.
A hit practically any where on the shield
will cause the shield to slap against the armour and slip out from under
the lance by itself causing almost all deflections to miss the jouster.
Our shields have a heavily flanged border that turns back toward the opponent
all around the edge to control glancing blows by bouncing them away as
they slide off the surface of the shield. Most important the main body
of the shield is pounded out like a turtle shell giving it depth and considerable
impact resistance. This makes one of our shields take as much hammer work
than one of our breastplates. Totally unlike the shields you usually see.
An ordinary flat shield in eighteen gauge could not possibly support a
humans weight. But our hardened steel shields with their hand pounded
depth and their heavily flanged edges will easily support our 165 pound
armour smith when placed as a bridge between two benches. These shields
are made for high impact jousting with metal tips and full contact live
steel sword fighting. Martial arts equipment for extreme martial artists.
