I went to a tournament a week or so ago. For a variety of reasons I did not use my new mask. Instead, I pulled the Beast out of retirement.






This mask, more commonly referred too as the Biohazard, is an old Allstar FIE mask that I picked up back in the mid 90’s. It was either 95 or 96, heck, (maybe 94) they were having a NAC in Atlanta, probably the first one ever held there, as part of the build up/preparation for the 96 Olympics. I was working as a volunteer at the armory table test the masks with the 12K punch, (If someone who isn’t a fencer is reading this, all fencing masks are supposed to be checked before competitions to see if the mesh on the mask can withstand 12 kg of force delivered by a small punch, if the punch can push through the mesh the mask is failed and the fencer is not allowed to use it for safety reasons. We prefer not to perforate each others heads.) On this particular day one competitor came up with an Allstar FIE mask. This was a German manufactured mask that was certified for international competition. The head strap on this mask had come out and the rivets that held it in were gone. I looked at it and asked the head armourer if it could be used. He asked if the punch would fit through the hole, since it obviously would I turned to the fencer and said it didn’t pass but could easily be fixed by putting new rivets in the holes. He shrugged and said he needed a new mask anyway, turned and left. I promptly tagged the masks with my name, took it home at the end of the event and fixed it. Several years later it was still passing the tests easily but had acquired such a rough appearance that at one point an armourer actually flinched when I handed it to him. I joked after this that I needed to make a Biohazard sticker and put it on the mask. A friend who works in the Port of Savannah GA brought me two genuine stickers and I fenced with it ever since. I retired the mask eventually because I was tired of watching people at tournaments spend inordinate amounts of time trying to find the one spot on it that would fail and because at a national championship in Austin if I recall correctly, one young armourer refused to pass it because the lining of the bib was torn. (WTF?) (I took it back to a different armourer and it went through with a any more problem that him flinching and punch testing it about 15 times)
At any rate I bought a new mask at that event, (FIE Negrini) and put the Biohazard down as my practice mask. I eventually retired it from there because it was getting pretty old. I would still pull it out for the Halloween tournament every year for awhile but stopped that eventually too. But, last week it came out to play again. IU got the usually Oh My God! Comments when people saw it, it did pass the test (barely) and then I fenced really well and and took second in the event. (losing 15-14 in the final to some young fast A rated fencer who had to come from behind to beat me) It is almost enough to make me consider wearing it more often. But I won’t because I really do think it has aged out of it being Really safe. So it will hang on the back of my throne in retirement now. I don’t plan on ever wearing it again for actual fencing. But it is nice to have around.