Gear requirements

Starting out: nothing required

New students train on loaner gear, free of charge. Newer people get priority on it, so as you build your own kit you free up loaners for the next person coming through the door.

Please check with an instructor before you buy anything. Order times in this sport can be brutally long, and it is terrible to wait 6–12 months for a piece of gear only to find out you can't use it.

Level 1 — Foam

Everything at this level is what you need to fence with foam weapons.

1. Mask — rated for HEMA/fencing.
2. Groin protection — pick based on your anatomy and comfort. We certainly aren't checking.
3. Light gloves

With those three, you're set for fencing with foams.

Level 2 — Light hitting weapons

Add to your Level 1 kit:

1. Neck protection (gorget)
2. Jacket
3. Pants
4. Knee and elbow protection

Now you're set for fencing with light hitting weapons such as rapier, smallsword, and some lightweight sabers. Some weapons at this level may also require an upgrade to medium gloves.

Level 3 — Heaviest protection

Our final level, for longsword, sword and buckler, heavier sabers and similar. On top of your Level 2 kit:

1. Heavy HEMA-specific mittens — upgraded from your light gloves.
2. Back-of-head protection
3. Hard forearm protection
4. Hard shin protection
5. A hard plastic chest protector — recommended.

Steel trainers

Your steel has to be safe to fence with and not every steel sold as a "trainer" is safe. Our club has higher safety standards than most. When shopping, look for the following:

• Made specifically for fencing/HEMA — no wall hangers, sharps, etc allowed
• Thick enough at the edge — both for safety and weapon durability
• Not overly heavy — remember, you're hitting your fencing partners with these repeatedly
• Flexible enough — measured by the Sean Franklin flex test, longswords and arming swords max out at 13 kg, and all other one handed cut oriented swords at 10 kg, and all one handed thrust oriented swords at 8 kg. This is the max; lower is often preferred.
• Tipped with a thermoplastic tip — as a rule of thumb, rare exceptions apply.

The flex limits and the thermoplastic tip requirement go beyond what most clubs bother with. No, we're not sorry about that.

Care & condition

Whether it's yours or ours, check your equipment before and after every use. Damaged or poorly fitted gear doesn't protect you — if something's wrong with a piece of loaner kit, tell an instructor so we can pull it and repair it.

Once gear is yours, keeping it in good repair is on you. We expect you to maintain it — fix the tears, replace the worn-out pieces, and maintain your steels.

Not sure what you need?

Don't buy anything until you've trained with us a few times and talked it over with an instructor — we'll help you spend wisely. See Resources for trusted retailers, or just come try a class first.