HEMA Alliance Approved Gear

[Jonathan Allen]

When looking for new gear for my club my number one question is, "Is it safe?". It doesn't matter how nice a sword plays in the bind if it is going to catastrophically fail and hurt someone.

After months of searching through forums I might get an answer, might. So what I feel we need is an approval or certification process for gear.

I'm not asking for subjective opinions like "Rawlings suck in the bind" but rather objective ones like "Hanwei rapiers are approved, but their feder longswords are too unreliable".

The procedure could be relatively simple. After using the equipment for at least (6 months) the club can vote. With enough votes (three clubs? five?) it gets approved. If there are more than one club voting against then it fails.

Besides being a valuable resource to the community, having an HA Approved logo on their site would be good advertising for both us and the vendor.

[Jake Norwood]

I like the idea. What would the liability implications be?

[Jonathan Allen]

I like the idea. What would the liability implications be?

That's a very good question. That's why I used the term "approved" instead of my original idea of "certified".

[keith cotter-reilly]

I like the idea. What would the liability implications be?

That's a very good question. That's why I used the term "approved" instead of my original idea of "certified".

Liability could still be applied there as they are giving there opinion that this is a quality product.

I like the idea, but liability issues would need to be explored.

[Ben Floyd]

ANY weapon can fail catastrophically. A list of absolutely safe weapons looks like this:

Catastrophically fail proof gear:

[Jeffrey Hull]

Would the Alliance ever approve of this kind of gear?

Helmschmied Harness

Really, I should like to know.

[Jake Norwood]

No. That's historical chivalric fantasy roleplayer gear and we hates it, hobbitses, we hates it.

Seriously, though, I think what Jonathan is asking about would equate to quality when it comes to the historical stuff. It would be nice to know that the modern reproduction harness you're about to drop $20,000 for is quality, durable, and of appropriate specs to the original, and not crappy larping gear.

Not that I'm qualified to make the distinction.

Jake

[Ben Floyd]

Without any hyperbole this time, I think the way to do this would be more like a ratings system done by individual members. This way, the HEMAA isn't on the hook for approving or certifying anything. This allows the HEMAA to remain impartial and non-biased.

[Jake Norwood]

Like an Angie's list for HEMA gear?

[Ben Floyd]

More or less.