Reviewed by Peter Huggins 7th August 2010
I was given this book to review as I was about to go on holiday and therefore could do something useful whist away and as it is alleged I know a little about the work of the armourer.
The first that one has to recognise is that this book is written in American English for the American market and much of the terminology, language and spellings used are not what we are used to. As a quick, cheeky example I would cite the author's footnote on the spelling of the word 'sabre' which is "Purists will argue that this word should be spelled 'sabre', I choose to use the English 'sabre'". However, once you have read passed these problems and recognise, as examples, that 'body cords' are 'body wires', 'knickers' are 'breeches' and 'connectors' are 'inside guard sockets' etc, then this is a good treatise that provides plenty of very useful information that can be used by the novice, the intermediate and the expert armourer.
In my view the book has two main weaknesses. The first is that because of its method of production the clarity of some of the smaller illustrations has been lost. An improvement would be to enlarge these. The second weakness, which is, perhaps, the more important is that it contains some logical though not legal interpretations of the rules such as "It is important to note that you do not want to get into a heated……..argument with the Armourer, because they do have the power to issue a Black Card" - if only ; and in relation to the testing for a non-valid hit at foil where it is shown that the lame jacket is faulty - "You want to let the Referee do it, ………because he can award a touch for you if he determines that there was a valid hit, but the equipment malfunctioned."
Many of the points made about clothing rules are specific to the USA and I would suggest that for this aspect the FIE Rules for Competitions and the BFA Safety Guidelines should be consulted and followed. Also throughout the book the rules referred to are those in the USFA rule book. Do not worry about this as the numbering does compare with both the FIE and BFA (the official FIE English language version) rules.
To conclude, though, the technical side of this work is excellent and it has made a very welcome addition to my library. I am regularly asked, when presenting courses if there are any books on this subject and this will now be close to the top of the limited list.
