white mask

[perrygt]

Ok, I'm pretty new at this but I've been looking at different mask all over the internet and it seems like the cool looking white mask from the James Bond movie Die Another Day are not actually real. Apparently Leon Paul made them for the movie specifically but doesn't market them to customers. I was wondering why there aren't white mask out there b/c they look awesome if you ask me. Maybe I just haven't looked in the correct places...can you paint a mask after you buy it? Any answers would be much appreciated.

[DHCJr]

There are two answers to your question. There used to be the 'White' rule. Where everything had to be white. There were some masks that were failed for being dirty. In fact there is the Santelli debacle where Santelli donated to the U.S. Team all new masks. The masks were failed and crushed because they had failed. Their failure was they used 'Brown' leather. This was before electric sabre. The Sabre Team received Sabre masks with a solid Leather top and the Foil and Epee teams received 3-weapon masks with leather trim. The masks used to be white, but now that they got rid of the 'White' rule, they have gone to more practicle reason for not using white.

Now for the more modern reason. Have you noticed football players put black under their eyes. That is not a fashion statement. That is to help cut down on reflective light. White masks would cause more of a problem with vision because they would reflect more light. Black absorbs the light.

[Tomas N]

Interesting bit of history from Donald. I had never heard the Santelli story. From personal experience, I'll have to disagree on the statement that white masks are harder to see through. Triplette sells them (and I own one). They are white on the outside and black inside. I haven't noticed any vision impairment due to using the mask. Plus your opponent can't see where you're looking, which can be helpful.

Tomas

[DHCJr]

I misstated my post. What I should have said was the all-white. Tripplette has put the black on the inside for the reason I mentioned. It just shows, you must be very careful in what you write. It will come back to haunt you.

Sorry for the miscommunication.

[Tireur]

I used to paint mine white on the outside and black on the inside. Your opponent cannot see inside your mask this way.

[Squall_Leonhart]

Would one just use acrylic paint? I think I will go paint mine now...

[Artisan]

I too have a white Triplette mask that has black inside. There is a bit more light (glare) reflected in from the upper side of the wires in the mesh (depending on the quality of the lighting in the room). I remedied this by lightly misting the upperhalf of the mask with black from above to dull the white some more.

[Barry Paul]

To avoid internal glare it's no good leaving the surface as coated in black you have to use a black matt paint. All our black nylon coated masks both standard and F.I.E. have an extra interia coating of black matt paint It's not obvious to any one unless you use one of our masks with high levels of top down light. Then compare with any other mask you would be surprised the difference it makes. That the diference between a firm that knows what it is doing and the others

Initially all insulated mask (pre F.I.E. regulation days) were coated white. Leon Paul were the first to coat with black and these became so popular we stopped making the white ones M.D. Leon Paul

[MyraTrue]

I too happen to know one of those white Triplette mask-wearing fencers. He's quite happy with his, despite having recently thrown it off a balcony (oops! ). I didn't notice any problem seeing his face through the mask whenever I fencer with him. But I rarely stare at someone's face while fencing- I have other concerns.

I had a coach who spray painted his white on a regular basis. Not sure why, but he did.