Knees and Shins#

Legs are difficult to defend, and there’s almost always at least one out in front of the body. Fortunately we have lots of options here, as knee and shin protection is not unique to HEMA, and the swords are no sharper than a hockey stick.

Some of these protectors come as combination shin + knees, and others as separate components that can be combined across brands.

Recommendations#

All of the below recommended protectors are accepted by local tournament organizers.

Used Hockey Shins#

The fastest, cheapest way to get shin protection is to see who in your neighbourhood is selling old hockey gear. The hardest part about buying used hockey shins is that the seller will try to sell you the rest of their kit too.

If you go this route, make sure that the protectors cover all the way down to your ankles (or at the very least don’t leave a large gap between the protector and your foot). Hockey protectors may also expose the very top of your knee during a committed lunge, so check to make sure that your kneecap is not exposed during a full lunge or else you will get hit there and it will hurt. This can be mostly mitigated if your pants have an arming strap on the knee that the protector can be tied to with elastic paracord.

Superior Fencing#

The second-most-common knee and shin guards you’ll see at clubs and tournaments are Supfen protectors. You can get their basic protectors from Swordshop or directly from Supfen.

North Armoury and HCA#

There’s an interesting whitelabel shin and knee protector available from North Armoury or from HCA. These offer full shin protection, overlapping protection on the knee, and no gap at the top of the kneecap. They are also fairly lightweight compared to other purpose-made HEMA shin protectors.

If you’re unsure which knee and shin protectors to get, just get these ones. The protectors are held together with elastic paracord, so you should pick up a few extra feet from Fabricland and a pair of scissors in case emergency repairs are needed.

HF Armory#

HF Armory makes a pair of greaves particularly well-suited to taller fencers. The graves can be paired with HFA’s knee protectors.

Plasticsmith Armoury#

Plasticsmith items are made to order, so “out of stock” actually means the production queue is full (and it is almost always full). These are high-quality made-in-Canada greaves that can be custom sized if you have trouble finding something that fits.

KneePro#

KneePro knee pads protect only the knee, as the name implies. These extend above and below the knee, and they’re hinged in such a way that there are no gaps even in a full lunge. You can get a lot of protection by combining these with shin guards.

These knee pads are actually workplace safety equipment, not sports equipment, making them an exception to the don’t-buy-from-Amazon rule. If you really want to buy them from a HEMA-specific distributor, then Purpleheart Armoury has them. The usual caveat applies for Purpleheart: always try to put together a big group order to spread the shipping and customs fees, as this can be disproportionately expensive for small purchases.