Jousting Armour
1. Jousters must wear an authentic replica harness from the historical period that they are portraying. This can be any style of armour from an appropriate culture used within the historical time frame that jousting was practiced providing that it meets at least the minimum standard set by the IJA below.
2. The IJA has a minimum jousting armour standard based on that worn by a 13th century European Knight.
This consists of:
1. Jousting helmets must be made of 16ga or thicker steel in an authentic style from the same period as the jouster’s armour. The helmet must cover the entire head including the face as well as the neck. The front of the helmet should be deep enough to also cover the throat area. The eye aperture must present no more than a ½” width to an on-coming rider.
2. Helmets used for mounted melee combat activities must be made of 16ga or thicker steel styled to the member’s choice that cover at least the top half of the head.
3. All helmets must be well padded so as to provide a secure yet comfortable fit.
4. There must be no protrusions on the helmet, either inside or out.
5. Visors fitted to jousting helmets must be locked closed by a sturdy hook or other suitable arrangement during jousting. This may not be historically correct for some styles of helmets but this compromise has been made for safety reasons.
** We suggest that if a helmet is to be used for a behourd, that it has face protection also.
Shields
1. Shields must be a copy of an authentic style from the same time period that the individual is portraying with the rest of his or her armour and costume. Unless a specific style of shield (which does not match) is required by the tournament organizers.
2. Shields must be made using similar material to the original. This was typically wood.
3. Shields must fit in a secure way and not have any sharp edges or protrusions.
4. Shields must be fashioned in such a manner that will not harm the horse or rider in the event of a fall.
**We suggest a minimum size encranche shield or grand guard of 15”x15”.
Lances
There are no official sized lances for the IJA but here is what we suggest for starting out. 7foot 1.25” diameter hardwood dowels, with 3” of 6” copper tubing on the tip end to be used as a socket for balsa tip. 24” from the butt end, we suggest using leather or something similar to mark out a handgrip.
Balsa tips: We suggest 3’ of medium grade balsa that is cross cut lengthwise, leaving 6” at either end solid. (we do ours on a table saw)
The Joust Field
Once again there is no standard joust field (list field) dimensions.
However we suggest this as it works well:
1. Jousters must wear an authentic replica harness from the historical period that they are portraying. This can be any style of armour from an appropriate culture used within the historical time frame that jousting was practiced providing that it meets at least the minimum standard set by the IJA below.
2. The IJA has a minimum jousting armour standard based on that worn by a 13th century European Knight.
This consists of:
- Underlying padded aketon (with a minimum of ½” of padding over the torso and ¼” over the entire arms to the wrist).
- Butted spring steel or a riveted mild steel hauberk extending to at least mid thigh and covering the arms to the wrist. The maximum internal link diameter for a butted mail hauberk should be no greater than ½” and the gauge of the wire no less than 16ga.
- Rigid defense for the chest. This can take a variety of historical forms including a rudimentary breastplate or a reinforced surcoat. If it is leather based it should be made from at least 10oz thick hardened leather and if it is made from metal, from at least 16ga mild steel or equivalent.
- Pair of padded cuisses (with a minimum of ½” padding) covering the upper leg with an attached polyn to protect the front of the knee made to the same specifications as the chest protection.
- Mail coif either separate or integral with the hauberk (with the same link specifications as the hauberk) covering the entire head (except for the face), neck and extending down to cover the upper chest to the top of the sternum worn over a padded coif (with a minimum of ½” of padding). The front of the neck including the throat must also be covered by at least 10mm of padding.
- Leather gauntlets, preferably backed with mail (with the same specifications as the hauberk).
- *Notes: From the 13th century onwards other items of armour began to replace or supplement the basic mail based defenses described above until the knight was fully enclosed in steel plate armour from about the turn of the 15th century onwards. Steel plate, textile or other authentic forms of armour may be used to replace or supplement the items listed above. For example a steel breastplate or a coat-of-plates may replace the mail hauberk as protection for the torso. Heavier padding may be worn in place of mail on the arms. Because of the great variety of armour styles that are available to us we cannot provide absolute specifications but as a working rule, any item of harness used to replace an item of the minimum level of armour above must provide at least an equal level of protection against impact. As a general rule items of unhardened mild steel harness should be at least 16ga thick on the torso, upper limbs and hand and be no thinner than 18ga on the lower limbs in order for them to replace mail. Items of leather should be no thinner than 8oz and items of padded armour no thinner than ½” in order for them to replace mail.
1. Jousting helmets must be made of 16ga or thicker steel in an authentic style from the same period as the jouster’s armour. The helmet must cover the entire head including the face as well as the neck. The front of the helmet should be deep enough to also cover the throat area. The eye aperture must present no more than a ½” width to an on-coming rider.
2. Helmets used for mounted melee combat activities must be made of 16ga or thicker steel styled to the member’s choice that cover at least the top half of the head.
3. All helmets must be well padded so as to provide a secure yet comfortable fit.
4. There must be no protrusions on the helmet, either inside or out.
5. Visors fitted to jousting helmets must be locked closed by a sturdy hook or other suitable arrangement during jousting. This may not be historically correct for some styles of helmets but this compromise has been made for safety reasons.
** We suggest that if a helmet is to be used for a behourd, that it has face protection also.
Shields
1. Shields must be a copy of an authentic style from the same time period that the individual is portraying with the rest of his or her armour and costume. Unless a specific style of shield (which does not match) is required by the tournament organizers.
2. Shields must be made using similar material to the original. This was typically wood.
3. Shields must fit in a secure way and not have any sharp edges or protrusions.
4. Shields must be fashioned in such a manner that will not harm the horse or rider in the event of a fall.
**We suggest a minimum size encranche shield or grand guard of 15”x15”.
Lances
There are no official sized lances for the IJA but here is what we suggest for starting out. 7foot 1.25” diameter hardwood dowels, with 3” of 6” copper tubing on the tip end to be used as a socket for balsa tip. 24” from the butt end, we suggest using leather or something similar to mark out a handgrip.
Balsa tips: We suggest 3’ of medium grade balsa that is cross cut lengthwise, leaving 6” at either end solid. (we do ours on a table saw)
The Joust Field
Once again there is no standard joust field (list field) dimensions.
However we suggest this as it works well:
- 120’ centralist with 10 additional feet on each end as a stake down. (140’ total)
- We use 5, 6’ poles with a rope strung across the top as our center line. We keep it so high so that it discourages low hits and horses bringing their heads over the centerline.
- We also use 100’ with 10 additional feet of stake down at each end for a counter lists (outside lines) to keep the horses running down a lane. (120’ total each side)
- We use 5, 4’ poles with a rope running across the top on each side.
- We then use flags and flagpoles to mark out the end of all of the ropes. 10’ to mark the center ropes and 5’ to mark the counter list ropes. This makes it easier for the riders to know where those ropes are and avoid them. We also assign a color to each side – usually red and blue- to make it easy to announce, ie: Mark to the blue side, Scott to the red.