Stab Vests and Spike Protection

Stab Vests Must Provide Spike Protection

Spike protection cannot be guaranteed with stab vests or any other body armour. Shanks, spikes, ice picks, sharpened screw drivers, spiked clubs and strong hypodermic needles can indeed penetrate them if they are not offering specific, and more importantly CERTIFIED protection from such threat.

Interestingly, the need for spike protection was identified by prison and corrections officers, who were at serious risk from injury from spiked weapons. It was due to those operational risks and threats faced by the officers, that in the mid-1980s the California Department of Corrections issued an urgent requirement for all stab resistant body armour to be tested against a commercial ice pick.

The test method attempted to simulate the dynamics and force used by an attacker using a spike, intending to cause maximum harm or death.

Growing Risk From Spike, Shanks and Double-Edged Knives

However, society has changed, and some will argue not for the better. We can clearly identify a global rise of knife crime, and we have to accept those sometimes incredibly brutal attacks have become more frequent over the past ten years.

In addition, we can clearly see a change in the type of edged weapons now being used in organised crime and terrorism, many of which are double edged blades. These blades perform very similarly to a spike or ice pick, they have been specifically engineered to enter another person’s body using minimum effort, with little or no resistance.

Attacks using double edged blades like the ones above are becoming more and more frequent these days, partly because they are so easy to purchase here in the UK and most other countries. After a simple web search, you can find an array of some of the most dangerous types of edged weapons, and you can even benefit from a next day delivery service, with minimal vetting.

From the body armour technology point, these double edged ‘daggers’ and blades are exceptionally difficult to protect from. This is the moment when certified spike protection is crucial, as there is physical evidence that a body armour can withstand such threat!

When it comes to stab vests, it really is extremely important to understand that they are very particular in the kind of threats they protect against. Stab vests without certified spike protection will be useless in the event of an attack using some of the truly horrific spiked weapons violently pointed at some of our colleagues. 

In my personal, as well as professional opinion, it is no longer justifiable and neither ‘morally appropriate’ to produce or supply stab vests without certified spike protection. The fact of the matter is spiked weapons are being used by those who commit serious crimes, and those individuals will not refrain from brutally attacking a security professional or law enforcement officer, either to avoid arrest or identification.

The Next Generation in Stab Vests

This is exactly why we have decided to say ‘goodbye’ to our previously very successful polycarbonate-based stab resistant body armour, others may well still deem as ‘good enough’. There was a time when we all sat down in our office and we concluded that the performance of our body armour must be further improved so we could continue claiming we are doing our absolute utmost to protect those who protect us:

Take a minute and check out our stab vests:

Technology, as well as design and manufacturing capabilities have improved so much over the past ten years and it was crucial for us to look once again for the very best raw materials, structures and concepts to further improve the performance of our kit.

Following significant levels of time and financial investments we ultimately ended up in creating a real ‘new generation’ of stab resistant body armour made from a specially engineered high performance carbon fibre composite (offering certified stab, spike and impact protection). Now we can feel once again we are genuinely doing our very very best to ensure you return home safely at the end of your working day.

Spike Protection Certification

I can only urge you to request to see an official certification highlighting clearly that the stab vests you are about to purchase is offering certified spike protection, unquestionably required by those men and women charged with protecting us, our venues, events or infrastructure.

Failure to do so may well cause you a serious moral, legal, financial nightmare at some point in the future. 

Please contact us for more information.