I keep seeing those TV commercials for house alarms.. A young women with a child is in her house, she turn on the alarm. You see a prowler outside. He kicks the door in, the alarm goes off, frustrated, he turns around and runs away. Sure, it could happen just like that, but the thug is already in, ten feet from the potential victims, and he just got pissed-off..
I have been pretty busy forging, with the completion of a scimitar inspired knife out of a railroad spike, hardened in water, and a sort of tanto for my friend Phil who provided me with steel for a new anvil and helped me build it. The tanto was differentially hardened vi the clay method using Satanite refractory cement and transmission fluid for the quench.
There is much debate about the use of protective gear in martial arts. Many styles only allow light or no contact, no strikes to the face, etc. and therefore do not require protections. What happens when a practitioner encounters violence in real life however comes at a surprise. You have a lot of learning to do in a second while getting pounded in the face by an experienced attacker.. Not the best time to learn taking hits.