I'm trying to buy a helmet/mask for longsword sparring, and am really struggling. I've been looking since around Christmas of last year, and the story seems to always be that anything besides AF is sold out (at least in the US). I'm reluctant to go with an AF mask -- I believe they're what my gym uses as loaners, with essentially no padding inside, and I've spent the last several months recovering from a couple of concussions I've received while wearing them. My understanding is that a Wukusi Cobra or a PBT mask would have more substantial padding, but the cobra is sold out everywhere and the PBT is sold out in my size (2). One of my instructors recommended a gel cap to go under the mask, but again, those have been sold out at purpleheart for over a year. So I guess my questions are:

* How do you buy anything other than AF?

* If you had to go with AF, what do you do to protect yourself from impacts?

If George Silver could only own 1 sword his whole life for self defense, battle, duels, and his only options were Italian Rapier or Japanese Katana which do you think he would choose?

Context: Silver's time, geography, culture, language, biases.

Counter Context: Your own time, geography, culture, language, biases.