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Old December 5, 2004, 10:39 PM   #17
stevelyn
Senior Member
 
Join Date: May 19, 2004
Location: Fairbanksan in exile to Aleutian Hell
Posts: 2,655
About three years ago another officer and I had the opportunity to informally test the stab resistance of top of the line IIIA ballistic panels.
The result was my tanto blade S&W Special Tactical went through with little effort. I used quick overhand short stabs and even tried pressing the tip against the material and then pushing it through. The other officer's Benchmade Mel Pardue was just as effective w/ it's blade configuration. I probably don't need to tell you that broadhead tipped arrows and crossbow bolts will whistle through them like they're not even there.
We did find that the material was extremely slash resistant. A person doing slashes only would probably tire themselves out long before they ever drew blood.
However you need to remember the weave used in body armor fabric differs between stab resistant and bullet resistant. The materials used are usually the same. The weave in ballistic panels is designed to absorb bullet energy and disspate it outwardly taking away it's penetrative ability.
Fabric used for stab resistant panels is woven in a manner that binds and ties up the point of a sharp instrument impeding penetrative ability and requiring more force to be needed to penetrate.
That's why a ballistic vest gives little or no stab protection and stab resistant panels give no ballistic protection. Which is the main reason combo vests are much heavier and thicker. They have to put in layers of panel material with both weaves.
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