How combined ballistic vests work

hello so this is gonna be a video all about body armor and what I want to try and do in this video is explain how the sort of surplus police body armors work for anybody who's interested in buying them because now and again people ask questions about these where it's not really clear until you actually physically look at one how they work now there's different kinds of body armors we'll go over that to start with if you get stab-proof vests which are obviously as the name implies designed to stop knives you have ballistic vests which are designed to stop bullets and then you have what I'd call combination vests I don't if that's their real name and that's what this is a most modern police body armors on so a combination vest is where you try and add both stab protection and bullet protection to a regular vest and how that works is you have a panel of Kevlar and if you don't know what Kevlar is is incredibly strong sort of a fibrous weave material and the idea is the Kevlar stops bullets the reason it stops bullets is because it's got so many layers woven together that when a bullet tries to crush it away free Kevlar it flattens out on the Kevlar itself before it makes it all the way through obviously you need to figure infector Kevlar for sort of higher ballistic frets so level 2 Kevlar or level 2 a Kevlar which most of police vests are because there's a sort of comfortable lightweight ones would stop pistol rounds really at most they'd be level one Kevlar but I don't think anybody uses that anymore because they're so obsolete level free Kevlar is what stops the games the majority of pistol rounds on some rifle rounds but again that's much bulkier and heavier I think in theory there might even be level 4 Kevlar which is again a step up now the issue of Kevlar is of course that because it's a soft panel body armor Kevlar is actually flexible which makes it really great for wearing like this and being comfortable to wear this vest I'm wearing has both the front and back Kevlar plate in and those Kevlar plates with the vest carrier probably only weighs of our kilo or something so it's very comfortable to wear this it supported out my shoulders on my waist this vest so Kevlar lightweight and it gives good protection the issue is it doesn't protect you from shop very well so if I project whole cane would hit me really hard say a bullet if the Kevlar stops the bullet the force of it hitting me may still kill me from you know the shock to the organs or whatever else so that's where you have play carriers modern military vessel normally a combination of Kevlar panels and ceramic plates or steel plates and the idea of those are the when the bullet hits it the plate absorbs a lot of the shock and the Kevlar stops the bullet or a combination of the two so what these vests normally did a combination vest is they've got the Kevlar layer obviously and I've just explained that they normally have what's basically chainmail and the chain males protect here it's noise Kevlar is very good against stopping bullets it's good against stopping knives but not brilliant in a sense that if you had a careful our panel and you shove the knife into it the Kevlar would certainly slow to blade down but you need quite a thick bit of Kevlar to fully stop a blade whereas there are other you know harder things are better at stopping blades than chainmail as good as it was back in the Middle Ages is stout still now used in one sense in these vests so what I want to try and show you is what the vest looks like of chainmail and I've got one that I not use of ballistic tests and stabbing tests so I know what my vest will protect me against you can buy two Kevlar panels on eBay themselves normally for a 20 or 30 pounds of these vests so for pricing wise you can normally buy you surplus police vests from anywhere between 30 and 40 pounds upwards depending on what type of vest you want I've got one of the older types these are withdrawn from service because the issue of these vests were that they didn't really cover your belly so I've got around that in a very easy way I bought one for a size or suddenly a bit taller than me that way it goes down low enough that it covers most of my belly and there's actually a perfect shoulder fit as well because I'm quite broad shouldered for not being all that tall so by going for one that's about suddenly approaching six foot well I'm about 5'4 ie actually fits me shoulder wise and it's low enough that somebody can't cut my guts open with the vest so what I want to try and do is show you what the police vest look like the panel inside then I'll get you the open panel where I can quickly do some stab tests and show you how it works okay so I've got the vest on here for the rear panel is the my back but here's the front bit the vest now this is it here so if I undo does it we can look into the best and what we've got here is a waterproof bag for the Kevlar and you've got the label here if we can get it no I'll just take into the cameras angle closer I can actually take the panel out the vest if it's not too difficult sometimes gonna be a bit of a pain to get back in there so I don't want like taking them out but ok here we go all right here's the Kevlar panel now this is made up of two things you've got this is the side that faces the body as far as a more yeah we're two side towards body he goes where it says it's a level two vest so it will stop nine millimeter Full Metal Jacket at three hundred ninety eight meters per second 1305 blah blah blah 357 Magnum you know and all lesser frets it saying that's the best it can do anything else it will stop obviously higher performance rounds if they're shot from further away it could stop as well but the idea is that they say this is what it can stop at this range anything that's you know less energy at further range it will stop as well and it says integer addition to to stated a specific ballistic specification stated above this panel will provide protection against edged and pointed weapon frets to hecho s DB level k r1 or twenty five joules maximum minimum energy so basically what this is saying is that as well as giving you ballistic protection that's the Kevlar bit this gives you physical protection and you won't be able to see it from the liner and I don't want to cut the liner open but if I feel that I can feel that there's you know something on here there's not Kevlar and this will be the chainmail type stuff so what I'm gonna do now is I'm going to get I'm going to put this back in my vest and then I'm going to get you one these panels that's totally open and visible so you can actually see what the panel would look like underneath this protective layer okay so if you open one of those plastic packets up you'd see something like this you've got your actual kevlar layer that's behind a chainmail and you've got the chainmail here and as you can see there's lots of air rifle pellets that have been shown to the chainmail holes in the chainmail where I've tried testing it against various things and if you look at the back you can see where I've successfully got through a couple of times now what I will say is with the actual stab vests lots of those offer what they'd call I think it's something like puncture protection or pick protection or something like that I think it's spiked threat they call it and what that is is basically the issue of a chainmail vest is it will stop most blades and as far as I'm concerned generally if you're going to be stabbed while wearing on these vests on he's probably gonna come over your normal knife that'll protect you fairly well from this and the chainmail in front of the Kevlar well it doesn't protect you against is something like an ice pick because the ice pick is small enough that will go through between the chainmail rivets and it will have no issue going for the kevlar kevlar in general is more vulnerable to a spike wrap because um holder penetration goes through the panel and simply you know a big sharp blade in all honesty so obviously chainmail was like that if you're not feeling it familiar of medieval male it is literally exact same things made modern machinery and very very good so yeah the male protects from slashing and stabs because a blade needs a lot of force to get in between the coils and break them and the idea is obviously that when you've got one of these vests on the force of the blade trying to get through to male and then trying to penetrate the Kevlar will mean you get enough protection that the blade won't go through and if it does go through it should only make a shallow wound into the person wearing the vest rather than actually going all the way through so that's how it works now what I'm going to do is get a chopping board out and just stab a couple of knives into this to demonstrate how well it works now I'll see where I'm going to do this I might put some newspaper behind it but for the most part I'm just physically showing you how while the vest works because what I've done these tests before people have gone you need to test it on something soft for it to be a valid fifth point I'm simply testing the vest I'm not testing what would be like if you were wearing it and you got stabbed I'm simply testing you know how well with the vest resist an edged weapon going into it you know at point-blank range on a hard surface if you're on a hard surface it's actually easier for the blade to penetrate because the vest can't move away from the blade as it comes down when it's got flex if it was against a soft object like a person it's actually harder for a blade to penetrate because as the blade goes down the vessel moves out the way of the blade so generally when we've done stabbing tests with these panels we found if you put them on a hard object and stamp through you're more likely to get fruit and if you have it on like something like soft foam and stabbed through now obviously are saying it depends on the speed of the impact coming through and the head Tumbo very kind of while ago sent me these crossbow bolts he made I tested one those against Kevlar it went from really easily even from my 40 pound recurve crossbow but to give you an idea that was like an actual spike fray it was like a chisel or a nail file he'd sharpened to the you know like a needle point like a bodkin arrow so if you had a bodkin yeah sure you don't eat as much energy to get through however when I tried it with even my 175 pound compound crossbow that shoots at something like 360 feet per second a big heavy bolt from that going really fast with a regular arrow tip on it could not get through the ball actually been horribly on the Kevlar so what maps or teaches you is the these vests give you very very good protection unless somebody has a very specific tool to get freedom now in theory you could further reinforce one of these I guess by getting a chopping board or something like that Mike weapon collector is done a Regan video and it provides that protective gear you could put like a chopping board if you've got a thin one that fits in front of the panel in the vest and then you've got even more protection because you have the sort of chopping board to give you quite a bit of protection because they're obviously designed not to see I accidentally cut through them when you're chopping vegetables all over them right in the front of them if your chopping board then you can have your chainmail engine if your Kevlar panel I don't think anything's really getting through that that's not a firearm so there you go so let's stop talking about this and let's get the e stuff and do a test on the vest itself right hopefully you can see a testing area I'm gonna put the chopping board on the floor that's where I use to test my knives to see if they go into it so just demonstrate that more a knife didn't actually drop into the chopping board but the idea is that this is the board I use to test knives sometimes so I'm gonna have this chopping board then I'm just going to put a load of newspapers underneath make it maybe a little bit softer or more accurate if that's what people want then Kevlar is going on with the chainmail here so is that fully in frame so it's fully in frame right I'm only going to test a couple of knives on this because I don't want to damage any of my knives to be quite honest and I noticed things really hard to get through I'm going to aim for somewhere that's actually you know got the chainmail covering at how it should be then I'll flip it around and just demonstrate what a knife does to Kevlar out the chainmail in the way so let's do this all right that's gonna dumb absolutely nothing yeah absolutely nothing got stuck in the chainmail let's try again again again that's not having any luck getting throw at all the chainmail blocks the blade with like only a centimeter or two going through and then the blade can't get any further so let's flip this round and then this is what happens now see that's gone through two Kevlar a bit by doping is even on freudian tied away no honey so what this hopefully demonstrates is that the Kevlar itself is actually fairly good at stopping blades but the chainmail in front is the main thing the chainmail stops the blade actually getting very far in at all and then obviously the blade can't do much right just to demonstrate more of a needlepoint blade am I going to get my fair bind Sykes out and then I'm gonna stab it with that a couple of times because that sometimes can get through of a good enough thrust if not it will at least demonstrate to you what the Kevlar is weak against right time to do this of the FS life so hopefully you can see that this is an actual proper sort of dagger very very renowned for its piercing point so let's try this again that's already gone forever in how does it manage to penetrate the other side of the vest not quite yes try again I think the very tip is gone through all this but that's about it if I demonstrate it this way around you'll still see how the chainmail does a really good job of stopping it so again the blade can't get very far because the chainmail has blocked it from knitting so hopefully this does demonstrate to you just how good these aren't just some frightened newspapers again that's actually pierced through not by very far bear has done free now to show you what would happen if you just put this into a wooden board yeah it's just gonna stick in like that so hopefully this demonstrates you just how good this Kevlar stuff actually is if you're buying it on the cheaper surplus so yeah this Kevlar stuff is really good these police vests as said I think this one only cost me somewhere between thirty and forty pounds I actually did EDC us at one point when I went to work I was in a bit of a dodgy area once you get friend for money a few times you think it's probably a good investment to get one of these vests great thing about these as well is because they're not too bulky you can actually wear them under the coat and you actually just look a bit rather than them you know that you're actually wearing a vest if you're worried about people noticing you wearing a vest now said some of the models the police have a better than others generally the actual Kevlar panels are pretty much the same thing in every vest it's just some of the carriers are better I've noticed when I've actually looked at policemen walking around the vests a way and they all seem to sit a lot tighter to the body I think they're elasticated in more areas as probably more comfortable to wear might be a bit more a breathable material I don't know but these vests are absolutely fine fort they are and I said you can buy the replacement Kevlar panels Kevlar is one those funny things a bit like with respirators or gas masks where they have kind of like a factory shelf life that they last far far longer than but the police have to get rid of the MAL for a certain amount of time so you can buy Kevlar lips in perfect condition will work absolutely flawlessly but the manufacturers have like a date on it that they're not meant to use it long and I'm just in case something goes wrong the best and apparently that's one of those things you know to keep selling more Kevlar they've kind of got one of those rules where it currently expires you know when it doesn't so anyway that's what one of your panels would look like if it was brand new and I am you know completely mush this one up by hitting it with so many different things it'd be that way in so chainmaille side always faces out because that's the side that's designed to stop a blade coming in minutes give me a really stupid thing to do but there you go that's what the Kevlar is designed to do works absolutely flawlessly I said and as I saying this is gonna stop the vast majority of my threats I think you're going to encounter in the United Kingdom at least people would be the kitchen eyes on it as more as not kitchen knife but close enough I said most chavvy sort of gang things are going to be carrying kitchen knives or whether maybe machetes this have stopped a machete fine obviously your neck and head wooden or your arms but blade slicing this is even less effective than a blade slashing is even less effective and trying to stab through it but yeah Kevlar is very good for it is and it does have its limitations I said if you're buying body armor make sure you can check the labels and know exactly what kind of protection level it is you want the combined vests in my opinion alpha both ballistic protection and stab protection and also saying the actual stab vest it even better because I think they have like a really thin sheet of polycarbonate or something in the front of whatever kind of material they use the idea being that that gives you spike protection because as I was saying enough force on an actual sort of screwdrivers high point and can get through one of these but it requires you know a very good wind up hit at just the right angle to get free and as saying I don't think most criminals that might attack you if you're wearing one of these vests would actually be you know having specialized armor piercing kits and if you're fighting back you know it's gonna really prevent some of you getting good hits into your vital organs so hopefully that answers some questions about these vests they will absorb a bit of shock as well but don't rely on that now saying if you actually had one of those thin chopping boards like the plastic type chopping boards you've put that in front I actually think I would offer you even better protection if somebody took a really good hair your own chest or something like that because that's gonna like would like an actual plate carry on absorb some of the shock probably her the other person's hand more than it hurts you also if you're wondering about flak jackets it depends on the generation of flak jacket the flak jacket I have is an old Northern Ireland one that's made of something called ballistic nylon ballistic nylon was used before Kevlar was discovered it's basically the same idea for ballistic nylon has to be even thicker to offer the same level of protection from Kevlar at one point there were these things called barrier vests which were pre Kevlar actually bulletproof vests made from thick pieces of ballistic nylon with a couple of like metal plates sewn onto them in places and they could protect you from lots of pistol rounds and things like that but if you have a modern flak jacket they normally are made from Kevlar so it would be a very similar thing to one of these normally flak jackets give you a bit of neck protection as well in case shrapnel gets you in the neck yeah for most and most part if you're interested in getting body armor the easy and cheapest way to do it is generally just to fight a good like grade a second-hand police vest with the Kevlar pilot panel still in them because if you're buying secondhand Kevlar panels in good condition and normally like twenty to thirty pounds each times that by two for front and back protection that's already forty to sixty pounds so if you can get the carrier with the two plates in feet forty pounds that's a bargain in my opinion like I said something like this could save your life and they're very easy to actually find online and find them in all sorts of sizes normally these are bought by private security firms on to the police get rid of them so like balances and security guards and things like I actually have a bulletproof and stab proof vest and I should stress that they're not actually bulletproof and stab proof I think resistant is the word you only use bullet resistant stab resistant they can always be penetrated but the higher level of protection of st offers the harder and harder it gets to get through obviously most crime is opportunistic crime which means a criminal goes for an easy target if you've got one these vests on are definitely not an easy target if it comes to somebody trying to actually stab for a little something like that alright hopefully that's answered questions on these vests as I said it's basically one of these inside combined chainmail and Kevlar vests to give both stab protection and ballistic protection you

Channel: Weaponsandstuff93

Views: 2,341

Rating: 4.9411764 out of 5

Keywords: weapons and stuff 93, Weaponsandstuff93, stab vest, stabproof vest, stab resistant vest, bulletproof vest, bullet resistant vest, kevlar vest, body armour, body armor, police vest, ballistic vest

Id: 5hZIJ8UnJk8

Length: 20min 11sec (1211 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 14 2018