Sometimes great things can come from unexpected places. When our friends at kommandostore.com were hit up by an Italian scuba diving company for CBRN-Rated Gas Masks a few years back, they were very intrigued. Mestel Safety, under ‘Ocean Reef Group’, makes the “SGE 400-3” — a gas mask that thinks completely outside the box — a favorite all-rounder on the gas mask market.
SEE THINGS CLEARER.
As usual, kommandostore will be offering the full suite of masks (a CBRN-approved and non-CBRN approved version*), filters, and eyeglass inserts.*More on that later below
A look under the sea – how military scuba diving had an important impact on the design of this unorthodox gas mask…
UNDER-WATER ORIGINS
Ocean Reef Group, Mestel Safety’s parent company, actually specializes in all kinds of equipment for undersea exploration. AndiIt all started with rubber — Giorgio, Ruggero, and Gianni Gamberini worked at a tire repair shop in Genoa, Italy. During their experimentation with rubber compounds at the time, they were approached by pioneer of scuba diving and legend of the Italian Navy, Luigi Ferraro. He wanted to make rubber masks and fins for scuba diving based off his experience. From the successful designs that resulted, a sprawling Italian scuba industry was born.
Commander Luigi Ferraro pictured in his diving gear. He was part of the “Gamma” sapper group, who performed some of the first major underwater stealth operations in WWII with the aid of very-early SCBA equipment. He would go on to sink 3 enemy ships by himself during a long sabotage operation, becoming one of the few people to have received Italy’s highest Naval honor (the Gold Medal) and live to tell the tale. The gif shows examples of some of the equipment he really used, including a damaged Panerai dive watch, and the aforementioned scuba fins. Quite the backstory.
But like all good materials sciences, one of its breakthroughs resulted from a mistake. An “Incorrect” mix of rubber ended up also being the first buoyant rubber compound, incredibly important in the making of flippers.The Gamberini brothers would also pioneer some of the first rubber watch straps, which were a massive upgrade in comfort & security in comparison to leather straps that would degrade in the salty depths.
This is about as good as scuba gear got in the 50s and 60s. On this gentleman’s left hand, you can see his dive watch with a stainless steel wrist strap. While still incredibly popular today even amongst avid scuba divers, they weren’t ideal for military use due to their reflectivity.
Their company Ocean Reef would go on to pioneer the design of the first ever full-face mask for snorkeling use. It featured an almost entirely transparent facepiece with an incredible field of view, which would “float” in front of the rubber that sealed to your face, reducing felt weight. Sounds like these would be great features on a gas mask, eh? They had the same feeling too…
“Mestel Safety”, their medical & safety division, would use everything they learned with their pedigree in undersea engineering, and the very gas mask we’re presenting today would be born. From the depths of the Mediterranean to a position of respect in military & civil applications, Ocean Reef has come a long way, and they definitely earned their spot amongst the best.
COMBAT CAPABILITY
Don’t be spooked by the unconventional design — these masks are tough as nails.Mestel safety tested their masks by barraging the facepiece with, quote, “6.35mm steel spheres going over 300 mph”. For some reason the specificity makes it sound hilarious, but that’s practically like being shot directly in the face with a BB gun over and over and shrugging it off – not bad one bit. So, rest assured, this thing can probably handle some projectiles from common workshop incidents and Airsoft matches.
Probably its most visually obvious feature is, once again, the insane Field of View.It preserves nearly 90% of your vision without significant “warping” and makes it pretty usable with firearms like many mil-contract masks on the market. But when you put on the average military mask, you’ll be stunned at how much you can’t see in comparison.
Having a massive split in the mask reduces the ocular overlap for your eyes and does, in fact, impede your vision right away. It’s why masks like the Avon M50 feature a single unified eyepiece instead of the classic two-piece styled masks of the cold war.
Lastly, these are comfortable to wear over very long durations thanks to the “floating” facepiece design. It allows the rubber to seal perfectly to the shape of your face, and takes the “felt weight” off of your face and onto the harness, where it should be.
We could go on about the cool factor of this mask for a lot longer but if you want to take a closer look at the mask you should investigate the product pages 👇
KNOW THE DIFFERENCE!
An important side note on “CBRN” capability: If you’re looking for the model with 90% of the capability at a reduced price, the silicone-rubber based model is what you’re going to want to pick up. So what’s that other 10%? We’ll keep it simple: the butylated rubber, or just “butyl rubber” adds the ‘R’ and ‘N’ protections to CBRN, (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear) *. *If you’re actually planning on dealing with those extra threats or the ‘blister agents’ that can also bypass a silicone seal, you’re going to need way, way more than just the mask to protect yourself anyways. Think a full HAZMAT suit with chemical tape, gloves, booties. And that’d only be for an hour or two of exposure to some of these more deadly agents. In addition to having the right equipment, the best plan is to simply GTFO.
The TL;DR is that this mask will cover you (literally) in most other incidents where a civilian might want full-face protection, from civil unrest to forest-fire evacuation, and of course common household projects.It’s simple: pick up the ‘BB’ model if you are interested in having the full ‘CBRN’ capability at the cost of slightly reduced comfort.And remember: A gas mask is only as good as the filter you’re breathing through, and we have a plethora of information about the excellent filters we’re also stocking from Mestel.
Another cool feature: there’s 3 different positions for filters to be placed to your heart’s desire.
One other note: the lack of ‘NIOSH’ approval for these masks is a bit misleading. Since these are European-made masks, they fall under ‘CE’ standards, which work a bit differently than NIOSH approval. An explanation of these standards can be found on kommandostore’s product page.
Whether this is your first serious use gas mask with actual pedigree or you’re looking for an affordable alternative to the mil-contract priced (expensive) masks, we’re confident that the SGE 400/3 will be the baby bear’s porridge. Once again, take a look at the product pages — you’ll find everything from sizing info to a free copy of the user’s manual if you’d like to read up.
