Hi everybody!
In the coming months, I'm planning on ordering a pair of 15th/16th century Gothic-style gauntlets, custom made to my specifications. I'm waiting on a response from an armourer in the Ukraine (there are none in my area that are even remotely affordable, sadly) but while I do that, I've been looking around at various gauntlet designs, both historical antiques and modern-day reproductions. And in that time, I've noticed that almost all of them seem to have very similar construction, barring one aspect - the fingers.
A lot of modern-made Gothic gauntlets seem to have "scaled" fingers, where several smaller plates are layered over eachother like lamallar, like this nice looking reproduction pair made by Wulflund:
But a few of them - more noticeable with actual historical antiques - have "plated" fingers, where each finger section is protected by a single plate, connected by knuckle sections, like this frankly beautiful antique pair that I'm honestly in love with:
There doesn't seem to be any real difference in cost regarding modern day items, but the plated fingers still seem to be a lot more common. My question is this: From a protection/comfort standpoint... Is there any real difference? Visually, I prefer the plated fingers, and that's what I'm going to be ordering for my own pair in the coming months. But I've always wondered if there's any actual advantage or disadvantage to either style, or if it's just a purely aesthetic subject. Or, alternatively, if one style is just easier to make than the other. I'd assume that the scaled fingers would be easier for an armourer to create as they're a lot more modular when it comes to measurements. But the fact that pricing doesn't seem affected by it makes me question that.
Hope somebody's got some info to slate my curiosity! I'll be doing a review of the gauntlets I
do order. Ideally I'll have them some time around March, provided the smith I'm talking to responds in a timely manner.
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