Armor for SwordChick

[Sword Chick]

Thank you for your help so far Gentlemen.  I appreciate any help or advice you send my way. 

I'm trying to decide between the finger guantlets, simply for the hand protection  (Das Bill can testify that I haven't found hand protection that I'm happy with yet, so this is a perpetual quest) or the demi-guantlets with the finger bucklers as a part of my kit that I'm trying to put together. 

Would my garish yellow leather gloves be appropriate for either choice?  Or should I quick get a new pair of gloves?   (I'm talking historical accuracy, not aesthetics. )

How appropriate would the demi-gauntlets be with the armour pieces I have thus far?
 

[Allan Senefelder]

Pam I fogot to mention regarding demi's, they can be converted at a later date into finger gauntlets if desired. I've done this 3-4 times for folks in the past.

[Sword Chick]

Thank you, Allan.  That's good to know. 

~Pamela

[Das Bill]

Would my garish yellow leather gloves be appropriate for either choice?  Or should I quick get a new pair of gloves?   (I'm talking historical accuracy, not aesthetics. )

Aside from the fact that I will still tease you about your dish-pan hands, I think yellow would be perfectly fine.

[Sir Edward]

Would my garish yellow leather gloves be appropriate for either choice?  Or should I quick get a new pair of gloves?   (I'm talking historical accuracy, not aesthetics. )

I don't remember if I've seen the yellow gloves. Are they a bright neon sort of yellow or a more natural yellow? I think the latter is fine, historically. During the medieval and renaissance periods, there was a wide range of available colors for dying leather and fabrics, and not all of the bright colors were restricted to the "expensive and difficult" upper-classes. Your yellow seems to be easier and more common than my blue, as blue was definitely difficult and expensive. Since leather is naturally in the yellow-tan-brown sort of color range anyway, yellow is probably not difficult to achieve with historical dyes.

I found this to be an interesting article:

http://www.renaissancedancewear.com/fabric_colors_in_the_renaissance.html

[Das Bill]

Bill, I was so glad that Jason picked up "In the Service of The Duke" at CW '07 from Christian, contained in its lavish illustrations are several examples of finger bucklers ( as well as bevors being used with chaple de fers ). Previously I had been limited to one Italian pair shown in a sculptural effigy as reference. That book is just a wealth of knowlege as far as armour of that period goes!

Agreed! The treatise really has an incredible amount of details for arms, armour and clothing. And on the subject of finger bucklers, you may want to take a look at the 1459 edition of Talhoffer. For example:

[Das Bill]

How appropriate would the demi-gauntlets be with the armour pieces I have thus far?

Hard to say. As Christian brought up earlier in the thread, there is some debate as to whether demi-gauntlets actually existed in the 15th century, or do we just have surviving gauntlets which are missing the fingers (there seems to be more evidence for the latter, as I've recently started learning... we have "demi-gauntlets" that show evidence of where the fingers would have been attached). And the illustrations showing finger bucklers always show them over fingered gauntlets, not bare fingers.

I'm looking at the Mercenary's Tailor site right now. The finger gauntlets and demi-gauntlets both have cuffs that are much more reminiscent of Renaissance armours (very late 15th and into the 16th century), at least to my eye, which would be a little late for your harness. Your harness is more early-to-mid 15th century.

[Allan Senefelder]

Bill there is sculptural/figural depictions of demi's, granted they're one piece of steel based on appearences from the late 14th century of demi thype gauntlets. The depictions i've seen are on common soldiers rather the upper class.

As far as the fingered gauntlets go you are correct, they are late 15th/ 16th century in character. I can cross over the more Milanese cuff of the maille fingered gauntlet to these or the mittens for an earlier mid cetury look, i've done this conversion severl times in the past.

Stop by the NYHFA forum and check out the thread on Hema man.

[Das Bill]

Bill there is sculptural/figural depictions of demi's, granted they're one piece of steel based on appearences from the late 14th century of demi thype gauntlets. The depictions i've seen are on common soldiers rather the upper class.

Oh, I meant in the 15th century.

I can cross over the more Milanese cuff of the maille fingered gauntlet to these or the mittens for an earlier mid cetury look, i've done this conversion severl times in the past.

Pamela, that sounds like a good possibility!

Stop by the NYHFA forum and check out the thread on Hema man.

Oh, I'm sadly too aware of the HEMA man/boy BS. I just ignore it at this point.

[Allan Senefelder]

Oh, I'm sadly too aware of the HEMA man/boy BS. I just ignore it at this point.

Fingured out who it is yet? I have an idea.

[Sword Chick]

For now I'm going to go with the fingered gauntlets simply for hand protection, not to go with my harness.  They'll only need to match my sweatpants and fencing mask. 

[Das Bill]

Fingured out who it is yet? I have an idea.

Nope. I haven't kept up, and to be honest, I just don't care.

[Das Bill]

For now I'm going to go with the fingered gauntlets simply for hand protection, not to go with my harness.  They'll only need to match my sweatpants and fencing mask. 

Cool. Did you go with the standard cuffs?

[Sword Chick]

Cool. Did you go with the standard cuffs?

Yeah, since I'm not going for a period look, I kept it standard, except I chose the steel finish rather than the brass rivets. 

[Sword Chick]

Oh, and I also copied you and David and order the finger shields so that I can wear them as added protection with my Revival Martial Arts padded gloves.