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My latest aquisition/Need help with gauntlets

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merc3065:
This is what I am having made for me by a blacksmith over in the Ukraine that goes by the screen name of tengushin over at Armour Archive.
14ga hardened spring steel
Sugarloaf style with flip up visor
Brass cross on the front
Lined with a proper heavy duty liner, chin strap
This is what the front will look like

Can't wait to see what it turns out like.

Next question, I need gauntlets that have better thumb protection.
The style I currently own are fingered and do not have my leather glove sewn in.
What happens during sword play is the plates on my thumb will shift towards the hilt of the sword or cudgel and leave the entire side of my thumb exposed.

I got a pretty good whack on the side of my thumb with a wooden cudgel and it drove the rivet from the back of the armor plate into my thumb through the leather.  Just a minor scrape but that really smart.

Is there anything that I can do short of sewing the leather finger straps to the gloves to avoid this happening?

Allan Senefelder:
Not particularly. The more secure the glove is inside the plate gauntlet shell the better put the two will stay together. I learned this personally over the years making for people. For a while never having seen an intact original glove in a period gauntlet we just stitched down the finger tips of the gloves. After a bit the after action reports started comming in and we finally had hands on time with a gloved original and discovered the stiching went most all the around each finger which once viewed in person ( as has so often happened to me and i'm sure to others over the years in the field ) made perfect sense, the more secure the two, glove and gauntlet are held to each other the less able one is to slide, one apart from the other. Additionally sewing to a leather strap riveted around the cuff, or directly riveting the glove to the cuff will help as well and is historical. None of this is really that tough, just ask James or Wulf, the living history buffs here ( theres tons and tons of do it yourself stuff like this done in LH and both these guys have ). Needle and waxed twine or thread, a drill, a bit, some rivets, ann awl and a few washers. A Sharpie marker is always helpfull.

Thorsteinn:
Do you have pics of the gauntlet?

Sir William:
That's a nice helm; Tengushin does good work.

merc3065:
I'll post some pictures of the gauntlet when I get home tonite.
Needless to say, don't use gauntlets when playing with wooden cudgels for back swording practice.  They do a number on the thin scales.

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