Hi all,

I'm thinking about using mitten gauntlets, as a possible solution to the everlasting quest for adequate sparring hand protections. So I was wondering if anyone around here had experience with that and what his or her feedback would be.

Specifically, I'm looking at Windlass' Gothic Mittens. Apparently Hal Siegel over at Therion Arms is satisfied with them. Does anyone here have used them for longsword sparring?

I might also choose to purchase somewhat pricier and probably better-fitting gauntlets than Windlass' "one size fits all" version, however.

Thanks in advance for your help,

Cheers !

Several of our folks use the Merc Tailor mitten, and it is excellent. Good protection and good mobility. I'd go witht he Merc Tailor product...

Gauntlets will either be something you love or something you hate. I've never had a set of really good ones (can't afford it) but I've had poor to sorta ok ones and the sorta ok ones actually allow me some decent movement. the bad ones really restricted me and were a constant source of aggravation. get the best gauntlets you possibly can if you want to use them, because the cheap stuff will make you want to throw them out.

Watch this and take special note starting at 1:24:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muSspi7Vr_8

We've made a few different types of mitten 'shells' out of plastic and leather for wearing over lacrosse gloves. We've had good luck with them. Pretty simple designs based on some drawings of mitten gauntlets from a book on armor. We have been using these with intensive sparring with nylon and steel with no problems, except that the plastic shells were damaged twice by steel feders (very thin hanweis). Henry used these in the Swordfish tournament in Sweden Oct 2010 fighting with steel with no problems.

Here are some photos, you can see how they are attached to the glove in a simple way with shoelaces. Basically they are tied to the glove in three spots, around two of the fingers, around the thumb and across the hand (you can kind of see this in one of the photos above). You don't really notice it that much. You can still use your fingers inside the glove (under the shell if you will).

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J

Jean, I know this is off-topic, but I've been curious about those synthetic wasters shown in your last four photos. They certainly look good, but how would you judge them in practice?

Yeah those are the knight-shop / rawlings swords.

The first batch of the rawlings / knight shop swords were a bit too whippy for us but there is a new 'pro-line' version available, (which you can also get with steel crossguards), which is apparently made of the same type of cast nylon that the Swedes used for their famous Pentti simulators (which are excellent). The pro-line are available from purpleheart armory.

The other ones (with the duct tape) are some crude ones we made ourselves just for our own club.

J