[János Sibinger]

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen!

In the last year I had little time to hear the symphony of the anvil (an euphenism for: to drive my neighbours crazy with my backyard projects). Most of this time was spent on my Wisby gauntlets, one of my first projects. Although they are not a piece of art, and the result -even form my lopsided point of view- could have been better I would like to present my work, and to share my experiences with the community, if You are interested. My main source of information was the book, titled: Armour from the battle of Wisby by Bengt Thordeman .My gauntlets are experimental ones, thus I dare to post the results on these pages. I hope that whoever decides to make these -hopefully- beautiful pieces will find my posts helpful. If She or He does not, I'm here to answer!

About the quality of my english, and the photos...
I am sorry for the grammatic mistakes, I try my best, but my english is not as good as it used to be
The pictures were made during the process with my camera, hopefully I'll be able to make some macro pictures with a normal camera.

I hope you will enjoy this as mouch as I did the making of these gauntlets!

John

Edit: I have attached the requested picture!

[Mikael Ranelius]

I'm about to make a pair of simple gauntlets based on the no1 find at Korsbetningen, have you tried making a reconstruction of those? Do you think 1,2 mm or 18 ga mild steel would do or should I go with 1,5 mm/16 ga?

Can't see any pictures by the way...?

[János Sibinger]

The Idea was to make a simple and good pair of gauntlets for my mid XIVth century kit. After all this work, I have to admit, that it was not that easy at all.
But before I was able to realize it, I had to have something, to act as a chassis.
In this case the chassis was the softer part of the structure!

I have decided to buy a pair of welder gloves, wich comes in a "nice" light greyish blue colour. They are quite cheap, they have long cuffs, and being produced of quite sturdy leather, and in the case of this project, this is really important, since a lot of strain will be put on it.

As soon as I tried on the gloves, I realized, that they have to be modified, since they were loose at the wrist, and long at my fingers, not to mention the unconfortable, wide construction of the thumb, wich limited the movement.

I had no other chance, I had to cut, then sew the parts, to achieve a snugger, yet not too tight fit. You can see the results on the picture below.
I removed some leather from the inner side of the thumb, and I placed the seam perpendicular to the base line of the thumb to the back of the glove. More material was removed from the tips of the fingers, from the side of the palm, and from the wrist area, wich was split on the bottom.

If you are about to sew leather, you need a puncheon, a pointy tool, sometimes it has got a diamond cross section. this is being used to pierce a row of holes, or rather little cuts (due to it's cross section) in a row. The angle of the tool is important. If the little holes are on one line, the thread could cut the weakened leather, and in place of nice little cuts, you'll have a long, torn wound on the leather.
If you place the holes perpendicular to the edge of the leather, the thread can rip them open too.
I used normal yarn, wich was tripled, than I have pulled them a few times on bee's wax. This last, magical material is not an essential need, but it makes your job mouch essayer.

There are two main ways of sewing that I have used in this project.
The first technique uses only one needle. This is being used, when we want to achieve a normal seam, just like on the outer side of trousers, where you can only see a little "groove" but no thread. This is done by turning the material inside out, and sew the two sides, like you were making a spiral with the needle.

The second technique is a bit more tricky. In this case, the result is going to be a flat seam.
First, you pierce the hole, and put the first needle into it, but do not pull it out on the other side. If the first needle is in, put the second one into the same spot, but facing the previous one. Pull both needles out, but only if they are both situated in the same hole. This is important, because if you have done the job on one, than on the other side, you would pull the first needle and thread out with the second one.
It's not that difficult, try it on a piece of spoilage!

Please note, that these are not the gloves, wich were used as the base of the gauntlet. They got way too dirty during the work. (And here is the first mistake I have made! They serve now as a pair of great, cozy gloves in a workshop... Actually the right one is in a hole in the bellows...) The gloves used in later pictures are made with the same technique.

Have fun, and take care!
John

[János Sibinger]

Greetings, Mikael!
No, I haven't tried to reconstruct the #1 gloves, it might have been a mouch better idea!
I have used 1,5 mm (16 gauge) plates for the fist, and the base of the thumb. The other pieces are made of a rusty old, 1 mm thick plate that I found in the backyard of a forge, but unfortunately I do not have experience with the 1,2mm plate.
I do not intend to use my ones in serious combat, and I did not add padding as I sew together the two main parts. (This will be discussed later.)
I would recommend the method that I have used: thicker plates, where you are more likely to get hit, and the deformation of the thinner plates on the fingers due to an accidental, serious blow might consume energy...
I don't know too mouch about fighting in armour, neither about the requirements. I don't know, If the book writes about the thickness of the original pieces, I'll check it out. The only reason that I can give about these gauntlets is this: When you are riveting the plates to the inside of the leather, be patient, or You will have to try mending leather, wich is an almost impossible task in this case. Trust me, I have done it!

John

[János Sibinger]

After I have finished the gloves, the next step was to make the steel parts.
I started with the most difficult parts, wich were the plates for the fists and the thumbs.
I begun the work with the fist plate.

For the pattern, I observed some books, and museum photographs. I decided to start with a simple shape, that seemed to cover my hands even without serious doming, wich I wanted to prevent to keep the strength of the 1,5mm thick (16 gauge) mild steel.

First I domed the surface of the whole plate, especially near the edges, but as soon as I realized that this would not do the trick, I decided to fix a special, very long headed "ball pein" hammer. (Welded together of different car parts.) After this, I have had a surface to work with the metal from the outside to produce a slight raising on the edges.

During the process I worked on the four long humps. They were made with doming, from the inside, over a little hole in a stump of wood. The depressions between them were done with a common locksmith's hammer, over the previously mentioned "ballpein hammer".

As a next step, I started to form the base parts of the thumb. For the templates I studied the previously mentioned book, some other replicas, and museum photographs, than I twisted a piece of paper around my thumb in the gloves. where the base should be, and drew the rough shape of the plate. After some setting and adjusting, the template was in my hands, I only had to transfer it to the sheet.

The shaping of the base plate was quite simple in the beginning, I had to make it fit, but that was all. On the inside, between the thumb and the index, it was a different story...

I had to curve this area and make a little ridge. This was done by hammering the piece over the cross section of a piece of railroad.

The little area, wich is going to be the articulated joint on the thumb is being curved in two steps.
First, you bend the metal out on the surface of the railroad, and as soon as you think that you have bent enough material, you can start bending the first 5-6 mm back. This is only the rough forming of the main parts, the details will be discussed later.

I am sorry for not not being here for such a long time, and for my english too, wich seems to get rustier with every day...
I might need to check out the forums, I'm sure that I'll find something against it!

John