Let me preface this exhibition of the gloves I have used, do use and will use for sparring with the longsword with this, all I ever asked from my gloves is that they keep my hands in a shape where I can carry on fighting. Well and being able the participate in the exams at the end of the semester, but that's more of a seasonal thing.

In that respect all of the gloves below have stood up great, even with very heavy duty sparring the worst that happened was the occasional blackened fingernail. And with some of the markings on the hilt of my blade - hits that did strike between my hands - I'm quite glad all those gloves did so well.

I could of course have chosen armoured gauntlets or those hockey or lacrosse gloves, but the first ones are to expensive and to heavy for my taste and the latter ones result in very restricted movement.. but we don't have to go over this, there are thousands of posts on here talking about which glove to use.
I just want to have a reason to show some pictures.

So here we go. If I can I will provide various pictures of the gloves in question to show wear and tear.
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First gloves after 3 Months

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First gloves after Right 6 Months and Left 2 years

These were the gloves I bought when I started fencing, just about two years ago. For those interested, I got them here, that shop won't be much use outside Germany or Austria, but at least you get to see what they looked like new.
The only problem is, the leather is crap. It is so weak it will rip, tear and disintegrate just by rubbing your finger against the guard - as you can see very well on the right glove.

So obviously the right one had to go after only six months, the left one shows some wear and has been (poorly) sewn up between the thumb and index finger a couple of times but is still very usable.

To replace the right glove, I came up with this.
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The Hand of Frankensteins Monster. 1mm thick leather armoured with plates from the same hide, hardened with bees wax. Sadly, I forgot to take WIP-Pictures but that was my first attempt at making gloves and working with leather in general so I was occupied enough with the making of them. The black thing hanging out on the picture below is a cheap thin leather glove I had lying around - the other one of that pair was cut open at the seams as a template for the armoured one - and it gives just that extra bit of padding and makes for a very snug fit.

This is what it looks like today, after about one and a half years of use:
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Some of the plates and most of the rivets have gone and the seams show me that I am no tailor. They still hold up and when push comes to shove I'll still use them, you won't break fingers in those.
But I notice, that I risk some hits on the hands because I needn't fear injury. Thus I hope to pay more attention to my hands with the new gloves.

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I can't really tell you much about these at this point, I only just bought them today but some of the people I fence with already use these and I haven't heard any complaints. They seem reasonably close to the first ones I used but much more durable. Also they look like Darth Vaders gloves, that's a plus.

I hope you enjoyed seeing these and I'm curious what other people use and even more so how these gloves look after the felt the ravages of time - and some swords.

Care to tell where you got the latest pair? I share your opinion on hockey / lacrosse gloves but haven't found any alternatives that are both affordable and capable of offering similar resistance.

The padding of these black gloves does seem rather thin...

Got them on a medieval Christmas market, the arms dealer from our group has a stand there. He also has them on his website, but there is no supplier given and he only ships to Germany. I know they are made somewhere in spain, but that won't help much.

I can tell you how much good the padding does and whether it suffices or not after I tested them. If not, I'll probably armour them with in a similar fashion to the completely self-made glove.

I always enjoy seeing others' home-made armour. It has such an industrious air about it. :D

I've no recent pictures of my equipment, but for sparring I use a pair of steel gauntlets (these) with some leather working gloves sown in. The gauntlets have protected my hands well, as is appropriate, although the hinge holding the thumb-piece together with the rest of the gauntlet has been broken off on the right one. I've bound it together with steel wire as functional fix, but it's only temporary since it tends to unravel itself during intense grappling.

The surface of the steel gauntlets have received some marring and scratching too, but I don't mind that at all. :)

Edit: Oh right, and I also intend to replace the modern interior gloves with these ones from GDFB. I've got two pairs and I really like them. They're certainly more period than these, eh? :)

Hi Marik,

I enjoyed your short history of gloves very much. I may add some of my gloves and gauntlets I wore in my last ten years of swordmanship. I started with simple leather gloves from the hardware store, but realized pretty fast, that they were complete rubbish and offered no protection against steel.

So I began to use some light mountainbike gloves for shinai-sparring. They are pretty used up by now: the leather at the palms desintegrates and my fingertips gradually poke through the fabric. However they were much too thin for steel sparring, I realized as soon as my right index finger bled through the fabric once... :mad:

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Then I tried maille mittens from Ulfberth, but realized they are to cumbersome for historical fencing. I use them nowadays only for show combat at fairs and medieval markets.

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For sparring with steel blunts I do use now these LaCrosse gloves. They were cheap and do protect the knuckles quite well. I had no bruises since I use them.

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Well, this year I advanced towards steel protection and had Christian Wiedner replicate these gauntlets from the Kienbusch-Collection (~1490). They offer great freedom of movement and are quite light too. I do work on a pair of deer leather gloves to go with them, so I can finally wear them. I'll post some pics as soon as they are finished.

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Hope you enjoyed my little collection! :D
Thomas

After three weeks of sparring I'd like to give you an update on the new gloves.

First of all, the first fights were a bit uncomfortable, they need to be broken in first.
But then again, if you buy new boots and instantly go on a hike your feet will protest as well.

The protection is about equal to my first pair of gloves, direct hits on the fingers will hurt and if a nail is hit it will certainly leave a mark below the nail but that's about the worst one will suffer wearing them.
And until now they show no sign of wear.