Critique My SCA Kit

[Harry Marinakis]

Those gaunlets from the Age of Craft look like they would last a month in my world. I guess I would need to look at more expensive options.

[Henrik Granlid]

Go to Johan1212 here on the archive, he does wonderfully tanky gauntlets.

[Konstantin the Red]

Henrik covered it -- mail onto gamby, put CoP on over that.

Only thing I really considered was the sheer bulk of your present gauntlets. A critical need for protection on the complex wrist joint and the small bones of the digits for me leans the balance between period style to engineering modern safety over to the modern safety.

{"Good Sir, your right gauntlet appears to have its own ringtone..."
"My left gauntlet has a Timex under it! Takes a licking and keeps on ticking! Your pardon, sieur, I better take this call."}

And there's Darkheart Darkwood Armory's thousand-dollar-or-a-bit-less Stealths in heat treated spring. A lot of money into prevention spares a lot of money at the clinic and physical rehab. These are early-fourteenth-looking, leather covered in don't-see-me black, and got a lot of attention last Pennsic -- the stealthy model and the more public sort. All of them kind of Wisby.

[Harry Marinakis]

Only thing I really considered was the sheer bulk of your present gauntlets. A critical need for protection on the complex wrist joint and the small bones of the digits for me leans the balance between period style to engineering modern safety over to the modern safety.

Thank you. Armor is made locally within our household, the gauntlets are "G.I." - general issue. Everyone in our house has these gauntlets. But I will buck the trend and get some more appropriate mitts.

Thank you for your help. Will submit another photo when I re-shape the greaves.

[Konstantin the Red]

Cool idea, looking forward to seeing them.
____________

Make no mistake, the gauntlets as they presently are are entirely suited to twohanded weaponry of any type, and packing a lunch too withal . More minimalist gaunts serve singlehanded weapons well, in that you are propelling numerous ounces less weight with just one side of you, and it's less of a struggle for your arm. But no lunch . Rather sport-armour in philosophy and all-up weight, while still being true to the historical.

Building slimline gaunts, as successors to household giant clams, up from the flat metal wouldn't be any more work for you guys than trying to rework the clams, in fact less, and wouldn't take you off the battle line while getting your gaunts tweaked.

[Harry Marinakis]

Opinions on these gauntlets?

14th Century Wisby Mitten Gauntlets
http://www.anshelmarms.com/gauntlets.html

My armor is "munitions grade" and I think nice gauntlets would be rather out of place. What do you think?

[Henrik Granlid]

Of course they look great for the kit. But at that price point, you coulf just as well go for Grettir or Gruber (Surly Anvil), Mad Matt or Johan Blau (Johan1212) or Darkheart Armoury and have a great pair made in spring steel.


Edit: Johan1212
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=175533
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=173306

Any of these designs work, even the articulated cuff, it is reminiscent of cuffs seen in England and here and there in the rest of western Europe. These badboys are tanks. Reachable through the archive.


John Gruber/Surly Anvil
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=174744
http://www.surlyanvil.com/hands.html

Strong and smooth as hell, made to castsof your hand, bifurbicated or mitten. Beautiful historical look. Gauntlets have fought acl combat far as I am aware. Reachable on the archive as Gruber, Surly Anvil on Facebook.


Grettir t Slow
http://www.eclecticantagonist.com/revie ... gauntlets/

Legends. Not quite historical in shape, but yeah, legends.


Mad Matt:
http://www.madmattsarmory.com/inv_hands.php

Also builds in spring steel.


Darkheart Armoury:
http://www.darkheartarmoury.com/stealth_gauntlets2.htm

There is an archive post somewhere showing these off in every leather colour there is, both blackened and bright polish as well as less or more steel visible. Might be your best bet for a pure Visby gauntlet if you like grounding fingers.

EDIT 2:
Turns out it was Darkwood who also did stealthy Visby and were the ones at pennsic.
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=172796&hilit=pennsic

[Konstantin the Red]

Aha! Was wondering why I was having such a hard time finding the gaunts with Darkheart.
Thanks for all the work sniffing all these out.

My armor is "munitions grade" and I think nice gauntlets would be rather out of place. What do you think?

I don't think so. Good gaunts uplift the whole kit -- not so much by the bootstraps as by the thumbs, you might say. True, they might fill you with rather an urge to see if you can polish the metal brighter or something. What, this is bad??

Really, when it comes to SCAdian harness, if somebody's noting its quality, where do they look most? The helm, and the gaunts. Seems like the nearer they get to the body's medial line the less attention they'd pay. Everything's distal, lateral, the silhouette. Centerline, not so much. In there, we most frequently find the hippie-homebuilt-hardeners. Blue-barrel, sometimes tooled leather for those who want to afford it, butted mail that isn't exactly a hardener, seldom anything so period as a standalone gambeson, which can handle an awful lot of the worst a rattan baton can dish out.

CoP's yes, and perhaps more lamellar than is truly good for us. To really carry off brigandines with historical virtue, we should be resorting to sallets or barbutes, which being less commonly produced don't get chunked out like entry-level bascinets and so are often more expensive. What doesn't appear is 15th and 16th century infantry iron cloche-hats, save over in England and the Continent for the Living History market. We're missing something there.

[Harry Marinakis]

Good gaunts uplift the whole kit --

I should have a new set of Wisby gauntlets that match my kit in about 3 weeks
Thanks for the good advice

[Henrik Granlid]

Who's making them!? I really wanna know! (bubbling with anticipation)

[Harry Marinakis]

I am getting the Anshelm Arms wisby gauntlets with leather cuffs

[Rainald]

Any input on this? I call it my green man kit. The helm has a removable visor.

[Janech]

Any input on this? I call it my green man kit. The helm has a removable visor.

What are you going for in this kit? Is it intended to be fantasy and if not, what year and location are you attempting to portray?

[J. Morgan Kuberry]

Reinauld,
Without knowing what culture and date you are trying to portray there's really no way to offer constructive feedback. The metalwork looks very involved and artistically executed, whatever it is. But I can't say if that's a good or bad thing. Maybe you are the worst looking Irish Kern ever? I just don't know.

[NeeSayer]

Just curious on how my progression is coming along according to the hive mind. Aiming for late 12th C Hospitaller SGT at arms. I know the shield shape is slightly off and at this point may need to be a flat topped kite? The helm is a little fancier I think also than what should've been worn at the time also. Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

Helm off


Without an aventail


Only kit pic I have since putting the aventail back on

[ArchibaltDavis]

Guy! Who was looking for a wisby gauntlets. I found this one https://steel-mastery.com/visby-brigand ... tlets.html
What can you say about it?
I don't have such one, but I have already bought a helmet in this manufacturer. And what can I say? It's amazing! Perfect fit, quality steel and nice price compering to other entrepreneurs. They made all I was satisfied)