What's with the exposed wisby knuckle plate

[boris_]

I often see Wisby gauntlets made with exposed plates like https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3948/157 ... 38bae4.jpg and http://www.bestarmour.com/gauntlets/gauntlets_31a.jpg

Are there any real sources for this?
When i look in manuscripts, I see fully covered plates (like age of craft makes them)
http://manuscriptminiatures.com/4373/7013/ http://manuscriptminiatures.com/search/?manuscript=4373
http://manuscriptminiatures.com/4143/7342/
http://manuscriptminiatures.com/4194/10222/

[Ernst]

The arrangement of the plates, over and under the leather covering, on the Wisby finds is based on the spacing between the rivet head and the plate. Some have a gap over the plate, some beneath.

[boris_]

The arrangement of the plates, over and under the leather covering, on the Wisby finds is based on the spacing between the rivet head and the plate. Some have a gap over the plate, some beneath.

Interesting, can you expland?

[Ernst]

But it (Gauntlet #3) differs from a structural point of view considerably from the former (Gauntlet #2), the iron reinforcing which lay completely concealed on the inside of the covering, in that here the most important parts had been fastened to the outside of the covering. This applies to the metacarpal plate 45, the plates for the thumb-root and the thumb (10-12) and. finally, the guards for the knuckles (24, 21, 32, 16) and finger tips (6, 5, 34, 9). Large and distinct rivets on the concave sides of these parts and the completes absence of such rivets on the convex sides, give perfectly safe evidence of this construction.

As you can see on Wisby Gauntlet #3 in Fig. 412, some of the rivet heads are on top of the plates, like those on the fingers, while others are inside the plates, like those on the plate over the first knuckles.
Fig. 412: http://io.ua/13690933p