The Armour Archive

Were knuckle riders pivot-riveted to the metacarpal plate or were they on leathers?

Also were they used on all fingered gaunts in-period (including Elizabethan), or were they only used for a period of time and another method used at different points?

Thanks,
Christopher

I've never seen one with a floating articulation. I think they're generally riveted directly to the metacarpal.

Nicks right the ones I've seen were riveted on with a single rivet on both ends. I think most , but not all, had the riders, as far as I know they were only used in the late 14th and very early 15th cent hourglass gauntlets.

So by the Elizabethan, it was just the metacarpal plate and finger scales?

What method was used on the rest of the 15thC non-mitten gaunts?

Thanks,
Christopher

Hi ,

As has been stated already, the knuckle rider plate was riveted at each corner of the metacarpal plate. If you are going to make some.......good luck ! They are real pigs to do !!!
Regarding their use however, they were used on hourglass gauntlets of course, but they were also widely used throughout the sixteenth century, and I have seen bridle gauntlets from the mid seventeenth century with them as well.
In the case of 'gothic' German gauntlets of the latter fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, inside the gadlings or knuckle plate there is a small strip of steel that fits the inside shape of the knuckles closely.This is riveted to the knuckles (gadlings), like the knuckle rider plate, only a little further back, and is not moveable. To this plate the fingers were riveted.

Hope that this helps a bit. Good luck with making them

Regards as ever,

Russ

I have a few photos of a harness in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna that shows the construction quite clearly (it is from, as I recall, the early 1500s). The knuckle-rider was shaped like an I - the wider lobes were at either side, and were riveted to the metcarpal and to the first of the lames (4 rivets total for the knuckle-rider). I can post/email a couple of photos (incl. the details of the harness), but first I have to find them...

Best,
Jamie
LU2.DUB.SAR
http://jamie-in-vienna.blogspot.com/

The knuckle 'rider' plate is the little plate forward of the knuckles (or gadlings). This is the plate that the fingers are actually attached to, not the actual knuckles themselves.

Here you can see the plate quite clearly.......

http://www.living-history.no/wahre/hgg3.jpg

Regards as ever,

Russ

I'd love to see those pics, Ushamgal. Thanks.

Christopher