The Armour Archive

These are the lastest addition to my kit. The gloves are goat skin with wool padding on the backs and canvas cuffs. The sewing is from my Lady wife. The fingers are Stainless Steel tips and knuckles with mild steel flats. They were bought from Clay Moore in kit form. The rest of the plates are mild steel and made by me. The bluing was done by me. The rivets are all copper. There are some flaws as this was the 1st time I have made a set of these completely. The left gauntlet was my first and has the most flaws. They are serviceable through. I feel they will serve me well though in SCA & WMA.

Nice.

Were the plates in the "kit" sheped? or flat?

Let us know how the goatskin works out. I had some I picked up and found it to be really stretchy, and almost... elastic like. While it was crap for straps and the like, I think the supple features would lend themselves nicely to gloves.

The finger pieces where premade and labled with the holes drilled. All I had to do was assemble the pieces and attach them to the leather after applying the blueing. Those then were attached to the gloves, before the other pieces.

Those are really nice, Magnus! They look like they fit very well to your hands. Thanks for sharing and enjoy!

Looks great!

Is he still offering kits? Mind if I ask how much?
Did you order the SS tips specifically?

Thanks!

Thank you for the compliments!

I specifically asked for a kit form from him for the fingers. I also asked for mild steel fingers with stainless tips and knuckles specifically as it fits with the colour scheme of my arms and the rest of my kit with the mild steel blackend. As for the price I will say it was a good price and you should contact him on the forum for his current prices as I have had these pieces for a few months and he might have had to rise his prices due to material cost. He was very helpful and sent me photos showing the steps in assembly. A great guy to do buisness with!

Nice work, but I have some constructive criticism: The pieces you made yourself look un-planished, and the curves where you cut them out aren't smooth. Planishing requires some armor- [or bodywork-] specific tools, but you could have smoothed out your curves [as opposed to just deburring] with no more than a file. A small, light flat-faced hammer can be used to 'polish' the exposed peened end of your rivets into smooth domes. Finally, and to me most glaring, the creases between the knuckle domes on your metacarpal plates look sloppy. Once you've got those laid in, you can go over the same crease very gently, moving your chisel only very slightly between taps, to tidy it up.

For SCA you'll be using basket hilts as well?

Looking Good, Magnus!

I look forward to seeing them in person next week!

Magnus The Black wrote:I also asked for mild steel fingers with stainless tips and knuckles specifically as it fits with the colour scheme of my arms and the rest of my kit with the mild steel blackend.

I would like to see your kit all together. The gauntlets are seck...see.

LOVE those copper rivets , nice touch. So these are "finger gauntlets"?

Not too shabby, Magnus!

Are you worried about your fingers getting crushed for SCA combat?

Baron Alejandro wrote:Not too shabby, Magnus!

Are you worried about your fingers getting crushed for SCA combat?

From what I see and read above they are Clay Moore finger gauntlets (albeit in kit form) for all intents and purposes, which should be more than adequate for SCA combat...it's all on how they are put together.

I'll whack'em a couple of times next week

Your right Gundo. Like I said I had made a few mistakes. I could have taken longer with the planishing, And my creasing needs some work. I did all the work with a harnour freight sheer, wood hammer handle, a auto body hammer, a ball pean, a leather mallet, a shallow cast laddle dish from ebay, a ground down chisel, a piece of metal bar (the non-pointed end of a broken jackhammer bit) a 4.5 inch grinder and an awl. I also don't have a whole lot of experiance in this. This was the 1st set of finger gauntlets I made and I have also made a set of 1/2 gauntlets in the past with a simular pattern. Thanks for the pointers and the constuctive critisism. When I next do something like this I will definately referance it.

Nope no baskets, once I get some new cross hilts from mandrake.

Roibeard MacNeill wrote:Looking Good, Magnus!

I look forward to seeing them in person next week!

Sorry wont be at Diamonds friend. I am going to WMAW. It likely wont be this close again and I've done Diamonds for 10 years running. Plus my Baroness said it was OK for me to miss it.

whonew wrote:LOVE those copper rivets , nice touch. So these are "finger gauntlets"?

YEP!

Nope not worried at all. I trust em. They are Clay more fingers like Roibeard said and I have them padded with 2 layers of wool, which adds a little extra proctection. I only had a slight sting with my hand laid across an anvil while I hit it really hard with an oak handle. That worse than anything I should see in the SCA realm. They are have a curve to them when wrapped around the handle of a sword which gives them a glancing angle to reduce the impact. I feel plenty safe. Can't be worse than the hockey gloves I've used for years.

Ingvarr wrote:

Magnus The Black wrote:I also asked for mild steel fingers with stainless tips and knuckles specifically as it fits with the colour scheme of my arms and the rest of my kit with the mild steel blackend.

I would like to see your kit all together. The gauntlets are seck...see.

Thanks, I dont have a digital camera, I had to borrow one from Gawin der Fuchs, here is a pic taken by his lady a few months back. The only change will be I will step away from baskets when I can order new hilts, and I will eventually add a belt and dagger to my kit.

Magnus The Black wrote:

Roibeard MacNeill wrote:Looking Good, Magnus!

I look forward to seeing them in person next week!

Sorry wont be at Diamonds friend. I am going to WMAW. It likely wont be this close again and I've done Diamonds for 10 years running. Plus my Baroness said it was OK for me to miss it.

Aw Man!!!!

Well, I do understand...most definitely. You have fun at WMAW and I'm sure we shall see one another at some point within the year...take care!

I got fingers from Clay and put my own gauntlet together. It's all I use when I'm using my saber or mace. Not a problem. Although I did beef up the thumb tip with some help from Mike F. Eventually I'll get the other one put together, but since I mostly use a saber and shield the need hasnt been pressing.

Nice kit, thanks for the picture.

Hey Magnus you actually look slim in that picture

Nice work guy

Vebrand

Looking good M!
Always good to see the up grades!
Thanks for posting!

How about a link to clays site?

nice work I wasn't able to dish my knuckles as far as yours...

Conrad the Mad wrote:How about a link to clays site?

http://members.aol.com/knightsarmoury/k ... rmoury.htm

drakeorion wrote:nice work I wasn't able to dish my knuckles as far as yours...

I dished mine into a lead block with a ball pean and a pin ball. You can pick up lead from your dentist, they use it to back x-rays. Melt it down outside in a coffee can on a hotplate or camp stove and when cool you can hammer a dish into it.