Monthly Archives: October 2020

Constructing Gothic Gauntlets with Droop

One of the things that many gauntlet reproductions don’t do (or do badly) is “droop” – the level of extension needed to break the wrist “down” toward the fingers. Wade Allen has a nice 1480 / 1490 gauntlet, and also has a nice photo showing what these should do:

Wade Allen's A213 Gauntlet

It isn’t much, but it’s enough so that the gauntlet won’t bind, and the limit of movement may be enough to keep wrist locks (or for fans of Fiore “keys”) from working well. This post will go into how I build gauntlets to make sure that I have enough “droop” and also get into how I set the slotted rivets to allow lateral movement, since this style of gauntlet is extremely close fitting, and requires approximately 1″ (25mm) of compression so that movement is not hindered.

Layout and Patterning

While computer assisted laser and water-jet cutting optimizes the layout to minimize metal wastage, in general you will waste considerably less metal (and time) if you make sure to have at least 1/2″ of space around each piece. While closer spacing uses less material, it doesn’t take a lot of mistakes (cutting through and ruining other pieces) to offset the material savings, and tight tolerances here will require more cutting time – and time is probably the most valuable component of these gauntlets: my cost breakdown was roughly $2 for leather, $15 for gloves, $3 for rivets (7 dozen rivets, more than half of these brass) and $5 for steel (largely 0.040″ / 1 mm / 20 Ga stainless steel)

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