I thought that I’d put together a build list of all the pieces that I needed to cut out and shape for a pair of finger gauntlets. This is also a convenient listing of what order to cut the pieces in (particularly if heat treating) since there is a distinct order of operations to follow. Note that I generally build the fingers first and then attach to the body of the gauntlet, you can also build the body of the gauntlet first, but the knuckle plate fitting will depend on the fit of the plate that rivets the finger leathers into the knuckle, so you can’t finish this fit until the fingers are done – and if you are heat treating that means that this plate is the absolute last plate to get heat treated! I have also included the rivets, and based on this build list a pair of finger gauntlets will use 132 rivets (not including those to hold the glove to the gauntlet = likely another 6 per gauntlet) although the vast majority of these will be “arming nails” for attaching metal plates to leather.

Hinges:

You will need at least 2 hinges to attach the thumb plates. I also Hinge the cuff of my gauntlets instead of the standard buckle and strap for securing the cuff plate.

• 2 thumb hinges (1/2″ x 1″ 3 lobe hinge)
• 2 cuff hinges (1 1/2″ x 3/4″ 4 lobe hinge)
• (12 rivets – 2 each for the thumbs, 4 each for the cuffs)

Fingers:

Finger plates and gadlings are needed for the gauntlet. My personal build list is still tweaking the dimensions of the plates for each finger, but 7/8″ widths seem to be workable for “large” (glove size 10) hands. If you have smaller hands I’d recommend 3/4″ widths. Note that the build list below is for both hands (1 plate for the left gauntlet, one for the right) so if you are building a single gauntlet you need half the number of plates. Note that almost all of these plates are a different size, so there are actually 8 plate patterns and 4 fingertip patterns, although the fingertips are really all the same ground to fit the correct length. The gadling plates are identical (because the widths of the finger plates are identical) and I have moved from a standard 3/4″ x 1 1/4″ pattern to a 7/8″ x 1 1/4″ pattern because I grind the plates to clean them up and the extra 1/8″ helps in the primary shaping and causes less distortion to the plate shape, as well as giving me a bit of “slop” so that I can grind 1/8″ to fit instead of discarding a plate.

• 16 finger plates (8 primary, 8 secondary)
• 8 finger tip plates
• 16 gadling plates
• (80 rivets – all “arming nails”)

Thumb

This is pretty much the same as the fingers, except that the plate that covers the base of the thumb is a teardrop, and includes the gadling for one of the joints.

• 2 thumb tip plates
• 2 gadling plates
• 2 thumb plates
• 2 thumb base plates
• (16 rivets – all “arming nails”)

Gauntlet Body

The gauntlet body consists of the plates covering the back of the hand, the “pivot” plate over the wrist and the gauntlet cuff. If you are using a strap and buckle rather than a hinged (and sprung) cuff then you can delete the items in italics below

• 2 knuckle plates
• 2 finger attachment strips (a strip of 1/4″ to 3/8″ wide 24 Ga)
• 2 main hand plates
• 2 primary compression plates
• 2 secondary compression plates
• 2 wrist pivot plates
• 2 gauntlet cuffs
• 2 gauntlet cuff Wrapper plates
• 2 closure studs (1/4″ round bar)
• (36 rivets – 28 1/8″ x 1/4″ rivets, 8 arming nails to attach finger assemblies to the finger attachment strips)

This will be updated to include a link to the latest gauntlet pattern, which (as of Sept 1/2020) is being updated based on my latest carbon steel prototype.