Armor Updates: Demi-Gauntlet

A recent sword strike to the hand was a painful reminder that our equipment breaks down and does occasionally need to be replaced. The constant wear, due to use and storage, broke down the leather of my demi-gauntlet and rendered it into an unusable state.  While comfortable to wear, soft and flexible is not what I want protecting my hands.  In our sport, hands take a brunt of incidental contact from ourselves and our opponents.  I can almost guarantee that if you wear improper hand protection injury is not far behind.      

I'll warn you now that this is an image heavy post, but if you find the pattern to your liking I do have  (S, M, and L sizes) available if anyone needs them.

Creation of a New Demi-Gauntlet

As you can see from the image, on the right, the leather has become quite flexible.  I'm bending down the thumb cap with hardly any effort at all.  While the soft leather is comfortable to wear, it provides minimal protection and needed to be replaced.

The first task was to locate the pattern and the materials necessary to construct my project:  

         
              1/4" leather               

Self healing exact o mat

Rolling cutter

Box cutter

Sharpie

Pattern
Brown leather dye

I then cleaned up the edges of the leather with a beveler, and punched the seam holes with an awl. Next came colouring the pieces with brown leather dye.  When the dye was set I sewed the wedges cut into the thumb. This gave the thumb cup its preliminary shape. To ensure my thumb stays in place I stitched a additional piece of soft leather to form a pocket.  

I soaked the upper in water for 15 minutes and then clamped the thumb to form its preliminary shape. Finally, I sewed the bell onto the upper.  I realized later that soaking the bell briefly would have made it temporarily more flexible, and hence easier to sew into place.  I used clips to hold the pieces together while I sewed, so I would not need to fumble to keep the leather in place while stitching.

The Final Product

When the pieces were successfully sewn together I coated them with Obernauf's to protect and condition the leather. Here is the final result.