Large HEMA Gloves
and how they fit various swords
I’ll start by saying that I don’t like large gloves. They feel off in the hand. I lose the feel of the sword’s grip, and all I can do is clench the hand or release the hold. I feel less like I am controlling the sword, and more like I am controlling the glove that controls the sword.
But at the same time, I am fed up bruising my hand. Luckily, I didn’t break any fingers yet. However, just from one rapier bout (the opponent was using my Black Fencer rapier), I got a bruise on the knuckle of the thumb, another at the base of the thumb, one more at the base of the wrist, one on the arm and a last one on the shoulder. Well, maybe I should learn to protect my hand properly, but until then, I need better protection, especially for the hand.
Recently, I received my SF HEMA Impact Resistant Gloves from Superior Fencing. I’ll add a few comments about that at the end, but I want to provide some photos and comments about the fit of the glove for various swords.
Trainers
Malleus Martialis Duelist and Marozzo Sideswords
I have the wheel, oval, and fig pommels. The wheel one in particular sits at the base of the hand, allowing for more fine control. This mitigates the lost feeling of control one has when handling a sword through a large glove. The fig pommel feels bad, while without a glove it feels fantastic! So keep this in mind, some hilt elements are better in a glove, while others work better out of one.
The larger side-ring on the Duelist doesn’t pose a problem for the fit of the glove, while the knuckle-bow does impede a little the fit of the little finger. On the Marozzo, both of these are non-issues.
Kvetun Armoury Sidesword 1
A classic trainer at this point. The finger-rings are larger and the grip is longer. Since the wheel pommel sits further back, the glove fits better, however, one loses that control of the sword via the pommel.
Black Fencer Steel Sidesword
As expected, an ovoid pommel facilitates the fit of the glove. However, the knuckle-bow traps a bit the hand in and in the absence of a pommel that rests in the hand some sensation of control is lost. Overall, not bad.
Black Fencer Steel Rapier
This semi-custom rapier fits incredibly well! The corkscrew-like sweeps for the hilt allow for a good fit, without jamming the glove in. I didn’t expect that a rapier of all weapons would work so well with a large glove, much better than any sidesword. The caveat is that in use, the act of wearing a large glove may prove to be too much of an inconvenience.
While I don’t have photos, I have also used a Kvetun Armoury Rapier 2 (not in production at the moment, as far as I know; it has the same corkscrew hilt style, as well as a flat pommel). It too felt great, and the flat pommel resting at the base of the hand made me feel in compleat control. As it turns out, these hilts are a good choice for large gloves, much more than one would expect before tyring them.
Black Fencer Steel Dagger
Not a lot to report here. This is a simple hilt parry dagger that works with a large glove. I can place the thumb on the back of the blade. Moving my wrist in these gloves to use dagger deflections properly, now that’s something else.
Other Swords
I’ll go over some other swords. Either as antiques or sharp reproductions, these swords have hilts that are or are designed to be realistic. We can imagine this oversized glove to be a steel gauntlet and see how well they would fit different hilts.
We can also learn what type of hilts deserve to be adapted for the use of large gloves in HEMA, and which ones should be avoided for this purpose.
Del Tin Sidesword
This Del Tin reproduction of an antique has a hilt that allows for a large glove. We know from paintings that people used these types of rapiers, ones with open knuckle-bow hilts while wearing metal gauntlets. These hilts make a lot of sense to be adapted for HEMA. The finger-ring is a bit too small, but one cm at most to its radius would fix this. The decorative ends for the knuckle-bow and quillons can be simplified, but this is not a big aspect. The pommel is out of the way at the back of the hand, and it feels like when using the sidesword out of the glove.
Del Tin Streak-Sidesword
I love this streak-sidesword out of the glove. The short fluted grip gives me a good feel of the flattened pommel that locks at the base of my hand. This allows me to have good point control while facilitating the cut. This is exactly what I want from this type of sidesword that focuses on the thrust. With a large glove, this is a disaster. The decorated side-rings block the glove, the pommel jams my hand in, and I don’t have any fine control.
The Albion Machiavelli
The simple hilt fits pretty well. Nothing else to say. It feels like a more comfortable Kvetun Armoury Sidesword 1.
Nielo Schiavona
This is a sharp Schiavona made by Nielo after a design I proposed to him. The basket was made to fit a bare hand. If anyone has any doubts, no, the large glove doesn’t fit at all. It’s the worst feeling sword with a glove, one that I can barely grab, let alone use.
Landsknecht Emporium Gottfried Messer
This incredibly sharp messer has a solid pommel cap and, as such, it has a shorter grip. With the glove, I can barely hold onto the grip and I cannot place the thumb on the blade properly. A messer, while it has a simple hilt, it feels worse in the hand with a large glove than a sidesword due to the finer control that is required when using it.
Windlass X Royal Armouries Single-Edged Arming Sword
Matt Easton chose a very flat grip for this piece. When one holds onto the grip, the knuckles automatically align with the edge of the blade. The pommel’s role is to lock the hand in from sliding, and it does that beautifully. This logic works exactly the same way in a glove. This is not a fancy weapon, it’s just something to swing in war.
Windlass X Royal Armouries 14th Century Arming Sword
This is a good piece for I.33. The pommel has its facets at an angle that makes it comfortable to use in the hand, with the meat of the hand resting on the angled facets. One has fine control as he rotates the blade on its longitudinal axis. With a glove, the pommel is too small, and any advantage resulting from its shape is lost. Not a good feeling experience as the previous piece. Maybe that having a large pommel was in itself a sign that the sword was intended to be used in a glove.
British 1796 Pattern Light Cavalry Sabre
Wondering how a sabre would feel in these gloves, I went for an iconic piece. This simple hilt is actually a tight fit, and I cannot use this sabre as intended (i.e. with a saber grip). We know that these were not used with armoured gauntlets, but this in itself should make us think when it comes to HEMA adaptation of hilts.
British 1882 Troopers Cavalry Sword
I wanted to check a different hilt, so I opted for one with a larger steel protection cup. It actually works better than the 1796 model, but that has to do with the grip which is straighter, as it locks in the hand in a more useful way. Still, far from ideal.
Antique Duelling Rapier
The gloves fit quite well with this antique cup-hilt rapier. So chances are that they would fit a cup-hilt trainer just as well. While a cup-hilt trainer wouldn't require the use of large gloves, it's good to know that they may be an option.
My Experience with Superior Fencing
I will be honest, I am not happy, not at all. And it’s not just one thing, either:
First, I placed an order since I expected a relatively fast delivery compared to other makers. It took more than twice that.
They sent a complementary pair of rapier gloves for the delay. The large glove I showcased in this post is in size M, and fits me well. However, the rapier gloves, also in size M, are too small. Why wouldn’t a maker standardise their sizes? My hands are the same!
I asked and paid for my logo patch to be added to a jacket. While I didn’t ask them for it, they tried to do some embroidery of the logo, one that filled in the finger-rings of the sidesword. Between the pommel and the filled-in finger-rings, it looked like a cock and bollocks on a stick! They finally relented and printed the logo as I expected. At that point, I told them not to worry about the background and just make it simple in shape since I was expecting it to be white on white (but somehow, they used different white fabrics; dirt from use will take care of that).
Bad embroidery on the left, versus the correct print on the right. I asked for a modified kit, and I was expecting a lot of pieces. However, some shin guards were not included. They simply didn’t take care to include all the items ordered in the delivery. Redelivery of the missing items is still pending.
Communication is the worst. It took over a week to receive a reply on the missing item. But even before, they had problems. First, they were not using my name when addressing me in emails, making me wonder if another person was equally impacted. But the worst is when they don’t answer any communications for about a month, and list this to be the case on their Facebook (which I do not read or follow), while not thinking to add this in an automatic out-of-office email reply. I will never understand this decision considering that email is the main way to contact them, as listed on their contact details.
I can add bad packaging that twisted the removable protective foam pads inside the jacket, which could have been delivered flat on the side, or product photos that transmit the wrong message due to the sole angle listed on the website. But it sounds like nitpicking at this point.
At this point, I cannot recommend them. They are not that bad when it comes to the items. While some people told me that their quality is hit or miss, I think it’s fine, especially for the price. However, the experience I had with them was terrible.
Last Thoughts
This is a well-protective glove on the larger side. If I want to try Viggiani’s perfect play and take his advice that one needs to put power into beating the opponent’s point well offline, I need to be able to move at full speed. This means that I don’t have control and I will injure others, or get injured in turn. The most problematic are the hands, and this is why I opted for these gloves. For the price, I do recommend them. However, they are another tool in the arsenal of training tools, especially at full speed or with opponents that cannot pull their hilts, but they are not perfect for all occasions, as the feel of the sword in the hand is affected.
I am also using them to imagine how steel gauntlets interplay with the hilt of a sword or rapier. This is something we know it was used, even with rapiers. The feel in the hand, how wrist motions are affected, or the subtle change in weight felt is quite interesting.