HEMA Gear Part 1: Gloves

This article is Part 1 of my ongoing series, HEMA Gear: A Year in Review. Please note: the opinions stated in these posts are my personal views, and don’t necessarily reflect official club recommendations or even a consensus at our club. Take them with a grain of salt!

My interest in gloves is first and foremost aimed at longsword fencing. Having a safe and reliable heavy glove for longsword is always going to be my first priority because Masterless is at its core a longsword group. However, I’ve also been very interested in experimenting with gloves for other weapons, such as saber, sidesword, and rapier.

The truth is, regardless of weapon choice, there’s really no perfect HEMA glove. It’s a bit of a bummer, because the hands are among the most common and vulnerable targets in fencing, right up there with the legs and head. Mostly the issues I’ve seen with gloves have to do with durability, maintainability, and their ability to fail gracefully. The best gloves maintain their protective capacity late into their lifespans, are easily fixable at home, and do a good job at keeping you safe even in the event of failure.

I’ll cover the major pieces that I’ve used, encountered, and had hopes for here.

Sparring Gloves Mittens with Hourglass Cuff

I’ll say right away that these are the only heavy longsword gloves that I’ve used in earnest over the last year. I bought them a few months ahead of IFG Spring Fling 2023, and was initially unsure about them because I had been using soft leather gloves (yikes!) exclusively, and the SGs felt comparatively very stiff. I initially felt like I couldn’t get the correct grip on my sword and couldn’t correctly perform guards like ochs/finestra.

So, it’s important to note that these gloves do have a long break-in period before they become reasonably flexible -- one to three months, to be moderately precise. But since I’ve gotten used to them, I’ve come to love them for their execution of the trade-off between protection and mobility that I mentioned above.

They are protective, first and foremost -- I’ve not taken a serious hand injury while wearing them through thrice-weekly rounds of intense sparring with all kinds of weapons. The worst I’ve experienced was a minor cut to the palm of my hand from an unlucky thrust. The lack of palm protection is certainly a drawback of these gloves, but I was wearing an underglove -- I like those nitrile-coated poly gloves you can buy in packs of 10 at the hardware store -- and the underglove was not broken by the injurious thrust, so I have no reason to expect that a fully-covered palm would have saved me from said injury either. In all other respects, the protective capabilities of these gloves are IMO above reproach.

Being made of Styrogum, glue, and elastic cord, these gloves are also exceedingly durable. There are no rivets to break or hard plastic plates to crack. All materials hold up well under sustained punishment. The two main issues with these gloves’ durability, as I see it, have to do with quirks of manufacturing.

First, the elastic cord that the gloves ship with is very prone to breakage. It’s thin and very much exposed to strikes from a sword, and it will break fairly quickly -- within the first three months of use, probably. The upside to this is that the cordage can all be replaced very easily by more robust material. I have been using 1/8” marine-grade shock cord wherever replacements have been needed (eventually everywhere), and this much more durable cord has worked incredibly well. Note that square knots will not work with this kind of elastic cord -- it will come untied because of the stretchiness -- so I’ve been using a knot called a Zeppelin Bend, and I haven’t had any of these knots come loose. IMO, if SGs started using this kind of elastic cord right off the bat, these gloves would be a no-brainer from a durability perspective.

The second issue that I’ve experienced with SGs is that the styrogum on the upper, interior side of the cuff tends to split just behind the thumb. I believe this is simply a design defect that they haven’t caught yet, and expect that they’ll eventually figure out how to remediate this. In the meantime, I’ve managed the splitting with a combination of glue and additional lacing. This solution is not particularly elegant or pretty, but it has kept my gloves functional far past the point when the glove cuff would have otherwise come apart, and doesn’t look to be failing anytime soon.

A final, minor issue that I’ve experienced is that the fabric covering the interior surface of my fingers of my left hand was eventually (after about a year) worn through by regular contact with the faceted pommel of my sword. This is an issue with the durability of the fabric material, and my solution was to glue matching pieces of cotton duck fabric to both the interior and exterior of the original, worn-through fabric, and this has worked well as a fix. I have to suspect that there are more durable fabric choices out there, and I think it’s another area where the glove design could be improved.

As I see it, the main competitor to Sparring Gloves, in terms of function, cost, and reputation, are HF Armory Black Knights, and whereas BKs can be tricky to repair when they fail, SGs do not have this problem that I have seen.

One more thing: I purchased my Sparring Gloves at a size up from what would be “best fit.” My hands fit snugly inside a size L, but I use the XL. This was initially just based on my best guess about what I would need based on my hand size, but I’ve since come to the opinion that the larger sized glove both increases the mobility of my grip on the sword by not restricting my hand quite as much, and creates “standoff” between the styrogum and my hand, making for less pain from direct hits than I would otherwise experience with a tighter-fitting glove. The downside to using a larger size is that my thumb tends to slip out of the glove unless I apply a 1/2” wide band of tape to the thumbpiece to increase the surface area of the thumb enclosure. This is a trade-off that seems acceptable to me, but others may dislike the idea of having to modify the gloves they just paid $250 for, so your mileage may vary with this advice.

I’ve recently bought a second pair of these gloves because I like them so much. They’re not perfect, but IMO with a few tweaks in their design they could be very, very close. I look forward to seeing how the Sparring Gloves company adapts their products to feedback from the growing HEMA community.

HF Armory Black Knights

Ok, I have not personally used the HF Armory Black Knights extensively, I don’t own a pair. But I have watched several members of our club use them regularly, so I’m going to give my opinion regardless.

From my perspective, these gloves are great -- you can’t go wrong with them. They are reasonably priced for heavy HEMA gloves, they offer great protection, and they are reasonably durable.

But! But. When they fail, it kinda sucks, because in many cases self-repairs aren’t really possible; you have to send them back for a return. And I’ve seen many pairs of these gloves fail in the last year. Whether it’s the thumb plate popping off because of an unlucky thrust, or a cuff rivet snapping, or the leather underglove tearing, issues with these gloves seem to be common -- at least as common as any other glove.

I’ve heard some rumors that it was just one batch of gloves from the manufacturer that suffered manufacturing defects -- that because my clubmates all bought their gloves within six months of one another, they all got the same bad batch. That could very well be the case.

It should be said that HF as a company has been very willing to replace broken gloves under warranty. Still though, if your glove breaks, you have to go through the trouble of sending it back for an exchange, to say nothing of the question of what you do in the moment when your glove no longer functions. One of my clubmates experienced a breakage during an eliminations match at SoCal this year -- he had had the foresight to bring a spare set of gloves, and was able to continue fighting, but without the spares he could have lost an opportunity to progress in the event.

The bottom line is that Black Knights have earned their reputation as one of the best options in the sport, but watching people use them has not convinced me to switch from my Sparring Gloves. I continue to be open to having my mind changed.

Other Mentions

High Guards

Purpleheart released the High Guard glove this year. It seems to be intended to fit into the glove niche that Red Dragons once occupied, somewhere between motorcycle gloves and heavy longsword gloves. As far as I can tell, they are manufactured by SupFen as an inexpensive emulation (though an unfaithful one) of Thokk Weaponmasters -- many of the design principles, such as interior finger caps and a plate on the back of the hand, are similar. 

I ordered a pair of High Guards when they came out, as did a few other people in the Eugene fencing community, and generally they seem to be more or less garbage. The materials used in their construction seem to be as cheap as you can get -- the back of hand plates crack easily, the “leather” tears quickly, the cuff falls apart, and the palm grip is awful. They’re the type of gloves that tire out your hand because they require a non-trivial effort to close the fist.

Additionally, these gloves are very bulky, and therefore don’t work well for blades with finger loops like sidesword or rapier. They lack enough protection to be used for longsword, and they lack the form factor to use with lighter weapons; in my opinion, these gloves are a hard pass.

Pro Gauntlet

In case you haven’t heard, Pro Gauntlet discontinued their gloves in mid-2023, and then promptly went out of business. It’s too bad, because although they had their problems, mostly relating to maintainability, the Pro Gauntlets seemed to have a lot of potential for iteration and improvement.

I did not own a pair, but one of our members did, so I got to see them in action. They seemed to strike a really nice balance between protection and mobility, and could even be used with finger-loop blades -- although the forefinger tended to get “locked in” by the hard plastic. However, the gloves’ use of many tiny, fragile elastic loops certainly seemed to be their major flaw. The loops were constantly breaking, requiring regular replacement, and the company was very slow to issue or even sell replacements.

Being no longer available, the Pro Gauntlet is a bit of a moot point now, but it would have been nice to see what they could have done with a longer runway and a few more iterations. Maybe we’ll see someone try something similar in the next few years.

SPES Lobsters

I would be remiss not to mention the SPES Lobsters. My impression is that these are a bit of an “old guard” heavy longsword glove, but they are similar in both price point and availability to the Sparring Gloves Mittens and the HF Black Knights. We do have some members that ordered and used these early on, but most, if not all of those folks have switched to the HF Black Knights, because of the BKs’ slimmer profile and better reputation for protection.

I’ve heard that they’ve suffered from breakages in plastic plates because SPES switched to a new plastic supplier, and I don’t know if those supply and durability issues have been resolved yet.

However, the SPES Lobsters, especially the new v3, still seem like a totally viable choice for anyone looking for a heavy longsword glove. My personal opinion would be to reach for Sparring Gloves or Black Knights before SPES Lobsters, but I would still use these gloves if neither of the others were available.

HF Saber Gloves

Despite having ordered a Sigi Basic Saber (the type with no knucklebow), I purchased the HF Saber Gloves because I had decided on a whim to compete in the Saber event at SoCal this year. SoCal provides Blackfencer 1796 sabers to all competitors, and I knew that these did have a knucklebow, and that my XL Sparring Glove Mittens would not fit inside them.

There are some folks in the Eugene HEMA community who use these saber gloves for longsword fencing, and I think that is an incredibly risky proposition. 

The major issue with these gloves is that the thumb lacks any hard plastic protection. I did use them as-is for Saber Tier C at SoCal without any injuries, but have since taken a couple of painful strikes on the thumb that has led me to discontinue using them with my Sigi Basic Saber in favor of my Sparring Gloves Mittens. It would be possible to insert a hard cap into the thumb pocket, and I’m a bit surprised that that isn’t part of the native glove design. 

I’ve also used the HF Saber Gloves for rapier and sidesword, sacrificing the finger-loop grip I might get from a lighter leather glove for the better protection that these Saber gloves offer. This inferior grip definitely affects my fencing abilities with these weapons, but I’m generally unwilling to assume the risk of a serious injury to my hands that fencing with light leather gloves would require.

Overall, I think these gloves are good for use with saber, but they should be augmented by a hard thumb cap. They are very much a niche, specialized glove, and do not have a ton of value for other weapons.

What Are We Supposed to Wear for Rapier or Sidesword?

Sidesword and rapier are a bit of a conundrum for me: fencers need a glove that allows them to put their forefinger through the ricasso, but which can still protect their knuckles and joints from serious injury. A lot of folks I know use motorcycle-type gloves -- light leather construction with hard knuckle plates and long cuffs -- but I have personally not found these to offer sufficient protection, having had my thumb crushed during a sidesword bout, resulting in my thumbnail falling off, and my knuckle broken from a rapier strike despite using a sword with a cup hilt. These kinds of injuries are unacceptable to me personally.

The best advice I’ve been able to find on the internet is to use Thokk Weaponmasters, which I did order and have recently received (see below). In the meantime, I elected to use HF Saber gloves for both rapier and sidesword, foregoing the finger-over-ricasso grip in favor of the standard mitten-style grip and the protection of the mitten glove. This worked ok: I found the protection to be sufficient, but of course my technique suffered quite a bit. Rapier and sidesword are not high priority weapons for me -- I do enjoy fencing with them, but I’m not at the point with either of them that I expect to show a high level of skill under any circumstances.

I ordered a pair of Thokks specifically for use with rapier and sidesword, and my initial impression is that those gloves should be acceptable, if not ideal for this purpose. See below for more on these gloves. Otherwise, there really doesn’t seem to be a great option currently on the market that meets my requirements for sidesword or rapier.

Thokk Weaponmasters: A Glimpse

As of the date of writing this article, I have only just received my Thokks, and have not had the opportunity to spar with them yet.

The Thokks are interesting gloves. They are quite unlike the other HEMA gloves I’ve had the opportunity to use, both in their insert-based design, and their materials used. They seem to be generally well-reviewed for use with rapier and, to a lesser extent sidesword, on the internet, and several of the HEMA YouTubers that I follow seem to use them for these weapons.

The gloves certainly allow me to use the ricasso grip for both weapons, though the bulk of the forefinger padding still means that this grip is somewhat stiff and “locked in.” And the gloves feature hard plastic knuckle, finger, and back-of-hand protection that by all accounts is durable and reliable. Time will tell.

Thokks certainly seem like the best option out there for ricasso-grip blades, for now. I’ll review them again in a years’ time to report back on how they’ve performed.

HEMA Gear: A Year in Review

Intro

About one year ago, I decided I was going to make a significant investment in HEMA gear. I had been fencing for maybe a year and a half by then, but I had been using mostly light DIY equipment, with affordability as my highest priority. When I decided to shift my priorities instead to safety and durability, my entire kit changed, and my fencing skill improved drastically.

It’s hard for me to overstate the role of quality, safe, and durable gear in my personal experience of acquiring greater skill in fencing. The more protected I felt, I found, the more confident I was in experimenting with new unfamiliar techniques, as well as with ramping up intensity to the levels I would need at competitions such as SoCal Swordfight 2024. The best gear was able to do its job of protecting me while at the same time affording the greatest possible agility and range of motion. All protective gear is a trade-off between protectiveness and mobility, but some pieces of gear achieve this trade-off with much closer tolerances than others.

What follows will be a series of discussions about gear categories, comparative reviews of the pieces I have personally tried or closely witnessed being used at Masterless Fencing, and my views on where protective HEMA equipment might go in the future.

Please do note: the opinions stated in these posts are my personal views, and don’t necessarily reflect official club recommendations or even a consensus at our club. Take them with a grain of salt!

Series Contents

Part 1: Gloves