A little tip, I found that I could stuff padding into the finger bits to greatly improve comfort, and hopefully protection too. I made the padding out of the softer foam bits from an old, rather wrecked red dragon. I cut out finger-sized strips and wrapped some duct tape around them to stop them from getting torn up by the resin's rough texture. They stay in place wonderfully with no adhesives or anything, presumably because the roughness of the resin sort of hooks into the duct tape. An underglove (under-underglove?) is also useful for not getting your fingers torn up.

Wearing a thinner glove on the inside helps, I've stuck thin pieces of EVA foam in as well and that definitely helped.

So, when I use mine I'll usually wear compression sleeves to prevent pinching in the wrist region and a thin glove of some type (5.11 Taclite 2 in my case) to prevent any kind of major rubbing. I'll have to try and remove some of the stitching to see if that improves mobility to an adequate degree for me. Edit: one additional modification I made that definitely improved overall mobility was to also cut the pinky finger free in the fashion of the index finger. This made the gloves go from uncomfortable and barely usable, pre mod, to not comfortable and very usable. Again, my suggestion for comfort is to have a thin inner glove and then something to prevent pinching at the wrist.

I really like that fact that they deliver a 5 finger option for the few times I really need something heavier than a Red Dragon. That said the problems are there, the thumb can be a little bulky compared to the original design & the rest of the gloves slimline standard, the palm desperately needs a gripping material. All these issues do seem solvable and the special really can dominate the niche between medium gloves & the full mittens.

The inner glove is kevlar iirc. Adding to cons: the inner glove is not replaceable, which means your gloves will start to smell with time. With mittens, you can use your own inner gloves that you can wash and replace more frequently.

@HatiTheMoonChaser

4 жыл бұрын

so how do I wash these? :/

For anyone wanting a modern day review, I’d love to share mine. Compared to the new thokks and Gabriel 2.0, these gloves don’t stand a chance and it’s better spending your money elsewhere. As for the glove itself, everything is just about perfect EXCEPT for the fingers, the fingers offer just about less protection than a red dragon (although I have used this in steel tournaments, I wouldn’t recommend the risk). I’m planning on taking the whole glove out and keeping the shell of it, replacing the old glove with a new leather one. Along with making some finger protection with high density foam and abs plastic or kydex.

@AcademyofHistoricalFencing

10 ай бұрын

Absolutely agreed. I must do an update as I am in exactly the same boat, wanting to replace the inner glove and finger components the same as you. Otherwise mine have been shelved for years now, but there are great features which make them worth saving.

Nice video Nick...A little longer than normal but I watched to the end.

Great review! I just got my pair yesterday and I've used them for sabre and had no complaints. I can't say I've used them for a long time but once I break it in, I don't foresee issues with my usage for sabre and longsword. I wouldn't ever trust a five finger glove in a tournament of course but they're better than anything I've tried so far. I wear mine with an inner lining glove which I think mostly stops the skin scraping issue. But hey, maybe the future will foretell good developments? Wait and see is the byword for Hema isn't it?

@skhturner

3 жыл бұрын

Now this comment is a year old, how are they doing? I am.pondering buying some but heard the resin is liable to shredding

@normtrooper4392

3 жыл бұрын

@@skhturner mine's still intact and kicking. Although I don't use them for longsword but still no issues with saber. If you have the money, and are worried about resin, why not by the infinity glove instead?

@skhturner

3 жыл бұрын

@@normtrooper4392 great, thank you. I was looking at them for sidesword rather than longsword so that's good to hear. I had mixed feelings about infinity, they look so bulky. It's my main criticism of the spes heavies, great protection but I feel like my hands are massively immobilised

@normtrooper4392

3 жыл бұрын

@@skhturner I have them, the infinities, and they are rather bulky. Definitely will not fit a smaller hilt

If your having rubbing issues could you use Moleskin on the fingers then into the glove to reduce rubbing?

Does the glove slide because it is loose in its shell, or because it’s a cloth glove? If it’s due to it being cloth, I believe you could get some type of rubberized spray & add some texture to the palms, which might improve your overall grip.

Instead of using a pair of heavy gloves, would it be a good idea to spar with bowl guards and count the hits on the bowl as hits to the hand? As an alternative, why not just making a "secondary bowl" out of styrofoam to attach to the stirrup hilt (like a sort of singlestick with the stirrup on top)? You could use the dexterity of medium gloves with the protection level of the heavy ones

@AcademyofHistoricalFencing

5 жыл бұрын

We've not found it ideal no. The moment people have more hand protection there they start to fight differently, Roworth in his manual even warns about too bigger bowl on sticks for training for example. It does change the fight. It's also hard to maintin dexterity without the basket being huge. Then there is the issue of having to have a basket on every one of your weapons, which is expensive and problematic for storage and carrying.

My idea is to buy the mitten type from SG (they are identical up to the fingers), removing the final segment at the tip, adding my own leather inner glove and an alternative individual finger protection, which I'm still figuring out. That would sort out the sucky inner glove and the nasty resin problems, and keep all of the advantages. For the fingers, I'm thinking about Neyman's "replacement" fingers for the Montoya model, SPES fingertip protectors with added padding, or something new entirely.

@AcademyofHistoricalFencing

4 жыл бұрын

I've been thinking about doing something similar myself. Though I am generally not a fan of kit that has to be so heavily modified, as its not of much use to most of our students. I'd also not buy anything from Neyman again. I will still likely do similar mods as they fall apart though.

@skhturner

10 ай бұрын

Old thread but worth a shot... did either of you succeed with this mod? I am considering something similar

@LuxTheSlav

10 ай бұрын

@@skhturner Actually, yes! First I did exactly what I described above - I removed one (or perhaps two) segments of an SG mitten and replaced it with fingers from an old Neyman Montoya (Light) that I had used previously. I rocked that combo until it literally disintegrated, it was more hole and tape than glove at that point. Then, I bought a brand new pair of Red Dragons, unstitched everything below the wrist (including the fugly padded cross-strap with the huge branding) and also unstitched the mitten from the wrist and forearm of the SG, marrying the RD hand with the SG wrist and forearm. I also had highly cut and moulded fingertip protectors that I migrated over (would not recommend RD without them). I took pictures if you're interested. Dunno how to post them in a YT comment. It should be said that the RD is falling apart too, a piece of the padding just tears off from time to time - the original stitching is, unlike mine, quite poor. That's why I have ordered a SupFen "Impact Resistant" glove. But the frankengloves serve on until I get those.

@skhturner

10 ай бұрын

@@LuxTheSlav amazing, bravo. The Supfem gloves look good - I'm guessing that's their version of the Thokk? I took my inner glove out today, it did not smell good 😂 didn't get on with the resin fingers but I have some gloves I can wear under, like you're doing. I think that will combine best of both worlds How did you attach the new glove to the shell?

@LuxTheSlav

10 ай бұрын

@@skhturner Every time I reply with a URL link to a picture, my reply gets deleted. KZread being KZread. First mod was mostly glued (a lot) and some stitching to keep the Neyman leather glove under control. Second mod was all stitched, the whole circumference of the wrist.

Sounds like they'd go well with a rubber hilt, and fingers wrapped in plaster.

... you could use a small and cheap glove inside the glove, just saying...

Have you used them for longsword?

@AcademyofHistoricalFencing

4 жыл бұрын

Yes. They're pretty decent, but very hard impacts can shatter the resin. We've never had it happen, but know some who have. So at moderate intensity they're fine, at higher intensity no.

@bobu5213

4 жыл бұрын

@@AcademyofHistoricalFencing You mention THOKK in this video are you referring to the weaponmaster gauntlets?

@AcademyofHistoricalFencing

4 жыл бұрын

Yes, waiting to see how they are and hoping they are as good as advertised. Though I still highly doubt they'll be up to high contact longsword fencing.

@bobu5213

4 жыл бұрын

@@AcademyofHistoricalFencing What I can read on the website and in the recent promovideo they wish to advocate themselves a s such. I am selling my lobsters soon and I might get one. If I do I will let you know how they are. Maybe I'll even make a review video on them and some high intensity testing. Though all training is on hold at the moment of course.

@skhturner

3 жыл бұрын

@@bobu5213 how did you get on? I've got some lobsters but want better dexterity. The point about the slippy glove sounds like a deal breaker though

Red dragons with arm gauntlets? Almost sound better than that for 5 fingers.

@AcademyofHistoricalFencing

Жыл бұрын

These definitely offer a lot more protection than red dragons, but with the release of Thokks recenrly I would no longer bother. These gloves were useful for a while but no longer serve a purpose.

One thing I really hate about the lobster is that I can't open my hands enough to grapple or half sword etc. How are these in regard to the lobsters in hand opening.

@AcademyofHistoricalFencing

4 жыл бұрын

Very good for it. Inner glove is slippery as I mentioned in the review, but movement and dexterity is great

@bobu5213

4 жыл бұрын

@@AcademyofHistoricalFencing Hmm, maybe I can still sell my lobsters then...

4:14 Mezer? What is that? Now Messer, on the other hand...