Well I would just like to congratulate our Rabid hamster for achieving something we didn't thing possible. Yesterday he managed to hack with a rebated sword through my armoured gloves and cut my finger to the bone. His first comforting words were: "ooooh, I felt your bone through my sword." which were closely followed by my: "mother$%^*&^%$% &%$£%&*% $%^^% $%^&&*^%%" Since it was same sword that my brother the Tedi-Kuma used to hack thorugh chainmail gloves to dislocated two of the Hamsters fingers I think we will have to name this sword "digitdoom". The Bear.
I can't believe that after that chop I fought on until the end of the round. I honestly didn't think you have hacked that deeply. The Bear.
should have got a picture for an injury thread ... The GCoD's Greatest Haus! I still have my fingernail that fell off! for those of you not up on your german ... Hau means hack or Hew.
Despite chewing up my sword grip, the plate armour seems to work really well - the only injury worth mentioning so far came from the point of Marco's sword when it jabbed the unarmoured fingertip. Louie
plate steel is good protection but does cause problems with technique. normally you only wore the above when you were intent on halbschwert (halfswording) when actual manipulation of the sword is so much more basic. Also they are susceptible to the point - I put my mate Martin in A&E with a deflected thrust that ripped up the webbing between thumb and forefinger and he was wearing plate gauntlets. Next time I face the bear ... I may wear my plate gauntlets, not that I think he might try for some savage rewengie you understand! If I thought that I'd be wearing full plate harness!
In my experience, basket hilted swords do a lot more to protect the hand. the last time i lost the tip of my thumb i punted my stainless gauntlets into a tree. course if your using a two handed weapon i guess that gaunts are a must.
Yeah the basket hilts are great but since we are much earlier our sword offer far less protection. The Bear.
usually they happen when I'm not using the heron - am somewhat dependent on the side rings when I'm in krieg.
in the realm of gauntlets, i have had better luck with the mitten kinds over the fingered variety. i am pretty sure they are early period, but haven't really done my research. my biggest problem is that i have never found a pair of gauntlets that fit comfortably. i have little girl hands and most are made for meat fists.
The problem with the mitten type is our style of sword requires alot of dexterity of the hand so you need to fingered type to do half of the techniques. The Bear.
my plate gauntlets have a knuckle guard so are part mitt, part fingered but they still are a pain for actual handling the sword with full technique
I've been sparring with hour-glass-gauntlets for 3 years now, and I have to replace the leather on the fingers, as it's getting worn out They have saved my fingers from many serious bangs, allthough I've managed to get black nails from time to time. As for the ability to fight "long-play" with gauntlets, I think most of the awkwardness of it comes from lack of training with them. Because I'm lazy, I don't spar as much with them as I should, and hence I don't achieve the same level of precision with them as when I spar in thin leather gloves, or with nothing on my hands. As for shape and design; In my oppinion, the hour-glass-gauntlets are meant for fencing, as the wide wrist makes it possible to do all stances in the longswordmanuals. The long and narrow-wristed gauntlets are IMHO meant for halfswording or to use from horseback, as the manuals that show sword on horseback don't show any positions that can't be done with a long and narrow-wristed gauntlet. The group I'm in who study liechtenauer-sword on horse (www.frilansene.no)have a theory that the manuals only shows downward-cuts with a straight wrist because when fighting from a horse, there is a very little margin of error, and that if you do an awkward angle, and the horse or the victim does anything "wrong", you end up with a very complicated fracture in your lower arm.
