You will find this to be a continuing theme on this blog: I was pretty happy with the status quo until I got squires. I’ve really lucky to have these guys; they push me to improve in practically every way. I mean, I can’t very well let my squires look better than I do on the field, right?
Anyway, my trusty gauntlets gave up the ghost at Blackstone Raids (2007). That is to say, the originally nylon strapping finally rotted away. The kydex itself is still solid. So I undertook the project of fixing them right (i.e., no duct tape!)
First, I had to remove all the rivets. This was a pain in the ass. Generally with a project like this I just grind off the heads using my bench grinder and pop them out. But since the guants are made of plastic, I had to be careful not to heat up the rivet so much that the plastic melted.
I tried dipping them in water every couple of seconds, and even sat them in a shallow pan of ice water while I used my dremel tool tool on them. Finally, I got frustrated with the slow pace and went ahead and let them get hot and just yanked the entire rivet (burr included) out. This damaged the hole a bit, but I’m not too worried since I have to drill out those holes anyway to accept the bigger brass rivets I’m going to use to put them all back together. I’m a little concerned that I’ve weakened the plastic at those holes and the plastic will crack. Time will tell, I suppose.
Before I started taking them apart (actually, long before the nylon finally died) I was thinking of ways I could make my ugly plastic gaunts look decent. My meager research into Rus arms and armor yielded a very interesting item: the Rukavitsa.
They are described as mittens or gauntlets, and were made of leather or quilted padding, sometimes augmented with “metal fishnet” (I’m assuming that’s equivalent to chain mail?) or metal plates. And, as is obvious from the above illustrations, they are elaborated decorated. Very cool.
So I had to decide how to recreate that with my plastic guants. My first thought was to just make fabric mittens and slip them over the (repaired) gauntlets. With a lightweight suede for the palm, perhaps? However, I had afraid they would look bulky and wouldn’t work well -- and, I image they would be really hot. My hands get sweaty enough without adding another layer of non-breatheable fabric. So, I decided to simply cover the individual plates with fabric.
Last night I thoroughly washed everything and got all the duct tape residue I could off, then cut out fabric to cover them. I was lucky in that my wife, Serena, had cool fabric in the scrap box I could use. I choose a nice red brocade-like fabric (I honestly have no idea with it really is). The Rus loved the color red, and that will made a nice dramatic color highlight to the rest of my rig. I also choose a patterned green to cover just the cuffs--I’m hoping this makes them look a little more rich and fancy.
After getting everything ready, I covered the first piece with glue (I was using Gorilla Glue for it’s toughness and waterproof qualities) then stretched the fabric over the first piece (the plate covering the fingertips). It was a disaster. The glue is really tough once it dries, but it has to be clamped in place to bond. I had hoped to stretch the fabric taut over the plastic and have it stick there, but it just peeled back. I gave up for the night.
Tonight, I will buy some contact cement and try that. I think that will give me the instant stick I want and, I believe, it is also waterproof. I might then cover them a tough outer coat--a polyurethane maybe?
But first, I’ll drill out all the holes to the larger bore I need to drop in the rivets--something I forgot to do last night. I’d love to get these things done in time for tomorrow night’s fight practice… but I’d rather go slow and do them right then hurry and screw it up.
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