This is a mostly step by step photo essay on my first pair of mail gauntlets, it has a lot of pictures so it may be a little slow to loadfor those that don't have super zoomy connections. I decided that I wanted fingered ones because I tried a pair once and found them more versatile, better for knife fighting and can still do everything that you can do with the mitten gauntlets. I will make some mitten gauntlets later, they are on the to do list.



The major problem with the fingered gauntlets is that you can't really put much additional padding between the glove and the mail, so in order to hopefully compensate for this to some degree I have gone for a denser mail weave (6-in-1 as opposed to the 4-in-1 weave that gets used for most things)

These gauntlets are based around a pair of welding gloves, these particular ones were actually sold as camp oven gloves at a disposals store. I was wearing them as is for a while whilst training so they are nicely softened up in all the places where they bend when I wear them.



I just went ahead and made the right hand glove before I had taken any photos, using a trial and error method of expanding the mail a bit and laying it against the glove until it was the correct size to cover what I wanted, this was then used as a template for the left hand piece of mail, since it will be the same just flipped over.



I took the following progress pictures while I was making the second piece of mail, I found that when I started this my skill level had increased and it was looking much better, the rings were closed much better and there was less scratching on the surface of the links.

This is basically a how to guide.



This rather shabby picture is of an individual ring/link, this is how I purchased them (in bulk of course). I think these particular ones are made on the same type of machine that is used to make springs, but set to cut at single coil interval. I'm not really sure what size the rings are or what gauge the wire is. Basically I saw some rings that someone else in our group had and I said I want rings that size but a little heavier, and that is exactly what I got.

It is possible to make them yourself setting up a little machine powered by a hand drill, but I am told that there is not a significant cost saving doing it this way, so the additional effort is mostly wasted.

Whatever one makes out of mail a heap of these little suckers will be used, I had some change from a batch of 5,000 in this pair of gauntlets, not sure of the exact number I used however, probably more than 4000.



The type of mail I am making is refered to as butted mail, as the rings are butted together with two pairs of pliers as I have attempted to show in this photo below. I think I zoomed in too far though as the photo looks fairly crap.

To start making a piece of 6-in-1 mail the first step is to grab 6 closed rings and thread one open ring through the six then cose the ring that was just threaded through. Below I have a phot of the threaded links but not of what it looks like when the open ring is closed.



Next setp is to start making a chain, lay the first bit flat then thread two closed rings onto a single ring. put the open ring through the last four links and close. the series of photos below should show this. They fortunately also show the whole laying flat idea that I didn't have a photo for above.



Continue this process until you make a chain the length you desire, then start over and make a second one the same length.



The two chains now need to be joined together, this is probably easier to just look at pictures for this bit



I used this basic method for weaving the 6-in-1mail to build up a square that covered the back of the glove from wrist to knuckles, and then you discover the slight problem with 6-in-1, two edges look unfinished and you have to fill in the gaps with more rings, it is like the extention part of the process, but the two closed rings are not attached.



The next step is to add the mail that is used to cover the fingers. The first picture here shows the stubs where the fingers will attach as well as a partially completed finger. The second picture shows the completed fingers. The tapering at the tip of each finger was achieved by dropping the link of each end. The missing links are the ones that are more 4-in-1, the ones that are there to level of the edges as mentioned in the part of this article related to the back of the hand square.

Once the fingers are completed the only part left is the thumb. On the first glove this was pretty much just a case of trial and error, adding to the ends of rows or dropping links off to follow the line of the thumb on the glove.

I had to tack the mail onto the back of the glove before doing this part on my first one, as it got very awkward, but since I had a template for the second one it wasn't an issue the second time around.

Below are picture of the completed mail from two diferent angles, on two diferent backgrounds. It looks a bit strange when laid out flat, but it does need to wrap around.

After the mail is finished it is then just a matter of stitching it on. This sounds simple but it is actually quite a bit harder than it seems at first. It takes significantly longer than it does to make the mail itself and I found it a lot less interesting than making the mail.

I used heavy waxed thread to sew/tie the mail on and sharp leather needles to pull the thread through. The gloves are really tough and the needle needs to be forced through enough to get a grip on it with the pliers.

Here is a picture of both gauntlets with the mail sewn on, they are now totaly usable and I have trained in them a couple of times seems they do the job quite well, I am considering sewing some leather trim around the edges to make them look a bit nicer, I will update this article again with more pictures when I get around to sewing on the trim leather.






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Article last updated 23/05/2004