Glove Preparation

Greetings,

One of the most important pieces of equipment and indeed protective equipment that a fencer needs to obtain is gloves. This is regardless of the type of fencing that the person is engaging in. This blog addresses the idea of new gloves primarily and how to make them more usable to the fencer, or how to prepare a pair of gloves so that they can be used.

The first thing that needs to be discussed is glove choice. In this there are many different pieces of advice that can be given and many different types of glove to choose from. There are fencing gloves of various kinds, gardening gloves of various kinds, and of course all manner of glove in between. So the fencer needs to make a choice as to what is best for them.

The first piece of advice that I will give is go for a leather pair, that is leather in some fashion. Leather has the advantage of being natural and also hardy in nature for the most part. These are two attributes which will serve you well in the long run. Natural has the advantage of being able to breathe and thus allow some of the sweat from your hands to dissipate. Hardy means that they will last a longer amount of time than if they were not. As such avoid artificial or constructed materials such as vinyl in your gloves.

The next piece of advice which is important is fit. Some styles of gloves only come in certain sizes and it is important that you choose a style of glove which suits your hand shape and size. Sure there is some leeway, but they have to start with a reasonable fit to start with if you are to have any hope of being comfortable. This is the second factor they need to be comfortable, not much good if you want to take them off the instant you put them on.

Some gloves start of quite supple due to their construction and material. Some gloves start of quite stiff and will need quite a bit of working to get them supple. The irony is that the stiffer gloves will take longer to prepare, but will also last longer. The ones which are more supple to begin with will be easy to use and prepare but are less likely to last as long. These are all considerations that should be made in your glove choice.

The primary focus for the preparation of the gloves in this blog will be toward welding gloves. This is because these are the type of glove which I favour myself and have been using for years. However the points which are raised here will pertain to other types of glove as well. However, consider how the preparation suggested may affect your particular type of glove before applying it.

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The rest of this article can be found in Un-Blogged: A Fencer's Ramblings by Henry Walker, which is available in paperback from:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Blogged-Ramblings-Henry-Leigh-Walker/dp/098764470X
Booktopia: https://www.booktopia.com.au/un-blogged-henry-leigh-walker/book/9780987644701.html
Among other places...

It is also available in electronic format (pdf) from: https://buy.stripe.com/fZecP419c7CB9VKeUV

... or direct from the author.