Sparring Glove Review

Me wearing said gloves

I recently received my gloves from www.sparringglove.com and initially I was very pleased, however I wanted to train in them with both steel and nylon before writing a full review. First a little background...

One of the biggest problems in the HEMA community is that of hand protection. Not only are the bones of the hand more fragile than most, a degree of dexterity is required in order to manipulate a blade properly and efficiently.
The current solution.
Lacking a credible alternative, the majority of us in the community have been using Lacrosse gloves which have varying degrees of protection and almost without exception quite nasty week spots (such as the joints of the fingers and edge of the hand.
There are also the occasional self made gloves which vary in look and success, I won't go into those here.

Why not use metal gauntlets?
This is an often asked question. In my opinion there are two main answers:

• Most production gauntlets have large spaces, are poorly riveted (in a manner that could allow a finger plate to drive into the finger) and have potential to injure the hand.

• I don't want to be punched by someone wearing a gauntlet.

SparringGlove.
Although I have heard great things of these gloves I have only recently had the opportunity to buy some for my own use. I assumed that they are supposed to be worn over a glove but initially tried them without to feel the difference...
Wear them over a glove they work much better.


Construction.
The gloves are made of hard flexible plates of (I believe) sturdy shoe sole rubber, joined with calf skin and cordura, each pair is tailor made to each customers individual sizing.

Dexterity.
Initially they feel awkward, as the fingers are inside a mitten form, but this is only a passing phase (if you are familiar with the blackout sensation that comes with unfamiliarity to wearing a fencing mask you will know what I mean, give it a little while you won't even notice.
I've had a few sessions with them and found that the clever construction of the thumb really allows you to manipulate very well.
Wrist wise there is no noticeable stiffness with a lot of mobility.
For long sword they feel fantastic, for single sword it will take a little more getting used to but it is not causing any major issues.

So for Longsword I would give them an 9/10 (everything else I've tried coming in at max around 5/10)
For single sword I would give them 8/10 (the only way that could be better is individual fingers and that would cost a lot).

Sensation.
This is quite surprising, one of my concerns with over armouring is the potential to not feel therefore not learn from blows received.  In fact when you get hit wearing these you still feel it, just enough while feeling safe (I now feel like I'm marketing condoms).

Overall impression.
First of all I think the term glove is a little misleading, they are really an over gauntlet, sparring glove is much more cool sounding though.
There is an awful lot of work that goes into these and I have to say there is nothing else remotely as good. A friend of mine said that he's surprised that these aren't being marketed to Kendoka and agree, them and stick fighters too. They are well designed and put together with a lot of attention and thought.

People flinch at the price tag (200 Euro) but given the amount of work involved and the quality of the materials it's a no brainer, if you love your fingers and want to train with intent; buy them.