Posted: 05 September 2023 | Last modified: 11 December 2024 | Expires: Indefinite
The modern practice of longsword sparring requires a certain amount of safety gear, and perhaps the single most confusing piece of safety gear for newcomers to the sport is gloves. Assuming you intend to spar with a longsword at some point in time, and assuming you want to protect your hands from injury while doing so, you should likely follow the community’s standards for what “level” of glove to buy, which in this case is a HEMA “heavy glove”. These gloves offer the greatest level of protection for your hands, and are requirements at nearly every longsword tournament around the world.
This guide is going to discuss the heavy gloves available on the market, along with my recommendations, and those I suggest you ignore. My top criteria are how well the gloves protect your hands, durability/maintenance concerns, and track record of use.
For a long time, there were only two major contenders in the heavy glove market, and while we now have a lot more options, there still aren’t many models I’d recommend for most folks, especially folks buying their first pair of heavy gloves.
If you don’t want to read the rest of this guide, and just want to know what to buy, order a pair of Sparring Gloves Mittens and call it a day. These were previously my alternative pick, but I moved them to the top spot because of ongoing durability issues with the alternative pick.
The Sparring Glove Mittens have been around for a long time, and were the standard glove in the European HEMA scene. I won’t go into a ton of detail on the gloves here, but if you want to know more, you can read my review of them. They come with three different cuff options (hourglass, regular, long/extended), and are available in the US through Purpleheart, thought you can also order direct. These differ from other heavy gloves on the market in that they’re made of a flexible material instead of having external plastic plates. Compared to most other heavy gloves out there, you’ll “feel” hits more in these, and are more likely to feel an occasional ouch, but the gloves still offer great protection from most major injuries. They run around $230 and you can customize some of the colors. Keep in mind that you still need to buy a separate underglove for these, else your palm is exposed, and wearing them without an underglove is uncomfortable besides.
I previously recommended the hourglass cuff because the longer cuffs had weaker wrist protection, but that problem has since been rectified, as the standard and long cuffs now come in a non-“accordion” version that provides better wrist protection. So, if you only fence with weapons that allow you to use a heavy glove, I would recommend the long cuff Mittens. If you have to change into lighter gloves because you sometimes fence with weapons that have complex hilts, I’d recommend the hourglass version, so that you don’t have to throw on separate forearm protection when you also swap gloves.
Other than these gloves not being quite as protective as gloves with hard plates, dialing in the thumb can be finicky, they require a longer break-in period, and there’s a bit more regular maintenance required given the lacing for attaching the thumb. While that lacing can also be more fragile compared to riveted plates, it also means the thumb fit can be dialed in in a way other gloves can’t. That said, there are no major points of failure on these in which plates can break, fly off, etc. There are rare reports of the styrogum exterior being thrusted through, but I’m not aware of any major injuries resulting from this, and these incidents are rare enough given how many of these gloves are in circulation that I wouldn’t discount the gloves based on these reports.
I do suggest wearing a good underglove, preferably made of pierce and/or cut-resistant textile, and with some impact padding, notably at the webbing between your thumb and index finger. I’ve seen two injuries in the span of six months to that area of the hand in SGs which required stitches, and while I admit this could be extremely anomalous, the gap over this portion of the hand is large enough that I’d want to see it covered with a good underglove. You may have to buy the underglove first and size accordingly.
All that said, there’s a reason the Mittens have been around for a long time in the HEMA scene, so they’re a good pick. If you don’t want to dig deeper into this topic, just order a pair of Sparring Gloves Mittens and move on.
If you’re still reading, I guess you’re not sold on the Mittens, or just want to see what else is out there. My second pick for heavy gloves is the HF Black Knight gloves.
They’re a hard-plastic clamshell design that displaced the SPES Lobster series of gloves, owing to the fact they’re relatively easy to get, well-priced for this category of glove ($235), and are generally durable and mostly maintenance free. While you can order from HF direct, there are also two US importers: Purpleheart Armoury and SoCal Swords. The Black Knights now have a good track record of use, with no major reports of significant injuries. There are some longer term maintenance things to be cognizant of, and the middle thumb plate is a known weak point on the gloves.
The reason these dropped to my alternative pick is that the longer-term maintenance issues requires enough do-it-yourself fixing that it may be a turn-off for most buyers. The number of reports I’ve seen of popped plates and torn rivets keeps going up, so I feel there are definitely quality control issues here. You need basic sewing skills to fix torn threading at the edge of the finger plates, you’ll want to be able to somehow affix the edge of the top plate to the edge of your underglove once the top plate shifts too much, and reaffixing the middle thumb plate if it tears off is even more complicated. You can warranty some of these issues if the problems come up months from purchase, but being without gloves while waiting for a replacement is a pain in the ass. (I believe the warranty window is about six months long.)
That said, these gloves require no real break-in period, they’re way more comfortable than the Mittens, and you won’t feel most hits at all. And while these gloves do have QC issues, a handy person can fix most issues themselves, since the issues mostly relate to popped rivets and other connecting bits. (Unlike the Lobsters, for example, in which the plastic plates themselves break.) If you already have a pair of backup gloves, or don’t mind buying a second pair once these start having issues, then the Black Knights are a good alternative pick. Also, if your local meta doesn’t involve much sparring intensity, these gloves will likely hold up fine.
As mentioned, there are other heavy gloves out there, but I have reservations about recommending them for purchase given durability/maintenance problems, and/or an insufficient track record. Usually, problems with a heavy glove aren’t immediately apparent, so enough of a particular model needs to be out there in heavy use before it’s proven itself. The aforementioned models tick all the right boxes, which the below don’t.
The Xiphosuras are another hardshell mitten glove. They have arguably more sizing options than the Black Knights, have a comparable price, and arguably better wrist articulation thanks to a more flexible cuff. There are still too few in circulation, however, and given those that are, there are suspiciously too many reports of quality issues. The underglove on these is apparently not that great, and I’ve heard at least two reports of users getting their thumbs broken, so I’d continue to hold off on these for now.
The Infinity is Sparring Glove’s take on a five-fingered glove, using hard plastic protection instead of the styrogum protection of the Mittens. At $290 they’re not substantially more expensive than the Mittens, but due to production problems, they tend to take a lot longer to get after placing your order. Moreover, the gloves are widely reported as needing a couple mods out-of-box, such as taping over the exposed rivets, and taping the finger pockets to prevent your own fingers from getting pinched between the finger plates and your sword hilt. The underglove also reportedly sees wear quickly, compared to other gloves. Durability-wise, these appear to be good otherwise, but there are too many reported problems and injuries with these for me to recommend them, especially to newer folks, given how few of these are in circulation.
The Lobster series of gloves by SPES used to be the top contender against the Sparring Gloves Mittens, but they’ve fallen into the “pass” category given quality control issues of late. You can read my more extensive review of the Red Lobsters specifically, but the ongoing issue with these is that SPES seems to be sourcing plastic differently now, and there are just too many reports of plastic plates breaking to recommend these any more. While SPES is replacing broken gloves under warranty, they’ve yet to even acknowledge the issue publicly.
A newer version of the Lobster gloves recently came out, but they too don’t seem durable long term, as reports of cracked plates are already appearing in the wild. Lobsters also have the largest footprint among heavy gloves, which lots of folks don’t like, and the elastic ties have a tendency to come undone or break.
I guess this is the budget option for heavy gloves. Superior Fencing in Pakistan sells direct, but SoCal Swords has a rebranded model for sale at $165. Superior Fencing has been known to steal other company’s designs, to include product pictures, and pass it off as their own. Quality is generally considered lacking for many of their products, so you get what you pay for. Just save an extra ~$50 for a glove from a more reputable company, and skip these.
Another clamshell glove, the Michael is a newer entry to the scene. They’re more expensive than other clamshells at $280, and the manufacturer is in China and only has a Facebook presence, so if you want to deal with a US retailer, SoCal Swords is your only bet.
You can read my review of the Michaels to get more details, but the big thing with these is that the elastics don’t last long and will need replacing frequently, and you may have to do a couple mods to make this less of an issue long-term. The plastic is definitely softer than what other clamshell gloves use, and six month of use resulted in three plastic break in mine. The underglove is also not very durable, with weak seams and a tendency to wear through at certain points. They’re super comfortable though and offer great mobility, it’s just a shame they don’t last long.
A more budget-version of the Michaels, the Raphael comes in $100 cheaper. These are quite new, so I’ve yet to see any reports of them in the wild. They were recently upgraded with the crack-prone thumb from the Michaels, and CHFG doesn’t plan to upgrade the thumb again (whereas the thumb on the Michaels is getting an update). Since they rely more on rivets instead of elastics, I imagine durability of these will be better than the Michaels, at the expense of some mobility. Given the weak thumb plastic, and the relative lack of these floating around, I’d avoid.
These are brand new to market, basically being the clamshell version of the Infinity. They sport the same new standard/long cuff that the Mittens have, and also come in an hourglass version. I suspect the gloves may still require taping of the rivets, but I have high hopes for these. Still, they’re too new to recommend at the moment.
I’m including this section because people talk about a couple other HEMA glove models for longsword use, but I’d consider these gloves “medium” or “medium plus” gloves at best, and wouldn’t recommend them for longsword sparring.
This is another rebranded product from Superior Fencing. Purpleheart’s listing includes, “They are not designed for longsword sparring.” That should be clear enough, but I guess some folks like to live dangerously. While these gloves haven’t been on the market all that long, there are already a ton of anecdotes about how the quality on these leaves something to be desired, whether that’s the back plate splitting, seams coming undone, or the glove otherwise falling apart. At least it sounds like Purpleheart is looking at improvements, so future iterations may be a tad more robust. Either way, they’re not longsword gloves, so ignore them.
These are actually what the High Guards above are based on, and Thokk sells an attachment that supposedly makes the gloves better protected for longsword, specifically. The promise of these gloves is that they could be an all-in-one solution, but even with the longsword attachment, reports are disappointing. Those who do use them for longsword have modified them to be more protective, but out-of-box these are a non-starter.
The Gabriels are another five-finger glove, this time with a price tag of $340. You can get them through Purpleheart Armoury or SoCal Swords. Purpleheart’s disclaimer reads, “Not recommened for hard longsword sparring.” SoCal Swords includes the statement, “… know that being hit on a single finger can be very painful.” In short, these aren’t your do-everything longsword glove, and there’s no long-term track record for these, so there remain a lot of questions about durability. Moreover, the “2.1” version of these gloves is supposedly on the horizon, and while CHFG seems to be iterating on the design reasonably quickly, it doesn’t place a lot of faith into the idea that these gloves are ready for mass consumption. Maybe a future version of these actually will work out for general longsword use some day, but we’re clearly not there yet. At least the repair kit is cheap.
While not as maintenance-heavy as the Progauntlets (RIP), long-term use reports suggest these gloves do require replacement parts intermittently, and that the underglove wears comparatively fast. I’ve also personally witnessed too many instances of thrusts penetrating between plates, which seems to occur at a much greater frequency with these than other hard-plated gloves.