The fit of fencing gloves

[cl00bie]

I recently bought my own fencing equipment, foil with extra blade, jacket, mask and glove. Everything else fit properly, but I have smaller than normal fingers, so the medium glove (which I sized from the Blue Gauntlet website using the circumference of my hand) was way too big. I ended up almost getting a cramp in my hand from the death grip required to hang on the the foil with the overly large glove slipping on my fingers.

I borrowed a glove from my club, and it fits perfectly. I looked inside and it said... get this... M.

Sheesh.

Any idea of brands of gloves that run a little small? I don't want to buy 10 left handed gloves to find one that fits.

[erooMynohtnA]

The cheaper gloves only come in small, medium, and large. If you get one that's a little more expensive (Leon Paul, Uhlmann, Allstar), you can pick the numerical size, such as 8.5, 6, 7, or whatever.

What it sounds like is that you want a glove that runs a little short in the fingers rather than a glove that runs small.

Also, I don't have much sympathy for people who order from Blue Gauntlet.

[Purple Fencer]

What's the measurement around your hand (base of the palm, not including the thumb)?? Sizing by name means there;s a RANGE of actual sizes within the stated one. You may measure at the bottom of teh size, but the glove is made to the max of the size.

[rcmatthews]

I also have problems with gloves. I guess my fingers are improperly sized, because if I order a glove to fit my palm, the fingers are too baggy. I also cant use combo sabre gloves because in order to have the wrist part large enough, the hand is much too loose

[jfarmer]

Getting gloves to fit probably ranks up there with getting shoes to fit...

Even with the numbered sized gloves it's still more or less a crap shoot. Case in point, my son has long skinny fingers. The glove that fits him came from BG. My fingers are almost as long, but thicker (his HS class ring is an 8.5, mine is 12.25). I had a decent glove from American fencer, but the leather tore at the glove after a year... MY current glove is from The Fencing Post ans fits reasonably well. The interesting point? My son's glove and my gloves are within 1/2 size of each other, yet my fingers are too fat for his glove, & his fingers are too long for my glove.

I would take the number sizes as a starting point, a best guess, as it were. If you can, try on several different brands and see what works. You should be able to try your friends righty gloves, rarely do your hands differ by more than 1/2 a size...

John Farmer
Coach, Oak Ridge Fencers Club

[Asprin]

I also have problems with gloves. I guess my fingers are improperly sized, because if I order a glove to fit my palm, the fingers are too baggy. I also cant use combo sabre gloves because in order to have the wrist part large enough, the hand is much too loose

I have a similar problem, I have small hands with longish fingers and trying to get a sabreglove that doesnt have alot of extra material in the back is difficult at the moment I am using a sabre cuff over my normal glove. But I have heard that the cuff is soon not going to be allowed and we are going to need sabre gloves.

[Purple Fencer]

I have a similar problem, I have small hands with longish fingers and trying to get a sabreglove that doesnt have alot of extra material in the back is difficult at the moment I am using a sabre cuff over my normal glove. But I have heard that the cuff is soon not going to be allowed and we are going to need sabre gloves.

Where have you heard that?? \

My sabre gloves (when they come out) have a sdandard cuff with the clisure flap...you should be able to adjust the wrist.

Check back in a month or so...i hope.

[Asprin]

One of the fencers at my club got that info.

For some reason sabre gloves seem to have more material at the back and none of the ones available in the UK seem to have cuffs that I can adjust to my wrist size.

[Purple Fencer]

One of the fencers at my club got that info.

For some reason sabre gloves seem to have more material at the back and none of the ones available in the UK seem to have cuffs that I can adjust to my wrist size.

I'll ask Dan DeChaine about that when i see him next week, but that has the feel of someone pulling a ruling out of his ass.

[Asprin]

Its because some people cheat by wearing their cuff pulled up the arm to far.

[Smyles]

Or down too far so it's not making contact with the jacket!

[jfarmer]

Its because some people cheat by wearing their cuff pulled up the arm to far.

There is a requirement as to how much the cuff has to overlap the lame and also a requirement that the cuff have a finger loop. These are supposed to be checked by the referee before you are allowed to fence.

John Farmer
Coach, Oak Ridge fencers Club

[Asprin]

The finger loop isn't required (as far as I know) in the UK, and the Allstar cuff I have doesn't have a loop on it.

[yeoldearmourer]

The nice thing in my family that most of us can modify the fit of a glove for our fingers and wrist area.

[Inquartata]

The finger loop isn't required (as far as I know) in the UK, and the Allstar cuff I have doesn't have a loop on it.

Not explicitly. But the material rules require a method for fixing the position of the manchette, and the fingerloop is one such method. A couple of people have said that it is in fact the only method which has been approved by ( and maybe the only one submitted to ) the FIE. I have seen no documentation of that, so maybe it's in a document that takes some looking...eg armourer esoterica. But if true that would make it, de facto, required.

IOW I am still not sure about it, and I also have a manchette that came without a finger loop ( it's from Absolute ). However, if you get a referee who insists on one it is probably not going to be worth the trouble of appealing the ruling based on the ambiguous rules...

[Gav]

One of the fencers at my club got that info.

Which fencer?

[Asprin]

Which fencer?

PM'd you with name.

[AdamH]

Sexy intrigue at the RCP. The bruhahah of 'what my coach said'.

Happily I'm a foilist, and we always know what's going on with our clan.

Speak to you tonight, Asprin but I can probably guess who it was.

Anyway, sabreurs smell.

[Asprin]

Sexy intrigue at the RCP. The bruhahah of 'what my coach said'.

Happily I'm a foilist, and we always know what's going on with our clan.

Speak to you tonight, Asprin but I can probably guess who it was.

Anyway, sabreurs smell.

I'm sure you can guess.

[Inquartata]

Anyway, sabreurs smell.

Yes, we can. Mostly we can smell epeeists. From yards away. But then, so can everyone else. Except other epeeists. That's the only trait we envy epeeists: that they can't smell epeeists.