HEMA Gear Part 2: Longswords

This article is Part 2 of my ongoing series, HEMA Gear: A Year in Review. Please note: the opinions stated in these posts are my personal views, and don’t necessarily reflect official club recommendations or even a consensus at our club. Take them with a grain of salt!

We all know, this sport is about the swords -- fighting with swords is probably what got most of us into HEMA in the first place. The section on gloves preceded this one only because of how much time and consideration they require, and how intractable a problem they can sometimes be.

There of course do seem to be differing opinions on swords in HEMA, but in aggregate, in the tournament scene at least, there seems to be a clear trend these days toward a specific kind of sword: the short-ish, flexible feder. This is obviously a generalization that’s bound to be only so accurate, but I’ll discuss the particulars below.

At the very least, my personal philosophy about, and preference in, swords has certainly undergone a drastic change in the last year, and that’s what I’m ultimately interested in communicating.

VB Steel Techniques

The VB Steel Techniques Longsword Feder is the first sword I bought for myself. It is the sword that my old club used (and still uses) for loaners, and which sees high adoption by HEMA newcomers in our geographic area for that reason. I believe my old club likes this sword more for its “optics” than for its functionality in the modern HEMA meta. Specifically, I think that they, and many folks who buy this sword, like that it has a longsword morphology -- that is, it has a relatively broad blade, with a fuller, and it lacks a schilt. I think a lot of people who come to HEMA because they are interested in swords and medieval fighting see a feder with a schilt and it makes them feel less like they are participating in the quasi-historical reenactment that they had perhaps imagined. And I get that, I had a lot of the same feelings. Nevermind that feders are historical.

I also think my old club likes these swords because of their “optics” in the type of fencing that the club likes to engage in, which is slower-speed, low-to-medium intensity fighting with lots of work in the bind and a relatively high amount of ringen/stretto play. The stiffness of this sword, then (and it is stiff -- just on the edge of being unsafe), is a desirable quality, as is the sword’s heft in the cut and its overall weight.

If lower-intensity sparring with lots of bind work and grappling are what you like to do, then there are worse swords to use than this guy.

Here’s my take.

For starters, I think it’s worth pointing out that this sword is relatively cheap, and very available. You can order it from Purpleheart and it will arrive in under two weeks, and it costs less than pretty much every other reasonable alternative. For the beginning HEMA fencer, this is often an irresistibly attractive prospect. Additionally, the sword is pretty durable. The temper on the blade means that it picks up few burrs, and it can stand up to a lot of punishment. The mild steel used for the cross is much more prone to burrs and bends, but generally that has not made the sword unusable in my experience. The leather wrap on the handle is also going to go bye-bye inside of a month or two of any serious sparring, but that’s easily fixed by a re-wrap.

But there is where the attractive qualities of this sword end, sadly. As previously mentioned, it is a generally stiff, ponderous sword. With a blade flex at the very fringe of what in my opinion should be considered safe for partner work, eating a thrust from this sword can absolutely ruin your day. And the irony of it being used so often by and against newer fencers, who by definition possess less control, means that thrusts from this bad boy can be stiff indeed.

Furthermore, the blade-forward weightiness of this model gives it a sluggish feel in the hand. Zwerchs and crisp actions along unusual lines are much more difficult to pull off with this weapon than with a comparable feder. And the weight really means that it hits quite hard in the cut. Here again we see the irony of this being touted as a “beginner” sword, as newcomers tend to swing for the fences, and with so much mass forward of the PoB, taking a cut to the shoulder or thigh from this clunker can be much more painful than taking a hit needs to be.

And finally, this sword is short. It’s shorter than most other swords labeled as “shorties” out there. To some extent, sword length is totally down to preference, and experienced fighters would be equally justified in picking a short sword over a long one, or vice versa, but one of the benefits using a short sword is supposed to get you is a faster, more agile weapon, and unfortunately,  as described above, the VB is not that.

There’s really no upside to this sword other than  a way to spend your money and receive a chunk of steel fairly quickly. New fencers would be better served watching their local Discord channels or online marketplace feeds and buying a used feder than spending their money on a sword they won’t use after six months.

Albion Lichtenauer

From what I can tell, this Albion model is the ideal sword for my old club -- the one I was at when this past year of fencing began. The Lichty has a classic-looking medieval longsword morphology, is relatively stiff, heavy in the cut but somewhat more nimble than the VB, slightly longer than the VB, and it comes with the weight of reputation of Albion, a forge that creates museum-quality replicas of sharp swords for the cost of multiple thousands of dollars.

In my view, this is the HEMA sword of the previous generation of HEMA fencers. It’s a sight better than wooden, poly, or aluminum wasters; when it’s new, it looks quite beautiful; you can indeed spar with it (though in moderate intensity at the highest); and compared to the DIY blades of the proto-HEMA era, it is reasonably safe and durable.

The pros of this sword end there, unfortunately. For starters, the blade characteristics do not appear to be exceptionally durable -- most of the models present in class at my old club, if they had been used for any length of time past about six months, were significantly notched and had taken many burrs that required constant filing.

Safety-wise, the blade is maybe a bit more flexible than the VB, but its tip is not rolled, spatulated, or otherwise made safe -- it is simply rounded off into a thin, quarter-sized taper. This requires the addition of a steel-reinforced rubber tip, which invariably needs to be taped on. For me, this ruins the overall aesthetic effect of the blade, which in my opinion is the main thing it has going for it. Rubber tips, additionally, are arguably less safe than spatulated or rolled tips, being more grippy and therefore transferring more force in a thrust. They are also constantly falling off mid-fight and having to be replaced and re-taped.

While the Albion is certainly better weighted and more nimble than the VB, it’s still nowhere near as nimble some of the standard feders on the market, and it hits noticeably harder in the cut. Most tournaments simply do not allow this blade at all because of its safety characteristics.

Oh. And, it’s super expensive and has a purchase lead time of over a year. That’s gonna be a hard pass from me.

Regenyei Short Feder

The Regenyei shorty is the Toyota Corolla of HEMA longswords. It’s affordable, available, will last you for years, and lacks flash or style. But people have done amazing things with it!

This is the first sword on this list that I would actually recommend to a new fencer. I’ve personally never owned one, but my club has several in rotation and I have used this sword several times in sparring. While it’s not my personal cup of tea, it has a lot going for it, especially for folks new to HEMA.

First of all, this sword is the next best thing to the VB Steel Techniques line in regards to cost and availability. Whereas most other swords on this list present fabrication lead times of anywhere from several months to a year or more, the Regenyei are at the time of this writing widely stocked and generally ship inside of a week from Purpleheart, HEMA Supplies, and other distributors. There are also plenty in circulation, so finding one used is generally not a difficult task.

And although cost and availability are typically the first things folks look for, especially when buying their first sword, in my opinion the most valuable characteristics of this sword are its safety features. It has a light, flexible blade that is forgiving in both the cut and the thrust, while retaining a decent amount of presence in the bind. The manufacturer also now offers spatulated tips on all their models, whereas only some months ago the rolled tip -- somewhat less safe, in my opinion, because of its increased brittleness and its ability to “scoop” out a wound in specific circumstances -- was the only option.

Finally, let’s not discount the fact that this sword is an absolute legend in terms of durability. It seems to be more or less indestructible. Of the half-dozen or more used in my club, that undergo heavy use in sparring sometimes thrice-weekly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen one even take a set. I’m sure it’s happened elsewhere, but in my experience these swords simply seem to shrug off the wear and tear one would expect from normal use. The small exception is the cord wrap on the handle, which will typically come unraveled after taking constant abuse, but as far as I can tell every sword has this issue, and it’s an easy one to correct with a re-wrap or hockey stick tape.

As for the downsides. I don’t personally use this sword and I don’t have any plans to acquire one. It doesn’t fit my aesthetic tastes, it’s a bit too short for my personal style, and I’m not in love with the pommel or the balance of the sword in general. There is nothing objectively wrong with the Regenyei’s particulars in any of these areas, I just think other brands (Sigi) do them better, and I have the means to pay a little extra to get what I want. Your mileage may vary.

The bottom line is that you can’t go wrong with this sword: a lot of people use and like it, it is reasonably affordable and available, and it will probably last you your whole life.

Krieger Armory Sentinel Fiore

I thought the Krieger Sentinel Fiore was going to be my second sword. I ordered it about a year into my fencing career, expecting it to take the advertised (at the time of order) four to six months to arrive. Specifically I was looking for a blade with a longsword morphology that was both more nimble and more beautiful than the VB. The reviews I found online of Krieger Armory were positive, and they are a US forge (not to be confused with Krieger Historical Weapons in the EU), which I thought would mean the sword would be easier to acquire and customer support would be better, so purchasing this sword seemed like a good decision.

Well, in the end the sword didn’t arrive for over a year, I had to constantly prod the forge via email for information about the ever-extending lead times, and by the time the sword did finally arrive at my doorstep, I had already bought a Sigi in the meantime.

Overall the Sentinel is fine. It is a better sword than the VB. It’s very nimble and flows nicely. It has high quality fit and finish, and when it first arrives it is a very pretty sword. Although by the time I received this sword I was totally Sigi-pilled and used to the Sigi handle, this sword has a very distinctive and comfortable handle and some people think that it’s the best handle in the game. I don’t know that I agree, but it is nice, especially for non-thumb-grip actions like zornhau or thrusts. I like Krieger a lot in general and would like to see them succeed. I love my Guardian arming sword (more on that coming soon), and will probably try to continue to support Krieger with purchases in the future. My clubmate has ordered the Arbiter and I’m very excited to see it.

However.

First and foremost, the blade temper. I’m not sure if I just got a model that an apprentice made or something, but the blade on my Sentinel did not have the durability that I expected. Over the course of maybe two or three months of regular sparring, the blade picked up a significant amount of nicks and burrs. Whether the result of the actual steel hardening process, or too steep a grind on the blade’s edge, something in the manufacturing caused it to not take punishment super well. It was nothing catastrophic, but whereas a Sigi or Regenyei blade can go months or  years without needing a file, I found with the Krieger that I needed to take off little burrs once every other week or more. On the blade! We aren’t even talking the cross here, which seemed to be hardened better and stood up very well to sustained use.

Second, the Fiore variant of the Sentinel is short. I ordered it because it was short and expected that I would continue to like using a shorter sword. But after having acquired the aforementioned Sigi Maestro Shorty (which is slightly longer than the Sentinel Fiore) in the year+ time it took for the Krieger to actually arrive, I found that I actually liked a somewhat longer sword, and the shortness no longer suited my fencing style.

Finally, and this is on me, I ordered my Sentinel with a wheel pommel. This was mostly because I liked the look of it and wanted to try something new. Also, I had believed that having the wheel pommel would make edge alignment better because the flat shape of the wheel would allow me to feel the sword’s orientation more easily.

It turned out that the Krieger handle was more than enough to give me a feel for how my edge was aligned at any given time, and I also came to realize that my pommel hand doesn’t really play that big a role in my edge alignment anyway. In the end, I didn’t end up liking the way the wheel effectively shortened the handle length by acting as a catch for the thumb of my pommel hand -- during a sheitelhau, for example, the wheel pommel limited my reach by a couple of inches because it locked my thumb into the groove where the curve of the wheel met the handle.

I ended up selling my Sentinel to a clubmate who was looking for their second sword, who had used it as a loaner and liked it. 

Overall, I wanted to like this sword more than I did in practice. The blade durability was certainly a disappointment to me, but otherwise the sword is of reasonably high quality. It is certainly very nice aesthetically. In addition to the apparent problems with the blade temper, the sword’s length, handle, and pommel just didn’t end up suiting my fencing preferences very well.

Sigi Forge Maestro Shorty

Four or five months into the year-plus wait time I ended up experiencing for the Krieger Sentinel I had ordered, Sigi Forge posted a number of “sworphans” (swords people order and then do not pay for in the end) available for sale on their Instagram page. One of them was a Maestro shorty with several customizations, and I snapped it up for a not-insignificant amount of money. The price was not cheap, so I expected a not-cheap sword. My expectations were met, and then some.

The Maestro was my first experience with Sigi and swords of its calibur, and its high quality and excellent characteristics influenced my fencing style and ideas about fencing, probably forever.

I’ll just say up front that this is an awesome sword, and well worth the money. It manages to meet and exceed high standards for cost, durability, safety, aesthetics, and “feel.” Sigi Forge has a strong reputation in the HEMA world, and in my opinion that reputation is absolutely earned and valid.

Cost. Sigis are not the most inexpensive swords on the market, and the Maestro is not the most inexpensive model that Sigi offers, but at €370, as of the time of this writing, for the non-engraved version, it is well within the bounds of being reasonably priced for a HEMA longsword. Customizations bring the price up, of course, and while very well-executed and varied enough to suit lots of preferences, none are needed to make the Maestro an excellent sword.

The durability of the sword is solid. Over the course of a year of constant sparring and tournament competition, the blade has picked up maybe less than five significant burrs. The octagonal crossguard on my model shows nothing but superficial wear. The leather waisted grip has gotten beaten up and cut in various places, but it’s easily fixed with regular re-wraps of hockey stick tape. My model came with blackening on the cross and pommel, which really helps quite a bit to stave off rust, in comparison to e.g. my Sigi Feder standard, which lacks any customizations and which must be oiled regularly to prevent rust. The one durability issue with the Maestro, and indeed apparently all Sigi longswords, is that the blade will take a set during the course of a heavy thrust. It should be noted that this is partly a safety feature, and also partly a maintainability issue -- better that the blade take a set than break. Depending on how often you land deep thrusts, you may find yourself bending out sets fairly regularly. But your fencing partners will thank you :).

Another note on durability is that since acquiring a Sigi Feder (described below), I’ve found myself loaning out the Maestro for use at our club, and it has continued to see as much or more use in recent months as it ever did, under use by a variety of mostly new fencers. I’m a bit unclear on how long one should expect a sparring sword to last under sustained heavy use, but this thing has not been pampered in the least and shows no sign of slowing down.

Safety-wise, the Maestro and other Sigi models are unparalleled. They are among the most flexible blades on the market, and they are weighted such that they don’t hit super hard during cuts. Their broad tips are spatulated and, in my view, the standard for safe tips in HEMA today. We have several Sigi models in our club, including multiple Maestros and Concepts, and I haven’t yet seen one fail, break, come apart, or set beyond repair.

I also tend to think the Maestro looks very nice. I like the shape of the schilt and the relative broadness of the blade. Customizations or no, Sigi seems to be very conscientious of fit and finish: no part of the sword seems cheap, ill-considered, or hastily done. 

In terms of fencing qualities, some will say that the Sigi blades are too floppy. While I don’t agree, I think that there’s a legitimate statement of preference one can make that excludes the Sigis somewhat. Their blades are flexible by design, it’s not an accident. But the blade qualities of the Maestro, such as its schilt shape and the width and taper of the blade, never made me feel like I couldn’t bind or parry properly. The Shorty length, too, I think makes for a sword with tighter pointwork than might be found in a longer blade. The balance and weighting of the Maestro make for a very nimble sword that still has more presence than say a Sigi Concept or a Regenyei Short Feder.

If this section sounds like complete simping for the Maestro and for Sigi in general, that’s because it is. In my view you really can’t go wrong with this sword.

Sigi Forge Feder Standard

Finally, my most recently-acquired sword. This Feder I ordered early in 2024, and Sigi was kind enough to roll it into an existing order I had already put in for two other swords -- a saber and a rapier, which I will review eventually (spoiler: they’re both great). I had this sword in time to use it at IFG Spring Fling of this year, and did pretty well with it (I placed 4th in Open Longsword). And so the verdict is in: this is my new favorite sword.

Originally my purchase of this sword was aimed at three things: making sure I had a spare longsword (I had recently sold my Krieger Sentinel), seeing what it was like to fence with a longer sword, and understanding what the absolute cheapest Sigi model would get me. At €330 the Feder model is about $50 more than a Regenyei Short Feder at the current exchange rate.

All of the above claims about the durability, safety, and fit-and-finish of Sigi swords hold true with the Feder, so I won’t re-litigate those. I’ll just talk about the sword’s fencing qualities and my thoughts on this particular model.

As mentioned at the top of this article, the HEMA meta seems to be moving these days toward swords with lengths on the shorter side, and short blades are/were especially common in the Eugene HEMA community -- they certainly formed the bulk of my initial fencing experience. So I was curious about using a longer sword.

It took me probably a month and a half to get used to the standard length Sigi model, which is longer in both the blade and the handle than the shorty, but once I did get used to it, I loved it. It is probably useful to note that I am 6’1”, so a big part of my game naturally centers around using my reach. In that respect, having the longer sword is absolutely an advantage. I’ve also found that, contrary to my expectations, I can make certain cuts faster, particularly overhand cuts, as the inertia and momentum of the blade seem to assist in the speed of the blade. This isn’t true for every kind of cut -- I have a harder time with zwerchs, for example, using the standard than a shorty. But for making strong, fast initial actions, the extra blade length and handle leverage seem to benefit me greatly.

The increased reach also means that I’ve generally become more successful with thrusts. This could be an artifact of my local or club meta -- that simply by virtue of the delta in length, my opponents have misjudged measure as they adapted to my new sword length, and have/will eventually become savvy enough to parry or void my thrusts just as they would if I were wielding a shorter sword. Nevertheless, my impression is that I’m landing thrusts more often, which makes me like the sword more. 

Interestingly, I haven’t found that the longer blade suffers at all in terms of presence or binding capability. The extra length does make it more difficult to work with at close measure, but the blade itself does not seem to flex or flop any more than my Maestro shorty. I was expecting some of the floppiness I had felt while briefly testing out, for example, various lengths of the Sigi King, in particular the standard length -- that model does feel like it lacks something in the way of presence, perhaps paradoxically given its broader morphology.

Some folks don’t like the schilt on the Sigi Feder. I’ve heard some concern that it might not be as safe as other models because of its sharp angles, and I’ve also heard people say they just don’t like the look of it quite as much as, say, the Maestro’s schilt. Personally, I do think that the Maestro’s schilt is a bit nicer looking, but it’s not enough of a preference for me to choose one model over another based on that alone. One concern I do have about the Feder schilt is that it’s more liable to take damage from direct hits from an opponent’s blade, whereas other schilts will direct the force of the blow outward in a glancing fashion. Thus far, over maybe six months or so of use, this hasn’t been an issue, the schilt has held up just fine, but maybe it’s less than ideal, I dunno.

For this sword, I was determined to order as vanilla a model as possible -- no customizations, no alternative features. Standard cross, handle, and pommel, no brassing or blackening. This strategy got me a sword that I expect will last me years and will be a pleasure to fence with all the while. However, there are times that I do really miss the blackening on my Maestro. The bare brushed steel of the vanilla Feder model readily picks up rust after any intense, sweaty practice session. It needs oiling and scrubbing regularly, or else it gets nasty. I value the appearance of my swords too much to let rust develop, so this means more or less regular maintenance of this sword. If (when) I buy another Sigi, I’ll probably spring for the blackening again, to keep the rust off if nothing else; it really does seem to make quite a difference.

In my view, the $50 cost difference between the Sigi and Regenyei is worth it. Our club recommends both brands to new fencers, but for my money I want something that shows a bit more craftsmanship, a bit more aplomb, and for me, Sigi’s fit and finish is worth the extra $50.

Ultimately, for me at this point in my fencing development, I feel that the longer sword was the right choice. For now, the extra length really seems to suit and influence my fencing style for the better, and I am very happy with it and my improvement as a fencer. Bottom line is that I cannot recommend Sigi enough, and the Feder is a superb example of the company’s core sensibilities about what makes a great HEMA sword.

HEMA Gear Part 1: Gloves

This article is Part 1 of my ongoing series, HEMA Gear: A Year in Review. Please note: the opinions stated in these posts are my personal views, and don’t necessarily reflect official club recommendations or even a consensus at our club. Take them with a grain of salt!

My interest in gloves is first and foremost aimed at longsword fencing. Having a safe and reliable heavy glove for longsword is always going to be my first priority because Masterless is at its core a longsword group. However, I’ve also been very interested in experimenting with gloves for other weapons, such as saber, sidesword, and rapier.

The truth is, regardless of weapon choice, there’s really no perfect HEMA glove. It’s a bit of a bummer, because the hands are among the most common and vulnerable targets in fencing, right up there with the legs and head. Mostly the issues I’ve seen with gloves have to do with durability, maintainability, and their ability to fail gracefully. The best gloves maintain their protective capacity late into their lifespans, are easily fixable at home, and do a good job at keeping you safe even in the event of failure.

I’ll cover the major pieces that I’ve used, encountered, and had hopes for here.

Sparring Gloves Mittens with Hourglass Cuff

I’ll say right away that these are the only heavy longsword gloves that I’ve used in earnest over the last year. I bought them a few months ahead of IFG Spring Fling 2023, and was initially unsure about them because I had been using soft leather gloves (yikes!) exclusively, and the SGs felt comparatively very stiff. I initially felt like I couldn’t get the correct grip on my sword and couldn’t correctly perform guards like ochs/finestra.

So, it’s important to note that these gloves do have a long break-in period before they become reasonably flexible -- one to three months, to be moderately precise. But since I’ve gotten used to them, I’ve come to love them for their execution of the trade-off between protection and mobility that I mentioned above.

They are protective, first and foremost -- I’ve not taken a serious hand injury while wearing them through thrice-weekly rounds of intense sparring with all kinds of weapons. The worst I’ve experienced was a minor cut to the palm of my hand from an unlucky thrust. The lack of palm protection is certainly a drawback of these gloves, but I was wearing an underglove -- I like those nitrile-coated poly gloves you can buy in packs of 10 at the hardware store -- and the underglove was not broken by the injurious thrust, so I have no reason to expect that a fully-covered palm would have saved me from said injury either. In all other respects, the protective capabilities of these gloves are IMO above reproach.

Being made of Styrogum, glue, and elastic cord, these gloves are also exceedingly durable. There are no rivets to break or hard plastic plates to crack. All materials hold up well under sustained punishment. The two main issues with these gloves’ durability, as I see it, have to do with quirks of manufacturing.

First, the elastic cord that the gloves ship with is very prone to breakage. It’s thin and very much exposed to strikes from a sword, and it will break fairly quickly -- within the first three months of use, probably. The upside to this is that the cordage can all be replaced very easily by more robust material. I have been using 1/8” marine-grade shock cord wherever replacements have been needed (eventually everywhere), and this much more durable cord has worked incredibly well. Note that square knots will not work with this kind of elastic cord -- it will come untied because of the stretchiness -- so I’ve been using a knot called a Zeppelin Bend, and I haven’t had any of these knots come loose. IMO, if SGs started using this kind of elastic cord right off the bat, these gloves would be a no-brainer from a durability perspective.

The second issue that I’ve experienced with SGs is that the styrogum on the upper, interior side of the cuff tends to split just behind the thumb. I believe this is simply a design defect that they haven’t caught yet, and expect that they’ll eventually figure out how to remediate this. In the meantime, I’ve managed the splitting with a combination of glue and additional lacing. This solution is not particularly elegant or pretty, but it has kept my gloves functional far past the point when the glove cuff would have otherwise come apart, and doesn’t look to be failing anytime soon.

A final, minor issue that I’ve experienced is that the fabric covering the interior surface of my fingers of my left hand was eventually (after about a year) worn through by regular contact with the faceted pommel of my sword. This is an issue with the durability of the fabric material, and my solution was to glue matching pieces of cotton duck fabric to both the interior and exterior of the original, worn-through fabric, and this has worked well as a fix. I have to suspect that there are more durable fabric choices out there, and I think it’s another area where the glove design could be improved.

As I see it, the main competitor to Sparring Gloves, in terms of function, cost, and reputation, are HF Armory Black Knights, and whereas BKs can be tricky to repair when they fail, SGs do not have this problem that I have seen.

One more thing: I purchased my Sparring Gloves at a size up from what would be “best fit.” My hands fit snugly inside a size L, but I use the XL. This was initially just based on my best guess about what I would need based on my hand size, but I’ve since come to the opinion that the larger sized glove both increases the mobility of my grip on the sword by not restricting my hand quite as much, and creates “standoff” between the styrogum and my hand, making for less pain from direct hits than I would otherwise experience with a tighter-fitting glove. The downside to using a larger size is that my thumb tends to slip out of the glove unless I apply a 1/2” wide band of tape to the thumbpiece to increase the surface area of the thumb enclosure. This is a trade-off that seems acceptable to me, but others may dislike the idea of having to modify the gloves they just paid $250 for, so your mileage may vary with this advice.

I’ve recently bought a second pair of these gloves because I like them so much. They’re not perfect, but IMO with a few tweaks in their design they could be very, very close. I look forward to seeing how the Sparring Gloves company adapts their products to feedback from the growing HEMA community.

HF Armory Black Knights

Ok, I have not personally used the HF Armory Black Knights extensively, I don’t own a pair. But I have watched several members of our club use them regularly, so I’m going to give my opinion regardless.

From my perspective, these gloves are great -- you can’t go wrong with them. They are reasonably priced for heavy HEMA gloves, they offer great protection, and they are reasonably durable.

But! But. When they fail, it kinda sucks, because in many cases self-repairs aren’t really possible; you have to send them back for a return. And I’ve seen many pairs of these gloves fail in the last year. Whether it’s the thumb plate popping off because of an unlucky thrust, or a cuff rivet snapping, or the leather underglove tearing, issues with these gloves seem to be common -- at least as common as any other glove.

I’ve heard some rumors that it was just one batch of gloves from the manufacturer that suffered manufacturing defects -- that because my clubmates all bought their gloves within six months of one another, they all got the same bad batch. That could very well be the case.

It should be said that HF as a company has been very willing to replace broken gloves under warranty. Still though, if your glove breaks, you have to go through the trouble of sending it back for an exchange, to say nothing of the question of what you do in the moment when your glove no longer functions. One of my clubmates experienced a breakage during an eliminations match at SoCal this year -- he had had the foresight to bring a spare set of gloves, and was able to continue fighting, but without the spares he could have lost an opportunity to progress in the event.

The bottom line is that Black Knights have earned their reputation as one of the best options in the sport, but watching people use them has not convinced me to switch from my Sparring Gloves. I continue to be open to having my mind changed.

Other Mentions

High Guards

Purpleheart released the High Guard glove this year. It seems to be intended to fit into the glove niche that Red Dragons once occupied, somewhere between motorcycle gloves and heavy longsword gloves. As far as I can tell, they are manufactured by SupFen as an inexpensive emulation (though an unfaithful one) of Thokk Weaponmasters -- many of the design principles, such as interior finger caps and a plate on the back of the hand, are similar. 

I ordered a pair of High Guards when they came out, as did a few other people in the Eugene fencing community, and generally they seem to be more or less garbage. The materials used in their construction seem to be as cheap as you can get -- the back of hand plates crack easily, the “leather” tears quickly, the cuff falls apart, and the palm grip is awful. They’re the type of gloves that tire out your hand because they require a non-trivial effort to close the fist.

Additionally, these gloves are very bulky, and therefore don’t work well for blades with finger loops like sidesword or rapier. They lack enough protection to be used for longsword, and they lack the form factor to use with lighter weapons; in my opinion, these gloves are a hard pass.

Pro Gauntlet

In case you haven’t heard, Pro Gauntlet discontinued their gloves in mid-2023, and then promptly went out of business. It’s too bad, because although they had their problems, mostly relating to maintainability, the Pro Gauntlets seemed to have a lot of potential for iteration and improvement.

I did not own a pair, but one of our members did, so I got to see them in action. They seemed to strike a really nice balance between protection and mobility, and could even be used with finger-loop blades -- although the forefinger tended to get “locked in” by the hard plastic. However, the gloves’ use of many tiny, fragile elastic loops certainly seemed to be their major flaw. The loops were constantly breaking, requiring regular replacement, and the company was very slow to issue or even sell replacements.

Being no longer available, the Pro Gauntlet is a bit of a moot point now, but it would have been nice to see what they could have done with a longer runway and a few more iterations. Maybe we’ll see someone try something similar in the next few years.

SPES Lobsters

I would be remiss not to mention the SPES Lobsters. My impression is that these are a bit of an “old guard” heavy longsword glove, but they are similar in both price point and availability to the Sparring Gloves Mittens and the HF Black Knights. We do have some members that ordered and used these early on, but most, if not all of those folks have switched to the HF Black Knights, because of the BKs’ slimmer profile and better reputation for protection.

I’ve heard that they’ve suffered from breakages in plastic plates because SPES switched to a new plastic supplier, and I don’t know if those supply and durability issues have been resolved yet.

However, the SPES Lobsters, especially the new v3, still seem like a totally viable choice for anyone looking for a heavy longsword glove. My personal opinion would be to reach for Sparring Gloves or Black Knights before SPES Lobsters, but I would still use these gloves if neither of the others were available.

HF Saber Gloves

Despite having ordered a Sigi Basic Saber (the type with no knucklebow), I purchased the HF Saber Gloves because I had decided on a whim to compete in the Saber event at SoCal this year. SoCal provides Blackfencer 1796 sabers to all competitors, and I knew that these did have a knucklebow, and that my XL Sparring Glove Mittens would not fit inside them.

There are some folks in the Eugene HEMA community who use these saber gloves for longsword fencing, and I think that is an incredibly risky proposition. 

The major issue with these gloves is that the thumb lacks any hard plastic protection. I did use them as-is for Saber Tier C at SoCal without any injuries, but have since taken a couple of painful strikes on the thumb that has led me to discontinue using them with my Sigi Basic Saber in favor of my Sparring Gloves Mittens. It would be possible to insert a hard cap into the thumb pocket, and I’m a bit surprised that that isn’t part of the native glove design. 

I’ve also used the HF Saber Gloves for rapier and sidesword, sacrificing the finger-loop grip I might get from a lighter leather glove for the better protection that these Saber gloves offer. This inferior grip definitely affects my fencing abilities with these weapons, but I’m generally unwilling to assume the risk of a serious injury to my hands that fencing with light leather gloves would require.

Overall, I think these gloves are good for use with saber, but they should be augmented by a hard thumb cap. They are very much a niche, specialized glove, and do not have a ton of value for other weapons.

What Are We Supposed to Wear for Rapier or Sidesword?

Sidesword and rapier are a bit of a conundrum for me: fencers need a glove that allows them to put their forefinger through the ricasso, but which can still protect their knuckles and joints from serious injury. A lot of folks I know use motorcycle-type gloves -- light leather construction with hard knuckle plates and long cuffs -- but I have personally not found these to offer sufficient protection, having had my thumb crushed during a sidesword bout, resulting in my thumbnail falling off, and my knuckle broken from a rapier strike despite using a sword with a cup hilt. These kinds of injuries are unacceptable to me personally.

The best advice I’ve been able to find on the internet is to use Thokk Weaponmasters, which I did order and have recently received (see below). In the meantime, I elected to use HF Saber gloves for both rapier and sidesword, foregoing the finger-over-ricasso grip in favor of the standard mitten-style grip and the protection of the mitten glove. This worked ok: I found the protection to be sufficient, but of course my technique suffered quite a bit. Rapier and sidesword are not high priority weapons for me -- I do enjoy fencing with them, but I’m not at the point with either of them that I expect to show a high level of skill under any circumstances.

I ordered a pair of Thokks specifically for use with rapier and sidesword, and my initial impression is that those gloves should be acceptable, if not ideal for this purpose. See below for more on these gloves. Otherwise, there really doesn’t seem to be a great option currently on the market that meets my requirements for sidesword or rapier.

Thokk Weaponmasters: A Glimpse

As of the date of writing this article, I have only just received my Thokks, and have not had the opportunity to spar with them yet.

The Thokks are interesting gloves. They are quite unlike the other HEMA gloves I’ve had the opportunity to use, both in their insert-based design, and their materials used. They seem to be generally well-reviewed for use with rapier and, to a lesser extent sidesword, on the internet, and several of the HEMA YouTubers that I follow seem to use them for these weapons.

The gloves certainly allow me to use the ricasso grip for both weapons, though the bulk of the forefinger padding still means that this grip is somewhat stiff and “locked in.” And the gloves feature hard plastic knuckle, finger, and back-of-hand protection that by all accounts is durable and reliable. Time will tell.

Thokks certainly seem like the best option out there for ricasso-grip blades, for now. I’ll review them again in a years’ time to report back on how they’ve performed.