Grimhold Hand Forged Chainmail and Leather Gauntlets with Domed Steel Studs & Buckled Cuffs | Norse Reenactment Gift | RK-1450

Grimhold is a pair of hand made gauntlets built the way a mail glove was actually built. A soft leather glove goes on first, then a skin of butted mail is laid over the back of the hand, over each finger and around the cuff, and a run of domed steel studs is set through the leather beneath it. Butted mail means every ring is closed by bringing the two cut ends together rather than by punching the overlap and setting a rivet through it. That is the construction almost all modern decorative mail uses, and it is the reason people are often surprised at how light mail feels in a shop. War mail in the Viking age was riveted, and a riveted glove of the same coverage weighs noticeably more because the wire has to be heavier to carry a rivet at all.

So be clear about what this is before it goes in the basket. Grimhold is a display and light reenactment glove. It will take handling, photography, a costumed event and gentle drill. It is not full contact combat kit, and butted rings will pull open under a hard thrust or a heavy edge blow. Every pair is forged and finished by hand in our shop in Memphis, Tennessee, not pulled from an importer catalogue and relabelled. Your gauntlets arrive as a matched pair with the leather gloves already fitted inside the mail and the cuff straps set and buckled. Free shipping inside the United States, one to two weeks processing, seven day returns, and a genuine lifetime warranty against defects in the forging, the grind, the heat treat and the fittings, with no end date and no receipt needed.

Specifications

Butted mail and riveted mail, and why the difference matters

A mail ring has one job, which is to refuse to open when something tries to push through it. There are two ways to make it refuse. The old way is to overlap the ends of the ring, flatten the overlap, punch a hole through both leaves and set a tiny wedge rivet through the hole. That ring will not open until the rivet shears. The cheap and fast way is to butt the ends together so they meet cleanly and rely on the springiness of the wire. That ring looks identical from two feet away and holds up perfectly to handling, wearing and posing, but it will spring apart under a determined point.

Grimhold is butted. We build it butted deliberately, because a butted glove stays light and flexible enough that your fingers still close around a cup, a haft or a camera, and because the price stays sane. If your event runs full contact steel and your marshal inspects hands, this is not the glove for that line. If you are dressing a costume, photographing a kit, standing a living history display or drilling at low intensity, butted mail is the correct and honest choice and it will last years.

The studs are not decoration alone. Rows of domed steel set through the leather under the mail sit proud of the ring surface, so a glancing knock lands on a hard dome rather than on the rings themselves. Historically that logic is the same one behind brigandine and studded leather work, and it is why the studs run across the knuckles and the back of the hand where a hand takes most of its accidental contact.

The steel, the leather and the hardware

The mail is mild steel wire. Armour is not blade steel and it should never be quoted like blade steel. Mild steel is what you want in mail because it wants to bend rather than crack, and a ring that deforms and can be closed again is far more useful than a hard ring that snaps. The rings are blackened rather than left bright, which cuts glare in photographs and slows surface rust.

The glove underneath is full grain leather, vegetable tanned and dyed dark. Full grain means the outer surface of the hide is intact rather than sanded and corrected, so it takes a patina rather than flaking. The palm and the fronts of the fingers are left as bare leather so you keep grip and feel. The cuff strap runs through a plated roller buckle so the gauntlet can be tightened over a shirt cuff or a padded sleeve without pinching.

Engraving, runes and your own design

Use the rune converter on this page to turn a name, a date or a short phrase into Elder Futhark and we will cut it into the steel or the leather. If you would rather have a Viking pattern than a rune line, choose your own design in the engraving option above the add to cart button and tell us where it goes. Where a piece already carries an engraved design, your chosen engraving replaces it rather than sitting alongside it. On a pair of gauntlets the natural home for a rune line is the cuff strap or the buckle keeper. Full detail is on the engraving page.

Fit and sizing

These are made to a stated glove size rather than fitted to a cast of your hand, so measure before you order. Take a tape around the widest part of your palm, not including the thumb, and measure the length from the base of the palm to the tip of the middle finger. Order to the larger of the two readings if you fall between sizes, because mail over leather does not stretch the way a plain glove does and a tight mail glove will fight you every time you close your fist.

Think about what goes under them as well. If you wear these over a padded gambeson sleeve or a thick shirt cuff, the cuff strap has to reach around that bulk too. There is adjustment in the buckle but it is not unlimited. If your kit is heavily layered, size up.

Care

Mail rusts because it is thousands of small surfaces that trap moisture at every contact point. After an event, shake the gauntlets out, let them dry away from direct heat, then work a light coat of gun oil or mineral oil through the rings with your hands and wipe the excess off the leather. Store them flat or hung rather than crushed in the bottom of a kit bag, because pressure sets a crease in the mail that is a nuisance to work out. Feed the leather two or three times a year with a neutral leather conditioner. If surface rust does appear, a handful of dry sand and a vigorous shake in a bag is the traditional and still the best answer. The same principles for oiling and storing steel are set out on our steel care page.

Forged in Memphis

Everything we sell is made in our own shop in Memphis, Tennessee. The rings are wound and closed here, the gloves are cut and sewn here, the studs are set here and the pair is inspected here before it is boxed. Nothing is drop shipped from an importer catalogue with our name printed on the packaging. That is also why the warranty is worth something. If a stud pulls, a seam opens or a buckle fails, we made it and we will put it right.

A note on handmade variation

These are hand made and not machine made or bulk produced, so what arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph. Ring lay, stud spacing, the exact tone of the blackening and the grain of the leather all vary because each pair is worked by hand from natural materials. The dimensions, the material and the build are the same every time. The character is not.

Frequently asked questions

Is the mail riveted or butted?

Butted. The ring ends are closed against each other rather than riveted through an overlap. That keeps the glove light and flexible and keeps the price down, and it is the reason we describe these as display and light reenactment gauntlets rather than combat gauntlets.

Can I wear these for full contact reenactment?

No. Butted rings will spring open under a hard thrust or a heavy blow, and most full contact groups will fail them at inspection anyway. For steel fighting you want a plate gauntlet or a properly riveted mail mitten from a maker who will certify it for that use.

Will they fit over a padded sleeve?

Usually yes, but the cuff strap has to close around whatever you are wearing underneath. If you run a heavy gambeson sleeve, order the next size up so the buckle still has adjustment left in it.

Will they rust?

They can. Mild steel mail is not stainless and the blackening slows corrosion rather than stopping it. Dry them properly after damp events and oil them a few times a year and they will stay clean for many seasons.

Can I still hold things wearing them?

Yes. The palms and the fronts of the fingers are plain leather, so you keep grip and a reasonable amount of feel. Fine work like doing up a small buckle is awkward, as it is with any armoured glove.

How long until they ship?

Processing is one to two weeks because each pair is made by hand to your size, and engraved orders sit at the longer end of that. Shipping inside the United States is free.

What is in the box

• One matched pair of chainmail and leather gauntlets, left and right
• Leather gloves already fitted and sewn inside the mail
• Cuff straps and roller buckles fitted
• Elder Futhark rune engraving where selected
• Care and oiling notes
• Forged and finished in Memphis, Tennessee

Explore the range

See more in chainmail armor, plate armor and Viking armor, or read the guides for how mail is made and how to size it.