The detail that jumped out at me first: the newer thumb runs on a handmade metal hinge instead of a leather strip. That single change says a lot about how far this armour work has come in a year.
The maker built two pairs of medieval-style steel gauntlets a year apart and compared them. The older pair uses 20-gauge plates riveted straight to a black deer leather glove, with a look drawn from fantasy armour and its aggressive points. The newer set leans on practical Gothic armour from the 14th and 15th centuries: Gothic-inspired wrists, while the hand plate and fingers follow 14th-century hourglass patterns. Those newer plates are 18-gauge, crescent shaped, arcing backwards to track how the wrist and hand move, and they attach to leather strips that were sewn onto a cowhide glove.
The construction details stand out. The first pair's flutes were sharp creases punched into the steel, and that punching left structural weak points behind. The new flutes were formed by drawing the steel over a stake with a rounded tool, keeping the steel's thickness and strength intact. The maker even made a fluting tool from a yellow-handled brick chisel. Domed rivet heads give a cleaner finish, and a buffing wheel left a mirror-like shine. The narrower crescent thumb plate is shaped for a better grip on tools, and the maker demonstrated gripping and swinging a hammer while wearing the new pair with a quilted gambeson.
The unfinished side: matching symmetry between the left and right gauntlets was a significant challenge, and the maker wants to learn to do the thumb plate better. A full knuckle plate is a future goal; this pair kept things simpler. My own take: the first pair's sharp creasing still looks striking, but the new pair's comfort and near-full range of motion without gapping seem like the bigger win.
Project by MAKE**IT. Watch it on their YouTube channel: