The Gage

Count Andreas Morgan asked me if I’d do a small project for him, on short notice, and I agreed, mostly because I have a bit of a soft spot (as much of a soft spot as I can have for anyone) for Count Andreas. He was King of Æthelmearc when I first started playing in the SCA, and won crown as an unbelted lefty fighting with a punch shield. Pretty inspirational stuff, as I was fighting heavy at the time. Then I met him at Pax Interruptus in the melees and he was a good guy, real friendly, and gave me nice compliments on my gear – cool stuff for someone at his first SCA event.

Anyway, in Æthelmearc, our order of high merit for heavy fighting is the Gage:

and Count Andreas asked me if I could add the golden escarbuncle to a gauntlet, if he sent me one, and some of his heraldry on the cuff as well. I have no idea what he’s doing with it, some kind of ceremonial thing I’d imagine. Anyway, I was snowed under with work, but thought I could find a few hours to do this for him, so I said I would. I didn’t have any yellow leather on-hand, so I ordered some yellow kidskin from my favorite leather supplier, Springfield Leather.

Once I got the gauntlet in the mail, I measured the back of the hand. I figured I could get a 4″ escarbuncle on it, and the bigger the better, because I have to hand-cut these, and the larger they are the easier it is to cut them.

I started by using my vinyl cutter to cut a 4″ escarbuncle of sticky-backed vinyl, which I peeled and applied to the flesh side of the yellow kidskin. I used an X-Acto knife and about six blades (they dull quickly and I need them sharper than a razor for this) to painstakingly cut out the escarbuncle. This took a couple hours. Then I peeled the vinyl off the back of the leather, and glued the escarbuncle onto the back of the hand of the gauntlet.

Fearing that this would be insufficient, I also sewed down each of the eight points, using a common sewing needle and yellow cotton thread. I made a tiny awl from a straight pin set into a small scrap of wood with superglue, and used that to make the stitching holes: one through the yellow leather, and one on either side of the point through the glove only. Each point is tacked down on both sides of it. I used superglue to secure the thread knots on the inside of the glove.

Sewing down the points took a couple more hours. I had to work the needle with needlenose pliers to get it up inside the glove, as my hands did not fit.

Once done with the escarbuncle, the rest was simple. I made a pattern for a Tau cross and two acorns, traced them onto the flesh side of some white kidskin, and cut them out. I mirrored the acorns by flipping the pattern over while tracing the second one. I glued these in place, and sewed them down with white waxed linen thread using a saddle stitch through pre-punched holes, which I did with a tiny drive punch.