[MR] Hockey Glove Failure/Advice on the Best Hand Protcetion

[JBRMM266 at aol.com]

Scripsit Sir Kenneth:

"I broke my finger last night while wearing a like-new pair of these hockey gloves . . .  Someone hit my hand while I was grasping my glaive, and not only did it fracture my little finger, but it tore an inch-long laceration into it as well. "

Sir Kenneth, I suspect that part of your problem was the construction of the fingers of the hockey gloves.  

The sides of the fingers are often made of mesh, which can stretch quite a bit, often enough to allow your finger to extend out from underneath the padding, where they can be struck.  This happened to me years ago; it was the only case where I got an injury that required medical attention. (I took a blow on the hand while using a glaive also.)

One remedy for this is to sew the ends of the fingers so that the palm side of each finger is directly attached to the back.  It might do well to sew the outside of the pinkie in the same way, as it might have been lateral displacement that allowed your injury to happen.  

I made a pair of reinforcements for my older hockey gloves, but have not made new ones for my new ones, which have more padding.  They consisted of two pieces of leather, one flat over the back of the hand and one shaped and stitched to cover the backs and ends of the fingers with a piece of thin leather over the palm, forming a sort of pocket into which I inserted my fingers.  The two pieces are attached together by a strip of flexible leather that serves as a hinge.  A strap on the flat piece holds the guard in place, going around the wrist.

When the palms of my "new" hockey gloves were eaten by mice, I stiched some leather work gloves to what remained and the end result is much more stable than the original design.

These are not complete solutions, of course.  It may be that hockey gloves are not really adequate to the task, but metal gauntlets have been beyond my reach economically.

I know that being a bard, your hands are of particular care to you, since one cannot easily play an instrument with bad fingers (I cannot stand the pressure of strings on my broken finger).  I hope that a satisfactory solution can be found to prevent another instance of this.

Your friend and servant aye,
Donal