[Ansteorra-rapier] gauntlets and rapier

[James Crouchet]

Jay Rudin wrote:
> So the chain mail gauntlet is proof against cuts on the back of the hand but not the front?

No, the palm is safe from cuts so long as the hand does not grab.

>   Or is it that a gauntlet is exactly like a buckler, and therefore protects against cuts, until the hand starts to grab, and suddenly the mail turns to cloth and gets sliced?
>   

That is one way to put it. If a blade moves or twists in the grabbing
hand, that had is disabled. There is no protection against that. Apply
whatever explanation makes that work for you.

> If we are trying to simulate the sixteenth century, the advantage is obvious -- mail protects the hand from a cut.  That's what it's for -- to protect the hand when grabbing the blade.  Even under the weird rule about grasps, there's still a real advantage -- the mailed hand cannot be cut unless and until I succeed in grasping the blade.  Also, I could protect my hand by simply letting go and letting him do a real cut.  It's a completely unrealistic tactic, but it's forced by the unrealistic rule about a defensive secondary suddenly losing its defense when actually used for its only intended sixteenth century purpose.
>   

Again, the problem I see is that we have removed the 16th century
responses to that tactic. So far people seem interested in pointing out
how unrealistic the rule is but not in actually addressing that problem.
Any ideas I might be able to use to set up an experiment?

>> The purpose of this rule ... is to reduce incidents of fighters
>> just hanging on to the blade and perhaps wrestling over it.
>>     
>
> That seems backwards.  The only wrestling over the blade allowed in the rules, and the only wrestling I've seen, comes from the attempt to twist it.  Disallow that, and the wrestling is gone.
>
>   

So, once the blade is grabbed the fighter cannot try to free his blade?
Unless he has another weapon that makes a blade grab equivalent to a
fatal blow. I don't think eliminating one of the few remaining period
responses to blade grabbing is the right answer.

Christian Doré