Swedish pikemen; gloves?

Conflict between the Swedes and their various neighbours between 1670s and 1721. Including topics on Danes, Saxons, Saxon-Polish, Russians and anyone else the boys in blue were mixing it with!
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Clibinarium
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Swedish pikemen; gloves?

Post by Clibinarium » Mon Mar 03, 2014 4:23 pm

I am having trouble determining whether Swedish pikemen wore gloves. My guess is they were issued with them, but I can't find a definitive answer. Any ideas?
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Re: Swedish pikemen; gloves?

Post by Dfogleman2 » Mon Mar 03, 2014 6:32 pm

Clibinarium wrote:I am having trouble determining whether Swedish pikemen wore gloves. My guess is they were issued with them, but I can't find a definitive answer. Any ideas?
This article says that all infantry had buckskin gloves. If this is correct, I imagine that the pikemen would have worn them in battle most of the time and the musketeers might not have, at least in the summer.

I am sure our Swedish friends will have some good info.

http://www.xenophon-mil.org/rusarmy/ore ... oltava.htm
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Re: Swedish pikemen; gloves?

Post by Tacitus » Tue Mar 04, 2014 10:31 am

I do not know of any information about how frequently Swedish pikemen and musketiers used gloves. All had them of course, but the infantry gloves had smaller collars than the one ones used by the cavalry. So even if only pikemen and not musketiers used them in a battle then the difference might not be that noticeable in a miniature figure.

From what I have seen in modern illustrations the pikemen does not seem to be depicted with gloves in a greater extent than the musketiers.

The major battles in the Great Northern War can easily be divided into two distinct categories. Winter battles and summer battles. Narva 1700, Fraustadt 1706, Lesnaya 1708, Helsingborg 1710 and Gadebusch 1712 were all fought in snowy conditions in which all soldiers likely wore gloves. The other battles, Düna 1701, Kliszow 1702, Holowczyn 1708 and Poltava 1709 were fought in July in sunny conditions in which gloves might have been uncomfortable for all soldiers.
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Re: Swedish pikemen; gloves?

Post by Clibinarium » Tue Mar 04, 2014 12:23 pm

That's the impression I've formed too, though I did wonder from a practical point of view it might be easier to handle a pike with gloves on to cut down on the wear on your hands. Its usual to see pikemen of various nations with gloves on, at various time.
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Re: Swedish pikemen; gloves?

Post by Spiraluk » Sat Mar 08, 2014 1:58 pm

I didn't bother but people can always just paint the hands buff colored. You can't go wrong either way though.
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Re: Swedish pikemen; gloves?

Post by EvilGinger » Sun Mar 09, 2014 3:53 pm

From a practical point of view gloves cut down your manual dexterity an awful lot so most people who are doing task which require a high level of dexterity will avoid wearing them or if its too cold take them off before you do the task. You can get away with this unless its really freezing say -10 Celsius depending on wind chill.

Second they are not going to be at all noticeable on a 25mm-28mm figure unless they are full on leather gauntlets with turn backs or reinforcement all that changes is the colour of the hand

:evil: Ginger
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