The Right Hand of Doom

Not to be confused with Dr. Doom, the inspiration for this gauntlet came from R.A. Salvatore's character Artemis Entreri.

Spoiler Warning

In Salvatore's Sell Swords series, Entreri acquires an enchanted sword called Charon's Claw, which is accompanied by a magical gauntlet that, so long as he wears it, allows him to physically touch the sword without having to mentally battle the malevolent sentience contained within it, with a risk of death and his soul being destroyed if he loses the battle of wills. The gauntlet also allows him to detect any scrying or magical spying that is being performed on him specifically, and it is capable of absorbing and retaining magic attacks cast at him. Example: it could absorb a lightning spell used to attack him, store it, and allow him to use said spell at a later time.

That's where the similarities end. I wondered what Entreri's gauntlet would look like if it were built of plate mail armor, and started working on a design.

Originally, I had intended the armor to extend from the hand all the way to the finger tips. In fact, I already have the metal cut and ready to hammer into shape for the fingers, however at the time--I was building this with the intention of wearing it to Comic-Con 2007--I came to the conclusion it would take too long to finish the fingers since I was sorely limited for time, what with Comic-Con a week and a half away. I made the deadline, but the finger plates were never finished and attached.

This mean-looking fellow was built using eleven sections of 22 gauge sheet metal, each one individually cut, edges ground, and hammered into shape, all by hand, and attached overlapping each other using aluminum aircraft rivets, with eyelets on the bottom edge to lace on the plate for the underside of the arm--which isn't shown in the above pictures. It is articulated at the wrist, allowing an up/down bending motion of the hand, and has a hinge at the thumb. It is surprisingly light, considering it is made out of metal.