Protective gear: The Gloves
Background:

At a certain moment in your quest to become a good longboarder you'll notice that you will have to go for gloves that will resist the grinding forces of the road you're skating on...
Many times you've told yourself that those sliding gloves have to be made...so at last you end up on this page to see how a pair of them can be made...
What you see here is not the ultimate sliding glove...it are gloves that will do the trick and that can be altered to your needs...

Here's an impression of what I did...
What did I use:

A piece of 2mm plywood...any other thing will do as well (aluminium,plastic,anything thin...)
Some screws...self threading ones...
Contact glue...the stuff they glue shoes with...
A pair of gloves...(these are new ones I've got hold off...Thanks dad !!!!)
And the most important/difficult stuff called TEFLON, ERTHALON, whatever they call it...(they are usually brand names)....a piece of that material...those household/kitchen devices to cut onto will do as well...
A woodworkers saw...or a electric jigsaw to make the job easier...
The second picture shows you all the place that is used when you put those gloves at use...It's the part underneath the palm of your hand...

That's the place where you stick the good stuff!!!
Here I've used a piece of paper to make a template for that grinding area I need...Take care that you can move your fingers...you'll have to be able to grab that deck when carving/sliding!!!... This is the result...I used felt marker to make it visible...The plywood will be used as counter plate on the inside of the gloves...to retain those screws...Make a mirror couple of the lot...left and right...
Everything is cut now...use a "shave"(???) to trim the edges and the corners...How?...sorry no pic's...just use the thing...I found out how in the process...Please excuse for that...I was in my NOT cleaned up cellar for this... :-)
The saw I've used is this one...it goes from thick to thin...what's the name of the thing? I dunno....
Everything is ready...holes drilled...and shaped to take the heads of those screws...drill holes into the pad as well!!! hole size: the diameter of the core of the screw... So far so good...just some minor things should happen...drilling those holes into the backplates and sliding material...
Position your pad as you wanted it...use a screw to make 2 holes through the leather... 2 holes made...they will come in handy for positioning the pad when glue is added...
Add glue...and leave to dry for about 15min...typical for CONTACT-glue... Place the back plate into the glove and add the 2 screws...then you carefully position the pad onto those screws and tighten them up...do not stick the whole pad onto the glove!!!
Allign the pad and get rid of wrinkles in the leather...then PRESS the pad onto it...All should look like this now... Now you can add the rest of the screws...somethimes difficult to reach!!!
The front ones have to be reached through the top of the glove...just press that screwdriver through the fabric somewhere in the middle...
This is the finished result...Note that the position of the pad makes it possible to bend your fingers and thumb...necessary for grabbing the deck...Still have to try them out off course...but, what looks right is right!!!

Have a go at it...Look for materials...be inventive...you'll succeed!!!

Bye! Ive
Josh L asked for pad dimensions...here they are ;-)
More info:
I received a mail from Robert Ehlers (from Germany) with some additional things he did to his sliding gloves...here's a compilation of his info and how he done it...This is what he wrote:

"Hi Ive,

Thanks a bunch for the instructions on sliding-gloves; I´m on my 4th pair now and I decided to let you know about some minor improvements/suggestions for more comfort. Feel free to post it on your
site, if you want to."

Here's his explanation of things:
I duct-taped the finger tips of the glove. A couple of rounds for each tip will help to keep the glove in good shape because finger tips always rip off first.

Be sure to tape them BEFORE first use - a roll of duct-tape is cheap and one application will last at least 10-15 radical sessions. So its way cheaper to buy that roll of tape rather than a new pair of gloves every month.
I taped a piece of tissue over the wood board and the screw-heads on the inside of the glove.

The heads can really hurt your palms when you slam. The construction rises the wood piece by about 1-2 millimeters so it really doesn´t effect anything
Tip for all German/European readers: Get yourself pair of gloves at MAX BAHR, they´re pretty reliable and cost about 2 Euro's.
Thanks for the info Robert!!!...If anyone would like to add anything to this website, feel free to mail me...
All usefull info will be added with name and country of the suplier...

Bye now,

Ive
Another approach: melting pads straight onto the gloves.
I'm sure that some of you out there used this technique already...but Pascal mailed me with some info on how he does the trick...
You will need a household/kitchen tablet, used when cutting food...these pale white plastic tablets are very cheap and durable...and they can be melted... (industrial 'Erthalon' doesn't and can't be used)
First he cuts the tablet into suitable pieces and then melts the side that will be fixed onto the glove with a blow-torch...
When the heated side gets more or less fluid, you can press hard onto the gloves by using clamps and some wood or some heavy weight...
Small pieces can be added to the fingertips too...

Pascal says it's probably the cheapest way to make a good pair of sliding gloves !