Glove making – a craftsmanship and our passion.
Excellent knowledge of good glove leather is the basis for every good glove maker. Leather is a 100% natural product and, when purchasing raw pelts, the various peculiarities about the local raw pelt leather dealer in the country of origin must be familiar. This requires a great deal of local experience and trained specialists, in order to procure the desired and necessary raw materials for our gloves. In order to get a pair of ESKA gloves to a customer, it must undergo many manual work steps.
Leather warehouse
First of all, experienced, specially trained specialists start by inspecting and selecting only the best raw materials in the leather warehouse and sorting the leather individually by hand according to quality, strength, colour and tactility.
Moistening
Afterwards, each pelt is rolled in ever so slightly moistened linen cloths and moistened like so for approximately 15 minutes. This process makes it easier for the subsequent work of the glove makers on the leather easier.
Table cut – shaping the pelt
The trained glove maker is now responsible for performing the table cut – i.e. removing the soft leather over the edge of the table. Using a cardboard template in the desired glove size, the pelt section that has previously been measured is then cut to size. After the width of the glove has been cut out with scissors, in the second step each glove is pulled out again towards the ends of the fingers over the edge of the board and brought to the correct length. Here, the individual’s senses, accuracy, precision and speed is crucial.
Table cut - Etavillonieren
After the leather has been pulled a mould made of cardboad is laid on it. The shape of this mould is exactly the same like the punchers.
Fentieren
The finished gloves are punched out by the glove maker punched on calibers with the help of a punching machine . The so called fenting is the last step of the panel cutting, where the final shape of the fingers and thumbs is punched out with the caliber.
Punch caliber
These valuable calibers date back to the founding days of the company by the grandfather of our current senior manager. Unfortunately, they are no longer produced in such perfect quality and accuracy of fit.
Cut to size
Cutting the main part of the glove and the thumb by hand is done with a steady, practised hand and a lot of precision. The colour and structure of the leather must match the rest of the glove to guarantee a harmonious overall appearance. A good glove maker prepares about 30 pairs of gloves for sewing in this way in one working day – his work is finished after fencing and the cuts are passed on to the seamstresses.
Sewing
Each and every glove is sewn by well-trained glove sewers. At this point, the precision and care of the glove maker’s work becomes clear for all to see. Special quilting machines with a contact surface the size of a one pence piece permit the seal to be quilted flat and evenly right down to the fingertips. The glove is stitched using a cotton-coated nylon thread. Other seams include the slack seam, winding seam, inseam and outseam, and hand seam.
Puffing out gloves
Puffing is a crucial step before for the final quality inspection. Her, the finished gloves are shaped and ironed on very special glove irons at approx. 90 to 100 °C to bring them into shape.
Gloves were an expression of fashion, fortune and status. So it's no wonder glove making originated in France - but gloves have been around for much longer; they have even been traced back to ancient Egypt and are part of history.
