Established in 1944, Burfields & Co. is one of only two surviving glove manufacturers in an area that once boasted 38. The hand-painted sign welcoming visitors is a relic of that bygone age. It reads: “This is where gloves of quality and superlative design are manufactured by Burfields and the Martock Glove Co.” In a rabbit warren of buildings at the end of a small lane, the main factory sits beside the old fire station which now acts as the Burfields warehouse.
Richard unwraps a piece of black goatskin from inside a wet cloth; the leather is dampened for a few hours, making it easier to work and stretch. This piece is destined to become a pair of black Rapha Grand Tour Gloves. He moves the skin one way and then the next, with the urgency and agility of a pizza chef stretching dough. The degree of stretch within the leather is very important. It is the cutter’s job to ensure every piece of a glove has, within the leather’s grain, the same stretch. To allow the glove to bend around the hand, the leather must have something extra, a quality Richard refers to as “hidden stretch”, something not necessarily apparent when the leather is relaxed. A size large glove, for example, may have as much as 2 ¼ inches of this ‘hidden leather’, which is needed to transform a flat, 2D pattern, into a working 3D glove.
Great post and great gloves too.
Read the entire article here.
Praises be to tracko for pointing it out.
