I had mine made in titanium, they came out quite light, lighter then I expected. I've been hit in the hands by glaives and longswords and these seem to protect adequately if not exceptionally well. Even hits to my thumb don't seem that bad. For sword and shield and melee these work quite well with one handed swords and weapons. No issues holding onto weapons. I have worn these in sword and shield tournaments with no issues. For polearm I find these my favorite choice for hand protection at the current moment. Even with the multi plate construction they shrug off some heavy hits thanks to the internal padding. These gauntlets are frequently borrowed by other fighters on my team for pole arm fighting I haven't had an issue with lending them out as they have had excellent durability. My only complaint is the wrist is stiff so it does affect my ability to fight with the longsword where I find I rely on hand and wrist dexterity significantly. So I wear currently wear other gauntlets for longsword fighting. All in all I do like these gauntlets and I find that they fit a wide variety of kits and they don't look out of place even when I lend them out to a fellow fighter with a different cultural kit.