Anti-Rape Gloves

The idea for this intructable came about through the urge to protect my sister. She is a small, sweet, lovely woman and works in the bad part of town. I often worry about her as she travels home by herself in the early hours of the morning. I have regularly thought of ideas of things that she could have on her to protect her, however there are many problems with self-defence items because of obvious reasons.

I did some research on anti-rape devices and there are many but a lot are after the fact items. I wanted to prevent, not cure. No woman wants to say "well it happened but at least they got hurt." I want women to say "Well he tried" Or even better, in a perfect world, "That does not happen ever".

My design criteria had to be:

Something that was able to be carried that you didn't have to think about or be on the alert

Something that was preventative rather then after-the-assault effective

Something that is hard to be used by the attacker against the victim

Something that was convenient and compact that women would wear.

I wanted to see how women fought in fights. I have seen women fight in martial arts but they are trained. So where do you find raw fights? Jerry springer? Nooo, YouTube. I watched heaps of women fighting in all sorts of situations and noticed a few things. Women tend to slap and go for the face, they grapple, pull and push as opposed to direct punching or kicking people. So the idea was born. Introducing the anti-rape gloves.

P.s. These might not always stop a rape from happening, but they will leave evidence on the attacker and can cause some serious injury. They WILL hurt the attacker or even be fatal!! If you are going to make these, I take no responsibility for what you do to anyone with them. Nice little disclaimer :)

Step 1: Things You Will Need.

Here are some tools you need for this project.

From left to right.

M5 Stainless screws 40mm

M5 tap

4.5mm Drill bit

5.5mm Drill bit

Permanet marker

Automatic centerpunch

2 pieces of marine grade stainless 12mm wide (half inch) 120mm long (about 5 inch) 2mm Thick (5/64 inch)

(Marine grade is important because it resists rust from sweat and will last the distance.)

Vernier Calipers

Also you will need

Angle gringer

Belt sander or files

Dremel tool

A set of gloves. I chose these women's cycling gloves because they were made well and have lots of padding, are tight-fitting and hard to take on and off and have a velcro strap as opposed to button-on, making them hug tight to the hand.

Step 2: Measure Gloves

Here you want to measure your gloves and where you want your plates to go. I kept in mind when the hand is closed, the small blades sit between the index and second finger and the third and pinky fingers. It just makes it a bit more comfy for the wearer.

Step 3: Marking Out Steel.

Once you have your measurement in my case 50mm (2inch) you will need to mark that from each end. I am marking out one plate and will drill both together. The hole marks are about 12mm in from each end but will depend on your personal project.

I chose to do only 2 blades to ensure the pressure of pressing on an arm say is only spread between two points, meaning they will go in.

Next I set my vernier to half the width of the plate (roughly) and used the vernier to scribe the plate from both sides to give me two small centrelines. Now you have a dot and you know where to centerpunch on the centre.

Step 4: Automatic Centerpunch.

An automatic centerpunch has a spring and a release that activates when a certain amount of pressure is applied to it. This motion fires a hardened steel pin into the steel leaving a small dent. The small dent allows your drill to stay in place upon starting and not slide all over the steel. This is especially important in my case when I don't have a drill press and my drill chuck is loose.

I then taped the two pieces of steel together before drilling.

Step 5: Drilling the Steel

Now it's time to drill. If you don't have a drill press, placing a piece of timber underneath your steel will help when your drill drops through. I used a quick clamp to hold this down. I'm using the 4.5mm drill here and this will be drilled through both plates.

My plates skewed a bit which wasn't optimal, but hey, thats how you learn. Next time, I might use a better clamp.

As a general rule with steel you want a high amount of pressure downwards and low rpm. A cutting lubricant also helps. I used wd 40. Kerosene would also work.

Step 6: Tapping the First Plate

Metal taps are used to create a thread in a piece of steel. They have a hardened piece of tool steel with a thread that has scollops cut out of the side. The scollops allow the edge of the hardened thread to act as a cutting edge to remove steel. They are also tapered ever so slightly to ease into the thread as it cuts.

To use the tap, wind it downwards in a clockwise direction with a lot of pressure holding it as vertical as possible. As soon as it bites, turn it a full rotation. You will feel the tap start to seize up - stoooooooop! Reverse a half a turn and continue in the same fashion. If you keep turning a tap one direction it will break. Its a horrible thing a broken tap because it's very hard to remove.

Check to see if all your bolts will screw in when done.

Note: Only one plate is threaded.

Step 7: Drilling the Second Plate

Next is drilling your second plate. Simply drill your 4.5mm holes out to 5.5mm. Use cutting lubricant, it should be easy cutting with a new bit. I deburred all holes on both plates by sanding the plates after this.

Step 8: Cutting the Plates

You now have two plates. One has a hole that the bolt can freely go through and the other is threaded.

Bolt these together and cut them off at the 50mm mark with the angle grinder. I prefer to use Pferd 1mm discs for stainless steel. They are thin, fast cutting and don't explode like cheap discs.

Step 9: Cleaning Up the Plates.

Now it's time to spend a while with the sander cleaning up the edges and making everything look nice. Sand away and be creative.

Step 10: Cut the Bolts

If your local supply shop did not have the bolts in the right size like mine, then you will have to cut them. I cut mine about 12mm long (half inch).

You can now see what they will sorta look like.

Step 11: Grinding Your Blades

I thought about the design of the blades quite a bit, taking in mind when something as awful as rape happens your average person is not thinking straight. Having points would hurt but not cause to much damage and having straight spikes or blades assume direct angles are involved. The american eagle came to mind (seriously it did, and I'm Australian!) and also the velociraptor claw out of jurassic park that the weird guy carries around. A curved claw is that way for a reason. It hooks in with minimal effort and if any movement is applied, it works its way in. Nature is genius by design.

First thing I did was to flat grind the screw tips shown in the first pic. Next I used the dremel to hollow grind the mid section. This will ensure maximum slicing effect once the points are in. Wow this is gore.. "but hey they deserve it. :)"

Next round the front of the screw downwards to make it more claw-like.

Step 12: Finishing the Blades

For finishing the blades I clamped the screws into a set of vice grips and rounded the tops and made sure the front part of the claw shape had a small flat section to increase point sharpness. Why? "Because that's the point".

Step 13: Finishing Plates

Now it's time to pull apart the plates and deburr all edges, including all edges that touch the glove. You don't want the steel to cut the leather.

Sit them on the gloves and have a look.

Step 14: Fitting the Plates

I put the plates on the gloves and decided where they were to sit. Remember to place those blades in between fingers.

Make a mark through one of your plates and use a 5mm punch to make the holes with a pice of leather or similar to protect the back of the glove.

Now put your blades through and tighten them up.

Step 15: Finish

Now you can see what they look like.

Although the bolt heads weren't rounded, I had a few women try these on and they didn't complain about the hex head bolts, however in future I would probably use a torx-style dome head screw for even more comfort. I would also leave a little more thread on the screws to help with fixing them onto the gloves. They gave me a bit of trouble when fixing the plates together.

Seeing her face light up when I pulled them out made my day - she said she immediately felt safer having them on.

Thanks Bene for modelling the gloves. I hope you enjoy them!

Comments

[mweatherill]

Avoidance is always better. If a lady in the circumstances described really was worried about being attacked, she should simply not put herself in danger in the first place. Carrying an offensive weapon and going equipped for trouble is not reasonable. And it's fantasy to expect carrying a knife or a gun or some home made 'self defence' weapon is the end of an encounter. It might only escalate things. Who knows? Don't get into troublesome situations in the first place. I think a better Instructable would be 'how to run away'.

[Arhude]

What an ignorant and naive thing to say.

[Daniel003]

Being aware of your surroundings, not letting people get within reach, as well as planning for trouble is smart. No, being armed, legally, is not likely to "escalate" things. The idea you are better off not able to defend your self when needed is a dangerous fantasy.

[jlondon4]

YES AGREED

[destinee24242]

That was the most ignorant thing I've read in a long time

[destinee24242]

one of the most amazing women ive ever met was stolen from me a few months ago. Someone stalked her for weeks, when she found out She contacted the police. Then she thought she was safe. A few days later, it was a Friday morning, he broke into her home strangled her, slammed her head into a mirror because she was fighting back, then her killed her and did other things that I'd rather not say. So tell me Mr. AllKnowing, how could that situation have been avoided? Seriously...I would love to know so we can make sure we don't have to inconvenience psychopaths from now on

[lynowens]

So, HOW does one avoid circumstances, "not put herself in danger", or not "get into troublesome situations in the first place" when a large number of rapes occur in the victims' OWN home?! (google "raped in own home" for news reports on this). I would like to know how to keep myself safe....

[aoutlawstar]

Quite a few women are actually dumb enough to open the door to their attackers, so for starters don't open the door for strangers....ever and question all service and utility people who show up that are not requested by you. Ask for id, company information and phone numbers and then contact that services office and find out if that person is supposed to be there and if they have problems with this call the police. Make sure your home is secure as possible, things like quality locks and door hardware, alarms window locks. you can hire professionals to evaluate the security of your home and provide info on how better to secure your home. Be aware of your surroundings as you enter or exit your home as these are vulnerable times that someone could use to follow you in or push you back in. Keep an eye out for strange activity around your house and neighborhood and look out for things that might be out of place in your yard like a patio chair that is moved next to a window or wall. These things are a start do as much research as you can because knowledge is your best defense against pretty much everything.

[Vyger]

I spent a number of years working for the US Census Bureau and sometimes people not answering the doors caused a lot of problems. It meant extra trips, hundreds of miles of driving at taxpayers expense and escalating my efforts to get ahold of them including the sending of Fed Ex letters (once the address was verified) with official notices that they were required by law to respond to surveys. I had a photo ID, a government bag with a government notebook with a giant sticker taking up the entire top. Being to paranoid can cause a lot of problems sometimes. I did have some people call the local police which was just fine with me because they would verify my ID check my cars registration and then tell the people they needed to comply with my efforts.

Actually I was in more peril than the people I was calling on. I was required to work alone because of confidentiality requirements. I went into all neighborhoods at whatever time people were willing to meet with me and I was not allowed to carry any kind of anything that could be construed as a weapon of any sort. Not even bear spray which was a problem in the more mountainous areas. I was threatened several times and did inform the people that if anything was done to me the next ones to appear at their house would be FBI since its a federal offense to threaten federal workers.

I did not need to come into a persons house and in fact preferred to talk with them with an open door. That was safe for both me and them.

So being cautious is great but being overly paranoid is a problem. There are official people out there just trying to do their jobs.

[mjones9410]

avoidance is not always present. a good friend of mine was attacked in a seemingly safe area. if not for her being able to fight back she would have been worse off than she was.

[SlythySophia]

The circumstances described were "My sister is a physically vulnerable person because of her size and gender and she works in a bad part of town." What do you suggest the author's sister do, not go to her job? When your very gender makes strangers on the street feel like they have a right to comment on your looks or touch your butt on the bus, and you constantly hear about people of your gender suffering horrible violence like rape, the whole world can seem like a dangerous place. Some women I've known react to this by avoiding public transportation and unfamiliar places altogether. Others choose to not let being female get in the way of living their lives. And still others have no choice, have to go to particularly unsafe places, perhaps because that's the only neighborhood in which they can afford rent, or because, like the author's sister, they work there. These women have a right to go wherever they want/need to go, and they have a right to have a way to defend themselves within the limits of the law. Telling women "Don't get into troublesome situations in the first place", and "She should not put herself in danger in the first place" comes off as very out of touch and reveals thinking that could lead to women feeling like they can't live their lives fully and, after rape has happened, could lead to victim blaming. Women and other vulnerable people have just as much a right to walk through this world as men- it's the rapists and thugs that put us in danger, not our own carelessness. The most conservative statistics suggest that at least 1 in 6 women will be the victim of rape or attempted rape in her lifetime. Either 1 in 6 women are careless, or rape is a lot harder to avoid than you seem to think.

[J9nKidz]

Agreed. There is no way to 100% protect ourselves--no matter the gender. the clothing, the scenario, the size, ... This way of thinking frustrates me, & my teenage child! You put your words so well Sophia. Thank you as i am not as articulate. Give the girl an a plus for making a product that makes her feel better.... MANY Other realities are: Majority of rapes are by "friends or family members of victims" --then what? What do we tell our daughters, sisters, cousins, then?

[angelleah1981]

Wow. very nicely said Sophia!

[gravityisweak]

What's the difference between an offensive and defensive weapon exactly? Also it sounds like you're making the same argument as "just don't wear revealing clothing if you don't want to be raped" People have the right to walk down the street and protect themselves while they do it. Whether it be from rape, robbery, assault, whatever.

[Jack Rodgers]

Sounds good but is out of touch with reality. A friend was grabbed by a man hiding behind a shrub, dragged into an alley and raped.

That kind of thinking blames the victim rather than the assailant.

Things happen to people everywhere so circumstances aren't to blame, the attacker is to be blamed.

Too often the courts forget that the bad guy is a bad guy and try to equate their rights to the good guys rights. I think the bad guy gave them up when he violated the other guys rights.

[angelleah1981]

Amen

[harmonious1]

It kind of bugs me that a woman walking home from work is "putting herself in danger" and therefore would be asking for trouble? Walking home from WORK?? Because we should all stay home and hide under the bed? NO! One commenter was assaulted in her own neighborhood! Where is this safe place of which you speaK?? As Liz Lemon said on numerous occasions, "I want to go to there".

[angelleah1981]

Amen

[angelleah1981]

I guess she's supposed to stop working or move?

[harmonious1]

That kind of talk is also the reason a lot of rapes go unreported. Who wants to tell when you feel sure you'll be asked why you were where you were or wearing what you were wearing or whatever. You aren't the only one though. This comment thread had a lot of similar comments.