Parts of a Glove – Fingers, Thumb, Palm, Fourchettes

All 13 parts on the diagram

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The made glove 9

Fingers A separate sheath for each finger and for the thumb. That is how a glove covers the hand.
Thumb Cut as a piece of its own. It is sewn into the thumb hole in the palm.
Palm The palm and the back are cut in one piece. The thumb is set into the palm.
Back The back carries the decoration: on a dress glove, the points.
Points The three lines of decorative stitching on the back of a glove. Some gloves have a single line.
Binding (welt) Sewn round the wrist of the glove to finish the edge. A plain glove may have the edge turned in and stitched.
Slit The slit is the wrist opening, cut up from the edge. A glove made without one is a sac-wrist glove, usually with a strip of elastic at the wrist to keep it in place.
Button Buttons close the slit. Press studs, which glovers call domes, are often used instead.
Cuff The cuff is the part past the wrist. A gauntlet glove has a long cuff that flares outward.

The cut pieces 4

Trank The main part of the glove. It is the back and the palm cut as one, in the shape of a double hand without the thumb.
Thumb hole The thumb piece is sewn into this hole. Its place is marked on the pattern before the leather is cut.
Fourchette Fourchettes are the slender strips that close the sides of the fingers. Glovers also call them forgits or forks.
Quirk A small diamond-shaped piece sewn in at the base of the fingers. It improves the fit. One old trade book calls these gussets and keeps quirk for a piece at the base of the thumb.

How this list was compiled: Every name checked on 2026-09-30, a name kept only where two independent sources use it: Wikipedia, Glove, text only (a sheath for each finger and the thumb; the component parts of a leather dress glove: tranks, thumbs, fourchettes, gussets, quirks; fourchettes as the inside panels on the fingers; points as the three, or sometimes single, lines of decorative stitching on the back; quirks as small diamond-shaped pieces at the base of the fingers; the cuff; studs and domes); B. Eldred Ellis, Gloves and the Glove Trade (Pitman, 1921), with its glossary, https://archive.org/details/glovesglovetrade00elli, full text (trank as the main part, cut as a double hand without the thumb; thumb-pieces and the holes for them; fourchettes, forgits or forks; quirk and gussets; points; binding, welt or bandalette; the slit at the wrist and the sac wrist made without one; buttons, button-holes and domes; backs and palms; gauntlets); Betty Dougherty, Your Leatherwork, chapter 7, Gloves, https://archive.org/details/yourleatherwork010440mbp, full text (trank, thumb, thumb-hole, fourchettes with and without quirks, palm and back, a binding or a turned-in edge, press studs in place of buttons, gauntlet gloves, elastic in the wrist); and Daniel W. Redmond, The Leather Glove Industry in the United States (1913), https://archive.org/details/leathergloveindu00redmrich, full text (tranks, fourchettes, quirks, bindings and welts, slit bindings, buttons, gauntlets with a flared cuff). Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-09-30 from plain geometry; no maker's pattern, nothing traced. Licence: own work

How it works

A glove has a sheath for each finger and the thumb, a palm, a back and a wrist opening. The second drawing shows the pieces a glover cuts: the trank, the thumb, the fourchettes and the quirks.

Read the full guide

The made glove, then its pieces

Numbers 1 to 9 are on three gloves laid flat. The first shows the back, with the fingers, the points and the binding. The second shows the palm, the thumb, and the slit with its button. The third is a gauntlet glove, for its cuff. Open the second drawing for 10 to 13: the trank with its thumb hole, a fourchette and a quirk.

Glovers also call a fourchette a fork: the double kind is a forked strip.
Trank, fourchette and quirk are glovers' words; the rest are everyday ones.

Questions and answers

What are the parts of a glove called?

The fingers, the thumb, the palm and the back, with a binding round the wrist and sometimes a slit and a button. The pieces a glover sews together are the trank, the thumb, the fourchettes and the quirks.

What is a fourchette on a glove?

A slender strip of leather sewn between two fingers to form their sides. Glovers also call fourchettes forgits or forks.

What are the lines on the back of a glove called?

Points: three lines of decorative stitching on the back of the glove. Some gloves have a single line.

What is the main piece of a glove called?

The trank. It is the back and the palm cut as one piece, in the shape of a double hand without the thumb. The thumb is cut separately and sewn into a hole in the palm half.

What is a gauntlet glove?

A glove with a long cuff that flares out past the wrist. The third glove in the first drawing is one.