Missing prep item...work gloves

Been working lately and realized how many little cuts and scrapes I get on my hands...and how nice and easy it would be to have a nice pair of leather work gloves in the pick-up and work kits.

Right you are! For extreme work, where I need wrist protection (from debris, not strain) I use leather gauntlet welding gloves. Extra heavy duty and they cover all the way back to the middle of the forearm. Definitely not for EDC though!

I always pick up a pair in home depot. I love the calf skin or deer skin. Very supple. I always wear them when working. Have multiple pairs in my truck, BOB's, desk at work, cellar, shed, etc.

If you have access to an equestrian supply store, look for cloth riding gloves. There is a store here that sell a glove that is like a driving glove with a velcro closure, very close fitting, more of a tough nylon blend, and with little traction dots on them. I have used them for a long time for riding, but now I carry a pair all the time. Best of all - they are cheap. I can't give you a name - they are 'no name' chinese ROC, and the store buys them in bulk from a west coast vendor that gets them along with a bunch of other stuff.

Sometimes you need a good pair of leather work gloves, but for most chores, I'm a fan of nomex flight gloves. It's got leather where you need it, and you retain a great deal of dexterity over regular leather work gloves. They're flame retardant, and lightweight as well.

I carry a pair of thin leather "roper" gloves. These are designed for working with rope as when roping cattle etc.

I find here in Brazil that when hiking in the rocky terrain that my hands get pretty cut up on rocks and thorns. My gloves are actually blood stained in many places because I tend to put them on only after I've cut myself, Doh! Mac

I concur. I'm partial to the Stanley brand goatskin gloves. Nice and thin, but very tough, and survive water well.

I always carry a pair of leather drivers on my person. I get odd looks from people when I pull them out of nowhere and put them on, but I'm resigned to that now.

-- Craig

I buy the three packs and put a pack in each vehicle as well as several in the garage. Put a three pack of gloves in the trunk of my wife's car with the spare tire and jack so he has them if she ever needs them for anything.

I've been on a quest for quite some time to find gloves that work well for me. For some reason, I have a lot of difficulty finding gloves that fit well. Basically, if the glove is tight enough around my palm and fingers to provide the close fit I prefer, they won't extend all the way to my finger joint. This results in them comming apart in the joint area fairly quickly.

The best I have found is the Geier Glove Deerskin gloves. I stumbled on them at a local feed store and they fit pretty well.

Living in the northwest, the wet can really mess with leather, so I've spent a fair amount of time trying to find an effective way to waterproof the gloves. It turns out it is really hard to get something waterproof and have it last for any significant amount of time.

The two best solutions I've found at this point are to:

1) Heat the gloves in the oven (not too much!). Put them on and then "wash" your hands with Sno Seal, working it into all parts of the gloves until the leather is saturated with the melted Sno Seal. Then wipe all excess off with a cloth or paper towels. Wait till the gloves are cool, then wipe them down again. This approach works well and lasts pretty well, but the gloves can be a bit sticky. I tend to rub them in dust, then wipe them off to dull the stickyness a bit. One useful thing about this is since it isn't water based, you can touch them up in the field by putting your gloves on and working in a small amount of Sno Seal.

2) The other approach that seems to work is to buy a couple of bottles of Nikwax leather waterproofing treatment and pour it into a tupperware container. Then "scoop" the gloves through the liquid so they are full on the inside, then submerge them and let them sit about 10 mins. After this, remove them, drain them and hang them up to dry. Warning, this is a messy process. Put some newspapers down or do it somewhere easy to clean. Once they are dry (this takes a while since this stuff is water based) put them on and rub them down with a cloth. Note, this can leave a milky looking coloring on the gloves, esp. noticable on black leather. This solution takes longer, but the gloves are not sticky. On the other hand, it doesn't last as long as the Sno Seal IMO.

Both solutions will make the gloves slightly stiff, although this mellows with use.

I've not found any silicon treatments that last nearly as long as these two approaches.

Anyone else have any waterproofing tricks?

Does anyone else have this fit problem and found other gloves that work for you?

The other thing I'm interested in is high tech gloves. It seems with all this materials technology we should be able to do a bit better than cow and deer hide.

One that really caught my interest is the "Turtleskin" material from Warwickmills.com. Basically they weave Armid fibres so tightly that it provides puncture protection, even from needles.

So I ordered a pair of their law enforcement oriented gloves. These had a stretch knit fabric back, and it worked out really poorly for me. Basically, to get the right size around the fingers and palm, the knit fabric was very loose and uncomfortable and did not secure the gloves on my hand well.

So I ordered a pair of their "Search" gloves. These fit a lot better than knit backed gloves. However, it's not perfect. The Turtleskin material is very thin, but it is much stiffer than I expected. After getting them, it made sense, but I wasn't expecting it. Also, the gloves don't have full Turtleskin protection. With these particular gloves, the full palm and "business side" of the fingers is protected, with a little bit of protection rolling back over the fingernails. However, the sides and backs of the fingers and back of the hand are only protected by a (very) thin layer of leather.

In hindsight, it is easy to see why. This stuff is so stiff that making a full glove out of it would be difficult and probably uncomfortable. Despite the claims, dexterity is compromsed. On the other hand, the Turtleskin material does appear to be super tough and I do think they would provide almost bulletproof protection for the business side of the hand. It just doesn't protect the sides and back with the same level of protection which would be desirable in an earthquake toppled building escape (my test case scenario).

All in all, I haven't found anything better for this type of application and they are light, so they are the glove that lives in my daily carry kit.

So, does anyone have experience with other high tech gloves you could share? Or does anyone have a natural materials solution they think is as good or better?

Thanks,

-john

John:

What brand did you try? I have thinnking of trying some 'Hellstorm' gloves from Blackhawk group. They are definitely paramilitary -- kevlar & nomex. 'Til them, I'll just stick with my old reliable Blue Mules.

Turtleskin brand (made by Warwick Mills), the model is "Search Glove" (TCC-002). I linked to the site in the above post.

As noted in the post, these are kind of special and not intended as just a "tough" glove. It is obvious that many of their compromises are needed to provide the puncture protection.

I'd be interested in your experience if you get the Hellstorm gloves.

Thanks,

-john

I found some at the $1.00 Store. Put them in the Trama Bag ( glass and sharp metal) and in the tools for after the "Big One".
Dust masks and eye protection, too.

Dave

Sorry Dave, I didn't follow. What kind of gloves did you find and what are your feelings about them?

Thanks,

-john

Plain old leather work gloves. Cheap so that if they get nasty with blood or sewage or whatever I can throw them away. Also at $1.00 a pair, I bought several and have them everywhere.
Dave

..and several band-aids anyway...

I buy cheap work gloves at Harborfreight and they work just fine. I buy them in packages of five for just over a dollar a pair.

I recently helped my sister and her family move out of her house. Many family members showed up to help. I love my family, but my goodness, must they be woefully prepared for everything? My work gloves that I brought were the only work gloves around. My sister's house had no gloves anywhere, and nobody brought any. To be fair, the main reason I remembered to bring gloves was because I workout daily with them, and so protecting my hands is naturally on my mind.

Luckily, my gloves were dirty and nasty looking, and people lost interest in my gloves after a few seconds. They are actually high-quality deer skin gloves. Man, did they come in handy that day. I sliced a glove with my knife (another thing nobody else had). It was a good thing it was the glove and not my hand.

Bottom line, if you carry gloves, I recommend high quality gloves that look dirty and nasty.

I have found fantastic cycling gloves at REI once (Giro Xen), which are working very well for general hands protection, including moderately hot cooking pots handles, especially in the hot climate. They are reducing hands sweating a lot compared to any leather or knit working gloves as their back made mostly of mesh screen. The impact and slicing protection is in their "bumpy" surface, made of rubbery plastic ribs molded over the top and in critical places. The palm side is thin leather with small and frequent ventilation holes. They look somewhat futuristic but so comfortable, that I can wear them continuously all day, fingers are very well articulated even for handwriting. They have survived 2.5 active camping seasons so far.

I own the blackhawk SOLAG gloves. Durable to say the least but too thick for my liking, they really heat my hands up.

I am a bit of glove fiend. Always trying new ones, always carry a pair with me in my EDC. Especially for workouts the ground temp here right now is over 145 degrees so dropping to do push ups or touching rocks while hiking demands protection.

My recent favorites have been Mechanix gloves. The brand not the profession. Its take a lot of effort to destroy the tips, stitching holds well, they breath well. A lot of my buddys in uniform have been using Mechanix and got me to try them.

I was really surprised by a pair I got at REI for an overnight adventure. Manzella Windstopper-10 glove handles a surprising amount of abuse, I have not ripped them despite all my best efforts and the efforts of people training me to abuse my hands. Online photos make them look much thicker than they really are. I wore them straight through a 20 hour event that went from low 30's to low 70's, soaking wet, muddy, dried mud, and still kept its shape and its grip. I've since worn them year round even in this desert heat when I run, because I touch and grip sun baked objects and my hands dont get nearly as hot as the SOLAGs.

I have read that, of commonly available leathers, pigskin is the best all around glove. While it's not waterproof, it is very abrasion and puncture resistant, breathes well, dries quickly, is very supple and and remains supple after being wet, then dried. Drivers type work gloves are fairly cheap and can be found in the $1-$10 range.

I like good leather gloves that are smooth enough to have some basic waterproof properties and that can be kept waterproof and supple with an oil. I really like them to be robust enough to take some abuse in the field and really don't care about breath ability.

I just scored a free pair of impact mechanics gloves at work, not the brand mechanic's but the kind mechanics use. They have padding and special tips on the fingers. They went straight to my Get home bag.

There are different gloves for different problems.

Most "mechanic's" gloves are intended to protect again light abrasion and remain highly flexible, with durability a plus.

More advanced gloves will address puncture, cutting, impact, oily conditions/grip, cold/arctic, water/chemical intrusion and firefighting.

I keep a pair of mechanic's gloves in the toolbox and car, but I also keep a paid of heavier cut-resistant gloves too in case I need to handle shattered glass etc.

I have a pair of Carharrt high tactile leather gloves that I carry in my rain-coat (that I always have in my truck or with me) that provide decent cold protection without sacrificing dexterity. I also have a set of Carharrt -20 artic gloves that are really warm for outdoor snow fun.