The most important hand tool

[Grant Lamontagne]

Yeah I know we have threads about gloves already, but I'm starting a new one as a reminder for folks to remember to use gloves when doing anything even remotely dangerous to your hands!

A certain someone in my life refuses to wear gloves, even when her hands are in serious peril because she doesn't like the way they feel on her hands.

I have personally had a few too many incidents that have almost ensured that I never felt anything awkward like gloves ever again, and that is pretty darned terrifying.

I got lucky a couple of times without gloves and I have been very appreciative for the protection of gloves many times, so learn from my luck while you still have yours!   

Wear proper work gloves!   

Def

[Antti Lammi]

I tend also to use gloves nowdays when doing repairs or at work just in case, i have gotten many slash and burns to my hands when not wearing them so i nowdays take extra cautions just wearing gloves where blades or fire cannot hurt my hands so easily.
I would need butchers gloves or kevlar gloves but our employer doesnt provide those so i go just what i can get, usually mechanic gloves or thicker gloves for winter seasons.

[Grant Lamontagne]

I use mechanic style gloves for pretty well everything.  In the winter I'll add thin wool gloves liners, and, if necessary, the chemical heating pads in between them.

I use the flat ones that are supposed to go under the balls of your feet because they fit in the form fitting gloves the best.

That tends to keep my hands warm and functional in even the worst weather.

Def

[Vidar]

I'm a dedicated gloves user, and can safely say they have saved me from lots of minor and major wounds and issues.

There are exceptions though - working close to rotating machinery the risk of a glove being caught and dragging in the hand comes to mind. I also remember a part time job as a student that involved stuffing things into a hydraulic press. Gloves off was a requirement for operating (with a big sign as a reminder).

[Grant Lamontagne]

Yeah, I can see that as a significant reason to not wear gloves.

I guess, use your better judgement and err on the side of caution.  There's no one rule that is going to work 100% of the time unfortunately.

Def

[ThundahBeagle]

I beleive in gloves!

But...can't work WITH 'em, can't work WITHIUT 'em.

Constantly taking them off for manipulating smaller things then throwing them back on for the rougher work.

[Farmer X]

One task I had during my service was preventive maintenance on the life-lines for the bridge crane. A good many of those were braided wire that required a coat of grease, and a few had little bits poking out of them. I never got poked, but I've learned a lot in the ensuing years. Gloves are also a must for those of us who live in cold climates.

[Crunchie64]

I’ve been wearing cheap builders’ gloves for my new job, but I’m considering trying some of the padded or armoured ones.

Trapping a hand or finger between two 60kg barrels is no joke.

[Jack the Zipper]

I routinely wear thin slashproof gloves under normal leather working gloves. No protection from crushing or stabbing wounds but makes working certain materials and machinery safer. Just cheap hardware store ones. I used to do security and I would wear leather gloves with integrated kevlar liner and hard knuckles.

[Jack the Zipper]

And when sharpening some more finicky knives, like the Ti-Lite, cutproof is always a good idea.

[Grant Lamontagne]

Agreed- any glove is better than no gloves, but like anything else, match the glove to the job you are doing! 

Def

[fullbreakfast]

I’ve been doing various projects around the house and picking up cuts, scratches and splinters on my hands because I didn’t have a decent pair of work gloves. So I got these:



They have the embarrassing moniker “Mechanix Precision Pro High Dexterity Covert Gloves”. I dunno what makes them covert, I checked with my wife and she can definitely tell when I am wearing them. However, they do give a reasonable level of protection from mishaps, whilst still allowing me to tie my bootlaces and use a screwdriver or a drill. So far so good.

[Grant Lamontagne]

I really like Mechanix branded gloves.  They provide an excellent level of protection while still allowing you to do some fine tasks.

I recall in the 80's (I think it was Isotoner?) there were gloves that fit so well you could pick up a key or coin while wearing them.  While I've never encountered gloves quite that good, the Mechanix ones are close enough.

One question though- how do you make the SAK float in front of your wrist like that?

Def

[DavisNikolov]

I grew up in an environment where personal protection was not used by “real men”. I mean like maintaining the yard with a chain saw, wearing flip flops and knee high pants. So I also did not use anything. The closest I ever got was playing some music on max in my headphones while cutting wood on the circular saw because if I didn’t- I’d have headache for a few hours after that. The damn thing was pretty loud and was emitting a pretty high pitch for some reason.
Fast forward some years, in my mid 20s, we bought an old house that needs everything renovated. So me and my father worked pretty much every trade there is on that project. And there is where I really started to appreciate personal protection and especially a good pair of gloves. What surprised me is that besides protecting your hands, good gloves also give you a better grip so my hands don’t feel like falling off after a long day of carrying heavy stuff around.
But they are not always a good idea. A childhood  friend of mine, one that grew in the same philosophy about PPE, was working in a factory that produced industrial pipes. They receive a gigantic roll of steel, feed it through some rollers and then weld it. So he was working there for a few years, no problems but also not using personal protection (he was not a welder there) . But one day they get a heads up that a health and safety government inspection will come to the factory so everybody should wear everything they are supposed to. Now I’m not familiar with the way they work there and if it’s the right and safe way. But on the one day he had all the safety equipment his hand got caught in the rollers. A coworker managed to stop the machine a split second before the worst would happen. The hand was pretty bad hurt but made full recovery. In the words of my friend it would never happen if he was bare handed. My guess is that he was doing something you are not supposed to be doing but it made his work easier so he was doing it anyway. But it is a cautionary example that have imprinted deep into my mind - I saw that hand few days after the incident and it was scary sight.

[MadPlumbarian]

In my line of work you can learn to appreciate a good pair of gloves, yet at the same time you learn to work without them, but there’s also some things you just can’t wear them like Vidar said! When using a pipe threader, it’s like a lathe but MUCH slower, so the gear ratio is soooo low, so people think they can wear them and get them off so quick, it don’t work, and I ain’t getting wrapped around a pipe three times!
JR

[fullbreakfast]

One question though- how do you make the SAK float in front of your wrist like that?

Damn, they work after all!

[fullbreakfast]

But they are not always a good idea. A childhood  friend of mine, one that grew in the same philosophy about PPE, was working in a factory that produced industrial pipes. They receive a gigantic roll of steel, feed it through some rollers and then weld it. So he was working there for a few years, no problems but also not using personal protection (he was not a welder there) . But one day they get a heads up that a health and safety government inspection will come to the factory so everybody should wear everything they are supposed to. Now I’m not familiar with the way they work there and if it’s the right and safe way. But on the one day he had all the safety equipment his hand got caught in the rollers. A coworker managed to stop the machine a split second before the worst would happen. The hand was pretty bad hurt but made full recovery. In the words of my friend it would never happen if he was bare handed. My guess is that he was doing something you are not supposed to be doing but it made his work easier so he was doing it anyway. But it is a cautionary example that have imprinted deep into my mind - I saw that hand few days after the incident and it was scary sight.

A cautionary tale indeed. I guess another downside of not following the proper rules about what safety gear to wear is that when you do need to put it on, like your friend’s visit from the government inspectors, you are not familiar with using it properly and when to use or not use it.

[Farmer X]

I grew up in an environment where personal protection was not used by “real men”.

That was my prevailing attitude for a while. But now I just use the PPE. I only have the one body, and PPE is a lot less costly in terms of both money and time than surgery.

[Grant Lamontagne]

That attitude is why we have a lot of middle aged men with hearing loss, glass eyes, missing fingers, bad backs and can't go through a metal detector without seeing it off.

The only reason I don't have a bad back is that I started breaking everything (knees and ankles) below my back years ago, and so my back has never been under any serious strain.   

Of course, in my teen years I did deliver a lot of newspapers and the bag often weighed more than I did.

I agree that work gloves can be a hindrance and a potential threat where machinery is concerned- we have all heard horror stories (or seen them first hand as you have) but I'll bet that the number of glove related injuries pales in comparison to the number of injuries gloves have protected against.

And, they do make tearaway gloves for working around machinery.

And, as the man with the ham and eggs and beans said, there was possibly a fair bit of user error going into that.  I'd reserve judgement on who/what was at fault until I see the incident report, but then, real men don't fill those out either.   

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

Oh, and I am not a big believer in safety rules either.  I think that the right equipment has to be available and that the person needs to use their own discretion on what to use and when, based on what they are doing.

As I have done many safety inspections I can tell you many horror stories of accidents that were caused by people wearing safety equipment they shouldn't have, but some inspector previous to me decided to decided to exercise their power and force people to wear PPE that didn't make sense.

Def

[fullbreakfast]

  as

I really like Mechanix branded gloves. They provide an excellent level of protection while still allowing you to do some fine tasks.

The Mechanix gloves justified their cost today. I was cutting cast iron flue piping with an angle grinder and foolishly picked up a shaving of metal that, at one end, was much hotter than I realised. Probably just shy of red hot. The moment it took for the metal to melt through the glove gave my dull brain just enough time to realise what was going on and drop it. No burn.

[Tuisto]

Grant, I did my first year of undergrad at University of Alberta in Edmonton. I lived at 84th ave and 112th st right across the street from the hospital, which is less than a km walk. In the winter it got to -51(!) w/ windchill a few times. I refused to wear gloves, but would keep my left hand in my pocket and my right hand outside, gripping my backpack strap. Nearly 20 years later and any time it's cold my right hand just cracks whereas my left hand is completely fine. I don't know whether the cold broke down the collagen in my skin permanently or something, but yeah, gloves and hand safety is no joke.

[Grant Lamontagne]

I'm glad to see that you had gloves on when you needed them- that would have left a nasty mark if you hadn't!   

I'm also glad it was a small enormous gh thing that you weren't in any serious danger.

Tuisto, I grew up just outside of Winnipeg, a place that is famous this time of year for being colder than the surface of Mars.  I know that feeling well, as I used to walk to and from school every day in that weather.

The only saving grace for me was that the school wasn't very far away!   

I could write volumes on when you should wear gloves versus when you should wear mittens as a result, and I'm not surprised that you may have altered your anatomy permanently.

But when you are young, you are invincible!  I know I was!   

Def

[Grant Lamontagne]

Despite (relatively warm) freezing temperatures, I had taken my gloves off to load some flooring in the back of the truck this morning.

I caught my thumb between a box of heavy LVT flooring and the tail light housing of my trailer.   

I'm sure my thumb would have still hurt if I had my gloves on but I probably wouldn't have needed a bandage, which is now making it difficult to type on a phone screen.

 

Very frustrating.  Wear your smurfing gloves people!   

Def