Gloves !! grrrrr

[Mark Ling]

I wasn't exactly sure were to put this, sorry If it Is in the incorrect place. So, I have been forging for about 2 years now, and have gone through about 6 pairs of gloves! They always seem to tare near the thumb and also at the tips of the fingers. My first pair lasted me about 6 months, but unfortunately I don't remember who made them.....so, any of ya'll got recommendations on were to buy gloves that last? Also anyone know of were to get ONLY left handed gloves?

                                                                                                                                              Littleblacksmith

[Steve Sells]

I buy gloves by the box, they are just like sand paper,  a disposable

[C-1ToolSteel]

I don't use gloves for either of my hands. If the steel is hot, its just a matter of time 'till you've got a hot glove to deal with. BTW left handed people are awesome!

[Mark Ling]

well, I am right handed, but I use a glove one my left hand (tong hand).

Littleblacksmith

[jkmas]

I wish I could make a pair of gloves last six days.

[Smoggy]

For the most part I don't use gloves regardess of what I'm doing bar a few exceptions, I've started using one my left hand when arc/mig welding as I find I need to help guide the rod/tip these days. I sometimes use a rag, sheet of paper or a scrap of leather depending what I'm doing. If you go through one of the pair reasonable uickly you need to team up with a glove buddy and swap rights for lefts or find gloves that fit both hands.....some of the knitted one do, and you may be able to find then with a heat resistant spec.

[beammeupscotty]

I always use a glove on my off hand and the ones I use come from a local welding supply house.   They are blue suede welding gloves and I have found them to be a very good compromise between not costing too much and lasting a long time.  I have been using the same one on my left hand for at least a year now.  There is no good solution to the left glove problem...you just have to reconcile yourself to wasting the right hand glove, for the most part.  

[JHCC]

I use a heavy leather welding glove on my left (tong) hand when holding long stock. Lots of folks don't, and I'm moving away from wearing it all the time. C-1ToolSteel is absolutely right:

1 hour ago, C-1ToolSteel said:

If the steel is hot, its just a matter of time 'till you've got a hot glove to deal with.

Plus, if you're in the habit of picking up hot things with a gloved hand, it's just a matter of time until you pick up something hot with a bare hand.When that day comes, my friend, make sure you have your aloe plant nearby.

That said, you can buy single welding gloves: just Google "welding gloves left hand only". One nice thing about welding gloves is that -- unlike regular work gloves -- they're designed to come off quickly. (If you have regular work gloves, slit or cut off the knitted cuff.) Of course, the downside to a nice, wide gauntlet is that it can funnel in flying scale or popping coal from the forge. (Don't ask me how I know this. Let's just say I'm happy to have had my aloe plant handy....)

[gote]

Start gardening I use gloves when gardening in cold weather and I occasionally take my right one off for handling something tricky and since the hand becomes dirty I do not put it back and then the phone rings or or. Later I find what the mice and moulds left and put it in the trash bin.

In the shop I never use gloves (for the reasons given by JHCC and C-1 ToolSteel) except when arc welding. Another exception is that I use a heavily padded left hand glove when straightening cold work to decrease possible kick back.

[Marc1]

I use fingerless leather gloves for everything. Don't even know I have them on. 

For forging or welding I buy lefties. Any welding supplies sells only left handed gloves. For forging, welding gloves on the left. 

 Leather gloves tend to go rather quick. The best fingerless I had were MMA leather gloves, but they now make them from some synthetic rubbish. This last batch I bought from the UK on ebay, are sold as wheelchair gloves. Not bad. The one sold for bikies are only for show and tear up as soon as you try to take them off in a rush. 

[Tubalcain2]

i don't were gloves for anything but welding. i believe that you should ''feel the heat'' and learn to respect it.( Its a fine line for me between blacksmithing and philosophy. ) 

7 hours ago, JHCC said:

I use a heavy leather welding glove on my left (tong) hand when holding long stock. Lots of folks don't, and I'm moving away from wearing it all the time. C-1ToolSteel is absolutely right:

Plus, if you're in the habit of picking up hot things with a gloved hand, it's just a matter of time until you pick up something hot with a bare hand.When that day comes, my friend, make sure you have your aloe plant nearby.

That said, you can buy single welding gloves: just Google "welding gloves left hand only". One nice thing about welding gloves is that -- unlike regular work gloves -- they're designed to come off quickly. (If you have regular work gloves, slit or cut off the knitted cuff.) Of course, the downside to a nice, wide gauntlet is that it can funnel in flying scale or popping coal from the forge. (Don't ask me how I know this. Let's just say I'm happy to have had my aloe plant handy....)

 

[ThomasPowers]

Of course I wear gloves around the forge---that steel gets *COLD*!  Yup more likely to be wearing them in the winter than the summer; though out here we've been known to stick stock in the forge to cool it down if it's been out in the sun on the scrap pile...

[John in Oly, WA]

Harbor Freight sells packs of welding gloves - 3 pr. $10 - pretty inexpensive. Sometimes on sale for less. I wear them for doing nearly everything around the shop, except my hammer hand when forging.

[Daswulf]

In auto body I've wore out more expensive mechanics gloves then I can even count. And they have saved me many a cut, scrape, burn, slice whatever. Now I buy the cheaper ones at HF. They last just as long. And by the way, they are not good to use as welding gloves 

With forging I started out wearing gloves but rarely do now. Usually just the left hand. I'm with JHCC on the heavy welding gloves and yeah, they like to funnel in stuff. I'll also sometimes just wear a left mechanics glove for handling the tongs or steel.  If the stock is hot enough to heat up a welding glove it should be handled with tongs. 

[Michael]

I wear gloves, on both hands.   If you can find goatskin or pigskin gloves, they will last longer than cowhide.  I cut the fingers off my right hand glove, my hammer hand, so I can still pick things up.  At a fleamarket up in Napa (Northern California) I found what they called "roper's gloves' tough leather gloves made fingerless, supposedly so you can protect your palms but still tie and untie rope, never seen them anywhere but Napa though.

[Frosty]

Wear gloves when you need gloves. The reason the fingers come unstitched around the forge is because it's nylon thread and melts.

That sounds like a BAD thing and it does mean you go through more gloves however if you screw up and heat shrink a glove on your hand chances are the stitching will let go and you have a chance of getting your hand out before it's baked. Heat shrunk gloves on a hand is the main reason I still keep a "bucket" of water around the forge. Hand or foot will fit in the bucket, water not only cools the glove it makes it sloppy soggy and will slip right off.

I avoid big thick welding gloves, too thick means I have less feel for the work, it takes more strength to maintain a firm grip through the padding and the large cuffs are HOT thing magnets. Get a HOT cut off in a glove and you're going to make a dive for the quench tank but the water pressure will PRESS IT AGAINST YOUR HIDE before water can get in and cool it. With thick heavy gloves you're generally better off pulling it off your hand and it's less likely to be shrunk on.

Frosty The Lucky.

[arkie]

I don't wear gloves, don't like to wear them.  When the stock gets too hot to hold, then I use tongs or cool the end that's getting too warm in the slack tub.  Wearing gloves makes one lose the "feel" of hammering and working the stock.

[Kozzy]

Except for holding a hammer and fine tools, I wear gloves for just about everything I do.  I look at gloves the same way I do shoes:  I can either dance around like a pixie worrying about my feet (hands) or put on some protection and do anything I need when I need.  That means I can handle everything from splinters to ugly iron to squashing a wasp to wiping the snot off a cow's nose without hesitation.

My preference is for roping gloves (with fingers) which can be bought at costco in 3 packs for a good price-=Wells Lamont brand IIRC but many others make similar.  They do wear out several times a year but hey---that's no worse than a $ 5 pair of shoes would do.  If I could get gloves in the quality and longevity that I am happy to seek in work shoes, I'd do it in a second--at the kind of cost I am willing to put into good work shoes.  I don't see a difference in purpose or value.

For repetitive hammering, I find having a glove fatigues that hand too quickly to be of value.  For a nail or two, no big deal but for 500 blows, my bare hand needs to do the job.

[Mark Ling]

The thing is, is that I did use welding gloves for a time when I was first starting out, and I found that they were vary cumbersome and made it difficult to rotate the tongs/stock in one hand. I may just buy gloves in bulk, at least that seems to be the best option that ya'll have mentioned.
                                                                                                                                                    Littleblacksmith

[C-1ToolSteel]

On 10/31/2016 at 10:27 PM, littleblacksmith said:

well, I am right handed, but I use a glove one my left hand (tong hand).

I wasn't thinking. I guess I just get a little exited when I hear someone say left handed!

[seldom (dick renker)]

c-1 lets face it, "all good people are left handed".

[Daswulf]

I dunno Dick, we are all different....

 

[C-1ToolSteel]

11 minutes ago, seldom (dick renker) said:

c-1 lets face it, "all good people are left handed".

Amen! Preach it to me brother!

[SLAG]

And I am ambidextrous.

So?

SLAG.

[JHCC]

I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous.