Work gloves: one pair cannot do fencing and calving

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Research. We have not worn a season's worth of these yet. What follows is how the three families of glove differ, what the cut ratings do and do not cover, and why the sensible answer is several cheap types rather than one good pair. When ours have been in service long enough to say more, this page gets updated with the date.

There is no one work glove, and looking for one is how people end up working barehanded.

What a cut rating does not cover

Cut resistance is graded — ANSI A1 through A9 in the US, EN 388 elsewhere. If a listing says "cut resistant" without printing a level, it has told you nothing.

Here is the part that misleads. Cut ratings measure a blade drawn across the fabric. They say nothing about puncture: barbed wire, a fencing staple, a piece of hi-tensile under tension. Puncture is graded separately and most listings leave it off.

An A4 knit will keep a utility knife out of your palm. It will not keep a barb out of the back of your hand.

The three families

Coated knit. A knit shell dipped in nitrile, latex or polyurethane. Cheap, dexterous, and the right glove for most of the day. Gauge is knit density: 15-gauge is thin and fine, 10-gauge bulkier and warmer. Nitrile handles oil and abrasion, latex crinkle grips rough and wet, PU is for fine work and quits in water.

The thing to know is that these are not waterproof. The coating is on the palm. The back is open knit, and water comes in over the cuff. A soaked knit glove in December is worse than no glove for the first ten minutes.

Leather. Goatskin is the most dexterous and stays supple. Cowhide is the general answer. Pigskin breathes and stays soft after it gets wet. Deerskin is lovely and abrades away.

Leather's weakness is water and heat. A soaked glove dried near a stove comes back stiff and a size smaller, and a few rounds of that finishes it. Dry them slow, away from the heat.

Waterproof. A membrane or a full dip. The only family that works for winter water — tank ice, wet hay, washing anything. Least dexterous of the three, and they sweat.

One pair cannot do fencing and firewood

Fence work is puncture and abrasion, and it eats gloves. Leather, with a cuff long enough to cover the wrist. Stretching wire, driving staples, setting t-posts. Whatever you wear, it will be visibly worse afterward.

Firewood is splinters and bark, not blades. Cowhide or a heavy coated knit. If a chainsaw is involved, chainsaw gloves put ballistic fibre in the back of the left hand only. That is the whole extent of what they cover.

Calving and anything internal is not a work glove at all. That is a disposable shoulder-length sleeve, used once, bought by the box and kept somewhere clean and dry. Separate line on the order. The procedure itself is a conversation with your vet, not something a product page should walk you through.

Rotating machinery — augers, PTO shafts, a drill press — is the one place to think about not wearing a glove, or at least not a loose gauntlet cuff. A glove that catches takes the hand with it.

The glove you take off

Protection and dexterity trade against each other and always will. The failure mode of too much glove is that you take it off to do the fiddly part, which is usually the part with the sharp edge in it.

So the useful question is not how tough a glove is. It is whether you will keep it on. A thin 15-gauge knit that stays on your hands all afternoon protects you more than an A6 gauntlet sitting on the tailgate.

Size honestly while you are at it. Gloves are sized on hand circumference at the knuckles, and most people are a size larger than they guess. A loose glove in fine work is worse than none.

Buy a box, not a pair

A dozen coated knits costs a fraction per pair of one premium glove, and what it changes is rationing. People work barehanded because the good gloves are wet, or in the truck, or too nice for the job in hand. A box means you put on a dry pair and carry on.

The sensible starting kit for a small place is three types, not one: a dozen coated knits, a pair of leather for wire and posts, a waterproof pair for winter water. Keep the orphans when the dominant hand wears out first. Mismatched pairs work fine.

What we are buying

Three types at once — a dozen coated knits, a leather pair for wire and posts, a waterproof pair for winter water. The article argues that and we are not reopening it. What is missing is the order. When it is placed, this section takes the knits with their gauge and coating, roughly what a dozen cost, the leather pair beside them, and the date. Sizing is the part an order cannot settle: these are sized on hand circumference at the knuckles, most people guess a size low, and we expect to get something wrong there. The Research tag at the top does not move for a purchase. It comes off after a season's work has gone through these, when the leather has had fence wire on it long enough to show.

Before you buy

• Buy three types at once. One pair of anything is a plan to work barehanded.
• Read the puncture rating, not just the cut level, if the wire is barbed.
• Keep the box where you actually change gloves — by the door, not in the shop.

— Chris D., McEwen, Tennessee