For framers, gloves are a must in the winter. It does not get very cold here near Seattle, where the average low November thru March is in the upper 30’s, it does get wet. We need gloves that can grip wet wood and keep our hands warm without feeling bulky and taking away our dexterity. Here are some of the gloves we’ve used in recent years.
Atlas Nitrile Gardening Gloves
These are the most common glove sold at lumberyards in our area and we’ve used them for many years. They go for about $5 a pair and grip pretty well and allow for a lot of dexterity. Made from nylon fabric, they are partially dipped in nitrile; the coated areas don’t leak but the other parts do so these are not waterproof gloves. The problem with these gloves is that after a month of use they begin to stink really bad. If I you wear them when they’re like that you can take a shower after work and your hands will still reek.
MaxiFlex Endurance Gloves
A couple of years back I took an OSHA10 class and one of the instructors showed the MaxiFlex Endurance work glove and recommended them. I tried them on and they felt good, so I picked up a package of them at the local Whitecap construction supply.
We wear holes in these gloves, usually the tips or at the base of the thumb before we finally throw them away. We get a couple of months out of them. They never stink, you can wash them and they provide good grip and almost no loss in dexterity. A 12 pack lasts two of us all year.
According to the manufacturer, these gloves are more breathable than gloves that have been dipped. Instead of a nitrile coating they feature nitrile “dots” on the face of the glove. The gloves are not waterproof but if we layer up our hands tend to stay warm—and below a certain temperature things are usually dry. Designed to mimic the “hand at rest”, the gloves are very comfortable. The finger tips are smooth and rounded. Some of the cheaper gloves we’ve tried have a seam at the tip of the finger and the seam gets in the way—especially when we are siding and using a finger to tool caulking. I’ve seen these gloves online for$5.49 a pair or $48.90 for a 12-pack.
