Do you spend a lot of time and energy shopping for work gloves? Didn’t think so. If you’re like me, you grab whatever the lumberyard has on hand when your old ones wear out. But I’ve been pretty impressed with the pair of StoneBreaker Nailbender gloves that I’ve been using for the last nine months. Made with leather palms and stretchy, breathable synthetic backs, the Nailbenders are different from other work gloves that I’ve tried in one important respect: They actually fit like a glove.
They have articulated, double-stitched fingers that are tough, yet bend naturally without bunching up at the knuckles, and a mesh back that’s a lot cooler in hot weather than full leather gloves. The fit is snug, which means that you don’t have to pull the gloves off to do fine work, but not sweaty.
I’ve been just as impressed by their durability. While the Nailbenders are the lightest-duty gloves in StoneBreaker’s Trades line (other models include the Journeyman, which has extra padding in high-use areas, and the Demo, which has additional reinforcing leather patches), they’re still in perfect condition despite having been used to cut, split, and stack several cords of firewood and to move a 2,400-board-foot stack of rough-sawn pine. Now that the cold weather is here again, I’ve started using them as driving gloves. At $19.95 a pair, they aren’t the cheapest work gloves I’ve ever owned, but they are the best.
