Hot or Not: Fingerless Gloves
By Sean O'Hara
During our recent trip to Maker Faire in Austin we witnessed quite a few people wearing gloves in various applications – everything from fire protection to general work gloves. What we didn’t see the entire time were fingerless gloves. We still see them on the shelves, and folks like Milwaukee still think they are useful for something around the jobsite.
What do you think? Are finger-free gloves still around for a reason, or are they only good cyclists and winchers on sailboats? Let us know in comments.
Fingerless Work Gloves [Milwaukee]
Street Pricing [Google Product Search]
October 31st, 2007 at 12:04 pm
I swear by my fingerless gloves. working in both a carpentry shop for the entertainment industry, and doing stage and arena rigging, I almost always am wearing my ironclads. in the shop they provide enough protection that I wont damage my palms, yet I’m still able to pick up washers and use power tools properly. and while rigging I’m able to let rope and chain go through my hands without burning me, and giving me more grip. yet im still able to have the dexterity to do the fine detail work which comes up.
I own a pair of fingered gloves, and fingerless gloves, and I would say that I wear my fingerless gloves 20 times for every time I wear my fingered ones.
October 31st, 2007 at 12:04 pm
I think you nailed it. I have fingerless gloves: for cycling. I don’t even wear them when I’m mowing the yard. I wouldn’t wear them in a shop.
October 31st, 2007 at 12:06 pm
Well, aside from them being good for people without fingers… I find them handy for when I’m working out in the yard where they protect the parts of my hands that come into contact with the lawn mower from blisters, yet, if I needed the dexterity to thread the weed eater, I didn’t need to remove my gloves.
October 31st, 2007 at 12:23 pm
If I’d been wearing fingerless gloves when I caught my finger in the table saw, I wouldn’t have needed to buy a new pair of work gloves. So there’s that.
October 31st, 2007 at 1:53 pm
Definitely hot. Like Moojoe said, they’re great when you have to have the dexterity of your fingertips. I use a pair I got from Harbor Freight called “anti-vibration” gloves or something along those lines. My job has me building steel superstructure one minute and pluggin fiber optics in the next. Constantly taking off and putting on gloves is a pain.
October 31st, 2007 at 3:47 pm
I find it easier to cut off say, a pointer finger and thumb from normal gloves. I used to wear fingerless gloves but then it turned winter and whenever I took them off inside it gave my hands this weird feeling. So I say not/depends on job.
October 31st, 2007 at 4:19 pm
Weren’t we just here recently? As stated then, These work riding a motorcycle, (in warm weather), or pushing around the weight pile at the local gym. The only practical use I’ve ever put them to was running wire on distributing frames back in the old days at the phone company.
October 31st, 2007 at 6:38 pm
Like Mooje and a bunch of other toolmonger readers, I work in the entertainment industry as a stagehand/carpenter/rigger. I prefer to mix the gloves and go fingerless on my dominant (left) hand and full fingered on my other hand.
It helps when working with nuts and bolts and other hardware to have my fingers exposed.
October 31st, 2007 at 8:23 pm
i keep them right next to my safety monocle.
October 31st, 2007 at 8:42 pm
Not
I’ve tried the fingerless but I’ve never found them all that useful. My palms don’t get cold or at least my fingers are what cause me the most pain. Ditto with injury. I much more likely to mangle a finger than my palm. In cold weather when I need dexterity I have found I’d rather wear thin rubber/latex gloves which keep my fingers a bit warmer than going bare and allow pretty good dexterity.
October 31st, 2007 at 10:22 pm
The only time I’ve really wanted fingerless gloves was when playing music outside during a freak snowstorm. (The guitar and I both survived fine, thanks.)
I’ve become a huge fan of the Lee Valley goatskin-leather gloves with the spandex back. They fit close without being tight, and I have all the mobility I need. They wouldn’t be good when needing vibration protection (using a sander, on a motorcycle, etc.).
October 31st, 2007 at 10:50 pm
I tend to avoid working gloves in general, but I have built up a thick enough callus that blisters are not a problem in any reasonable task.
November 1st, 2007 at 6:18 am
The only time I like fingerless gloves is hunting. Gloves are sometimes too bulky to fit in the trigger guard and want to be sure of the feel on the trigger.
But for working in the shop or working outside I want my fingers covered.
November 2nd, 2007 at 4:48 pm
I think this really depends on the user and their typical job. I have both and use both on a pretty regular basis. I think I got used to the fingerless gloves when doing stage and AV tech work. Great for pulling cable and working rigging lines, etc. I also find I like them when doing any detail wood working (carving for instance). My fingered gloves get used for all the rest of my tasks (gardening, metal work, etc.)