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Testing gloves for work
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POINTING FINGERS Useful features in work gloves:
1. Stretch nylon on sides of fingers.
2. Padding on palm and fingertips for extra protection.
3. Velcro straps on cuff.
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Work gloves have gone modern, with new materials and designs that provide fit, flexibility, and versatility. Spandex and artificial
leather yield gloves that can be washed without getting stiff; spandex also makes it possible to create a truly fitted glove.
And, as our tests show, the new materials can work well.
All but the Tomboy Tools gloves are made from artificial leather, and most have some amount of spandex. Most come in at least
three sizes, including extra extra large.
We asked 20 men and 7 women to use the gloves for their normal home- and auto-maintenance chores, carpentry, and heavy yard
work, then tell us which were well-suited for the work and which they preferred for comfort and fit.
We had the panelists do specific tasks--thread a nut onto a bolt and flip the switch on a small power tool, for example--so
we could gauge usefulness in detail work.
In general, lower-rated gloves have bulky seams inside the fingers, which made the gloves uncomfortable. They also tend to
have extra padding, which panelists said got in the way. Panelists often said that the higher-rated gloves felt like a second
skin.
The bottom line. Best overall: the Custom Leathercraft Handyman, a CR Best Buy at $10. Or consider the Mechanix Original and Mechanix Series
2.0. Gloves marketed for women are sized for smaller hands; but that's also true of the gender-neutral Mechanix and Ringers
gloves.
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