How to Choose the Perfect Pair of Work Gloves
Who Knew a Simple Pair of Work Gloves Could Be a Matter of Life and Death
The right pair of work gloves can make your life a little easier and more comfortable or, they could save it altogether. Although it may sound dramatic, your work environment could expose you to all sorts of threats varying from the uncomfortable to the downright dangerous. Gloves, although often not the first piece of safety equipment that comes to mind, help to protect one of the most important tools humans have to work with – the hands. But with a large assortment of work gloves on the market how is a hard worker to start?
Pickering Safety offers a wide variety of work gloves from heavy duty safety gloves to thermal gloves and medical safety gloves. Obviously, not all gloves are created equally but we thought it would be helpful to steer our customers in the right direction if they’re not 100% sure which kind of safety gloves to purchase for their particular industry. Please note, our recommendations are based on our understanding of the typical working environment associated with each of these industries – you should absolutely check with your work place supervisor to confirm your glove selection will do an adequate job of protecting you!
Here is a Buying Guide Showcasing All the Types of Work Gloves Offered by Pickering Safety:
Leather Palm Gloves
These gloves are a jack-of-all-trades and are probably one of our best-selling pairs of gloves. It pays to have a few pairs of these on-hand for an odd job that may agitate your hands while you work. These gloves aren’t’ recommended for the really intense work environments as they’re not labelled as “cut resistant” so it is possible your hands could be sliced or your skin agitated when working with more hazardous materials while wearing these.
Cut Resistant Gloves
These cut-resistant gloves are good for jobs that involve working with steel or other metal pieces. Mechanics often invest in a pair of these to protect their hands while they’re working on automobiles or with petro-chemicals. These gloves are also suitable for other jobs requiring metal / glass handling. They’re great for home or building repairs and rough work that requires some measure of precision as they’re not too thick so they allow for some measure of digit dexterity.
Rubber Palm Gloves
Rubber palm gloves are another great generalist glove. They’re great for agile work because they’re not as thick as some of our heavier-duty options. These gloves are often popular in professions where some degree of slip resistance is helpful as the gloves rubber palm provides extra grip for handling materials. Furthermore, these gloves will provide a small measure of scrape-prevention and will shield your hands from minimally abrasive chemicals like bleach, saline, chlorine etc. These gloves may be suitable for workers who handle foliage, wood, pipes or wiring.
Thermal Nitra-Dex Gloves
These gloves are your cold weather friends! Their dual layered protection is ideal in cold weather or when extra padding is needed for protection while handling invasive materials. They feature 7 gauge interior soft pile lining which helps keep your hands warm in freezing temperatures and 15 gauge exterior nylon knit with nitrile coating for next-level-hand protection. These gloves are often an industry standard WCB Requirement for certain work environments, use our WCB Requirement Search Tool to find out if they’re a requirement for you.
TurtleSkin Advanced Protection Gloves
TurtleSkin gloves in general are sought after because they shield the entire hand and are designed for heavy duty protection like bio hazardous environments. They are one of few gloves that are designated “puncture resistant”. These advanced protection gloves are no exception. You can select just the right levels and areas of coverage for your hand safety program. For a full list of all the kinds of TurtleSkin gloves you can purchase please visit this page.
Vis-A-Bull’s High Viz Thermal Gloves
These gloves have many of the features of our other heavy duty gloves, however, these in particular are a “high visibility” pair which is often important for specific work environments. Road workers or workers with high-risk job descriptions who spend time in rural areas will often be required to wear these. They offer thermal protection and latex/rubber palms so they will keep your hands both warm and safe from abrasive materials.
Medical Safety Gloves
These are an entirely separate section on our website from our heavy duty safety gloves because they truly are a different beast altogether. Medical safety gloves protect against infection and maximize digit dexterity as they’re often used by nurses, surgeons and doctors who need to make precise motions with their hands. They are definitely not cut or tear resistant but they are fully water resistant and place an emphasis on sanitation both for the glove wearer and their patient.