Work Gloves

Lots of makers wear various gloves while grinding. To them, all I can say is "good luck".

Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
I NEVER wear them, or any other glove, around rotating machinery. That includes drills, mills, lathes, saws, and similar tools. A glove caught in a rotating tool can cause a serious accident.
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Matthew Gregory said:
Agreed. For me, that includes the grinder. Examples have been provided in this thread as to why this is a bad idea. Learn to use a push stick, use a spray mister, or just dunk more often.
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I agree with Stacy and Matthew... gloves are a terrible idea around anything that moves under its own power. When, not if, the glove gets snagged, I guarantee you are neither faster nor stronger than the grinder/drill press/lathe/whatever. The tool will win that fight, every single time. A nasty cut from touching the edge of a running belt is one thing... a broken or smashed finger is quite another, and it will foul up your plans for weeks.

I learned that lesson the hard way working with a wood-chipper, while wearing gloves. Long story short, if that glove had been any tighter on my hand, y'all would be calling me "Stumpy" or "Lefty" now.

If you are burning your very important and very delicate wiggly bits while grinding, you are definitely over-heating your steel. Pre- or post-HT, that's going to cause other problems that wearing gloves cannot fix. I know it's a tedious pain to stop and cool thin pieces like kitchen blades often, but it has to be done.
 
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While we're on the topic of power tools, and the simple fact that they're both stronger and faster than you... please keep this in mind:

ALWAYS clamp down anything you're drilling.

NEVER reach for anything that somehow comes out of your control.

ALWAYS have a clear zone behind you, so you can get the heck out the way when, not if something goes wrong. Because if you work in a knife shop long enough, something will go wrong. Back up, duck, and unplug the damn thing.
 
Comin down hard on me! Thanks James. I agree with the drilling. I never wear gloves when drilling holes. Honestly I never wore gloves making any knives up until last week when I cut my finger pretty bad buffing a blade.

Grinding I can live without gloves, but it was pretty convenient. But buffing, that just freaks me out now. Buffing a smaller blade thats slightly harder to hold on to. Gloves seem like a MUST for that but, thats just my opinion.
 
Unless you are working against a work rest, gloves are a bit different when used with abrasive belts and discs than they are with rotating equipment. They just wear down instead of your skin. The gray knit metal handling gloves are a snug glove that fits like a thick layer of skin.

That said, you have to look where your hands are and where they will be going if something goes wrong. That applies for gloved or ungloved hands. I have seen people with the blade on the upper slack belt above the contact wheel or upper roller. They obviously never considered where their hand or fingers would go if caught between the belt back and the wheel. Luckily the belt often gets thrown off the wheel ( don't ask how I know this), but severe injury is also a good possibility.

We had a local man loose a hand in a commercial chipper. His glove snagged on a stob on the branch he was shoving in and pulled his arm right into the blades.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
Unless you are working against a work rest, gloves are a bit different when used with abrasive belts and discs than they are with rotating equipment. They just wear down instead of your skin. The gray knit metal handling gloves are a snug glove that fits like a thick layer of skin.

That said, you have to look where your hands are and where they will be going if something goes wrong. That applies for gloved or ungloved hands. I have seen people with the blade on the upper slack belt above the contact wheel or upper roller. They obviously never considered where their hand or fingers would go if caught between the belt back and the wheel. Luckily the belt often gets thrown off the wheel ( don't ask how I know this), but severe injury is also a good possibility.

We had a local man loose a hand in a commercial chipper. His glove snagged on a stob on the branch he was shoving in and pulled his arm right into the blades.
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Man, thats why even at 28 years old, I seriously take extreme caution around machinery like that, some guys think I'm a pansy. But like everybody, they get use to everything, and I dont want to say we get careless, but maybe over confident, and sometimes slip up and make stupid mistakes. I want to try to NOT do that anymore. So anything I can do to be safer, I want to do it. Losing a finger, or a hand, is not something I'm willing to deal with.

Sad thing is even after I cut my finger last week, practically glued it back together, steri stripped and wrapped. I want back out the next day to work on some knives lol....its just how it is I guess.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
We had a local man loose a hand in a commercial chipper. His glove snagged on a stob on the branch he was shoving in and pulled his arm right into the blades.
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That's exactly what happened to me. As I said before, if the glove had been tighter, you'd be calling me "Stumpy" now. There was no such thing as "reaction time" or "letting go" or jumping back.

Sorry if that sounds melodramatic, but please, take my word for it... when bad stuff happens, it happens FAST, and it will scare the crap out of ya even if you're lucky.

I've been working with all kinds of machinery big and small for 30 years, and I've come a long, long way since I gave a flying hoot in Hell whether anyone called me a pansy. My pride ain't worth getting laid-up, crippled or killed. If someone chooses to work differently than I do, go right ahead. Good luck!
 
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I've said it before: If it spins, turns, rotates, or has belts, chains, or teeth ANYWHERE on the tool, gloves should be left on the bench.

Better a blister or a sliver on a finger that's still attached to your hand than one that still inside the glove that's not tied into a knot around what ever tool you were last using.
 
When I started, I used thick leather gardening gloves and wore out a pair before I could finish a knife. I went through them like toilet paper.
Still sanded down my fingers, even with them.
I went to lighter gloves, and I got a little better.
Now I use nitrile gloves. I still get my finger now and then, but I work cooler, grind slower, although my production is quicker. I think that's just about knowing how to grind.
I have some heavier thin gloves from Napa that are pretty good, but I tend to use the ultra-thin harbor freight gloves and am liking it more.
I have to be more careful, but that's a good thing. I feel pretty proud if I get through a free hand grind without tearing a hole. Doesn't happen too often yet though.
This way I can feel the grind, and I'm amazed at the different things I can feel about my grinding this way. I wish I would have started with them. I would have learned more quickly, but probably no less bloody. :)
 
I have a phobia about even wearing long sleeved shirts around moving equipment. My grandfather had a shirt sleeve get caught in a grain combine drive chain. Fortunately, the chains were slow enough and he was fast enough with his fixed blade that he was able to cut his sleeve loose before he got pulled in and injured. That incident is the reason I carry paired fixed blades to this day.

Except for multiple vehicle high speed collisions, the worst EMS calls I have responded to in the last 24 years have all been "rotating/moving machinery" related. Mostly fingers and hands badly mangled, but occasionally an arm, foot or leg. Rarely, the whole body. Usually caused by inattention brought on by excess familiarity and/or stupidity. Or failure to follow prescribed safety rules.

Drills, augers, chippers, PTO farm equipment, tailgate lifts, saws...., if it moves, it can mangle or kill. There is no reattachment of an amputated body part that has been wrapped around and/or through moving machinery. An extremity removed by a saw blade can SOMETIMES be successfully reattached, but any other major equipment, just write that body part off as a total loss. My great uncle lost half a thumb to a band saw and I came within a cat's whisker of loosing a thumb to a table saw.
 
The RhinoSkins are awesome. They will burn however, if gotten to hot. Ask me how I know. But while they last, they're awesome.
 
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