There are many practical uses for cut-resistant gloves. These types of gloves can include coatings that are resistant to punctures, abrasions, or tearing but yet also offer excellent dexterity and durability. But what activities are ideal for wearing cut-resistant gloves? You can find out below.
#1 Woodworking
Woodworking includes building furniture or cabinets and the other is building shelves, tables, and more. Some of the tools woodworkers use are a table saw, chisels, a hand drill, a carpenter’s crayon, a hand saw, a pencil, and some rubber mallets. Wood routers are also used with a table saw to cut and shape the wood. Hand drills for the wood router and a jigsaw for cutting the pieces that will be needed for making the furniture or cabinets.
Cutting wood with powered saws, grinding, craft knives and carving tools all subject the hands and fingers, along with the eyes and face to potential injury. Woodworking requires skill, concentration, and a firm grip on the materials and tools. But, slips and other accidents can happen which can put your hands in contact with sharp objects. This is why cut-resistant gloves are ideal for woodworking tasks.
#2 Metalworking and Blacksmithing
Metalworking is the art of shaping and re-shaping metals into useful objects, pieces, assemblies, and even large scale architectural structures. It is also used in the production of jewelry and electronics.
A variety of tools and machines are required for this process, and knowledge of how metalworking works is an important requisite for aspiring metalworkers. Blacksmithing is a form of metalworking that usually makes more rugged-looking pieces for art installations, equipment repair, or outdoor implements.
Metalworking is done in machine shops, which include machine tools that can cause serious hand injuries. Blacksmiths work in hot conditions, often outside so sweat and grime can cause their grip to loosen. If they are not wearing strong enough work gloves, they could cut or smash their fingers. Some tools blacksmiths work with include, tong punches, round hammers, and side jaws.
#3 Operating a Sawmill
Lumbermill workers that handle pieces of lumber that cut through band saws and rotating blades. These are extremely dangerous and require safety training and PPE, including cut-resistant gloves.
However, sawmills are so dangerous that even the best cut-resistant gloves may not fully prevent a serious injury to the hands.
Fortunately, today’s advanced sawmills require less labor to operate than in the past, so a few patient and safety-conscious workers can run them fairly safely.
However, small sawmill operations, such as those at hardware store lumberyards still require employees to run, many of which may be low-paid and undertrained. So, it is imperative these workers wear PPE and cut-resistant gloves each time they work at lumber cutting tasks.
#4 Machining Parts for Industrial or Automotive Use
Machinists make mass-produced and custom-made metal parts for industrial or automotive use. Some of these include farming implements, custom cylinders, rods, and even large replacement nuts.
The tools machinists use can all cause serious injuries to the hands and eyes, so safety is required in the shop at all times. Some of these tools include large and small lathes, grinding wheels, milling machines, wrenches, presses, and tabletop drills.
#5 Gardening
Gardening includes cutting and trimming plants, roses, strawberries, peppers, flowers, anything else you can grow on a small plot. Gardening requires using hand tools and shovels, each of which can injure the hands and cause cuts. Cut-resistant gloves are perfect for gardeners to use and have around.
#6 Landscape Design / Construction
Landscape “design” often involves the digging of trenches for irrigation pipes for a front or backyard. This requires shovels, picks, and removing debris by hand. These tools can cause cuts themselves, as can picking up metal, nails, wiring, or tree roots from the ground.
Cut-resistant gloves are very useful for these tasks, as they are in others such as the building and repairing fences, bricklaying, and grounds plumbing tasks. Sometimes, the work involves heavy irrigation or gas line plumbing operations involving large wrenches, saws, and pipe cutters. These can cause serious cuts if the tools slip. Trimming trees and bushes requires using cutters that can cause hand injuries as well.
#7 Home Improvement
DIY home improvement projects can involve cutting carpeting, flooring, wiring, wallpaper, indoor brick, or concrete. All these can cause hand cuts and injuries. Using multi-purpose cutting knives is common when doing DIY tasks, as are hacksaws, handsaws, and circular saws.
Cutting linoleum flooring, replacing kitchen or bathroom tile, or cutting out old wallpaper or drywall can cause cuts to the hands. So, if you are going to do some home improvement, consider buying and wearing a good pair of cut-resistant gloves.
#8 Automotive Repair
Automotive repair does not often include cutting necessarily, unless for wiring or stripping repair. However, most automotive work requires using different types of power tools, screwdrivers and wrenches, some of which are heavy and hard to hold onto under force. This could easily lead to hand injuries if they slip or are dropped.
When tools slip you can hit your hands on bolts, an engine block or fender edges. Even basic oil changes can put your hands at risk of cuts and scrapes if the oil filter is buried deep within the underside of the engine is difficult to reach. You apply your best grip to the oil filter and it slips and your hands impact the side of the engine causing cuts or bruises.
Cut-resistant gloves can prevent abrasions and cuts from parts of engines such as nuts and bolts, sparkplug tops, and cylinders.
#9 Food Handling
Food handlers, including chefs, cooks, gillmasters, and banquet preparers all use knives and often food scissors to cut and prepare food. These can cause serious cuts to the hands and makes cut resistant gloves an excellent choice to wear. Other food handling activities for which cut resistant gloves protect the hands include:
- Oyster shucking
- Meat cutting
- Mandoline slicing
- Grating
- Peeling
- Fileting
- Deli slicing
Shucking oysters or clams can be done for large banquets, exposing the food worker to cuts to the hands. This is especially risky when the quantities of shucked oysters reach into the thousands (depending on the size of the event). Cut-resistant gloves are ideal for this task, especially for time-constrained banquet preppers.
Butchers use very sharp knives while working in very slippery conditions. This type of slimy condition causes the tools to need regular break down and cleaning. A lot of butchers will wear cut-resistant gloves to avoid severing a finger when using a sharp knife or bone saw.
Even if you are not a chef or professional cook, save your fingertips and nails from graters and get a pair of cut-resistant gloves for yourself to wear in the kitchen. They will make preparing meals easier and faster and instill confidence that you can make the recipe you desire.
#10 Handling Hypodermic Needles
Doctors and nurses that give injections or draw blood without a doubt wear latex medical gloves to protect their hands from germs and fluids. But cut-resistant gloves are also designed to resist puncture from hypodermic needles. This makes them great for use in the medical field. For more information on how cut-resistant gloves can withstand hypodermic needles see our post, Cut Resistant Glove Levels.
#11 Archery
Archery gloves are often made of thick leather and polyester to protect the fingers when pulling back the string of the bow. Bow string abrasion is a source of injury to the fingers and a good pair or archery shooting gloves with cut resistance can keep your hands and finger protected while enjoying the sport.
#12 Chopping / Handling Fire Wood
Chopping fire wood includes using a hand axe, splitter axe, hand saw, or a sledge hammer with a separate splitter. Any of these can slip and cause significant hand injuries, especially to the hand that holds the lumber in place. Thick, cut and impact resistant gloves are necessary to keep your hands safe chopping and handling fire wood.
In Conclusion
Cut-resistant gloves are very versatile and are designed to be used during many different activities and tasks. They are often coupled with other qualities, such as heat and chemical resistance. The key is for each wearer to decide what level of protection they need from the gloves to keep their hands safe while working or enjoying their hobby.
