Hello,
since I often work with oak my hands get black very quick (probably because of some sort of reaction between skin and wood). They are not completely black but it takes a lot to clean the hands and moreover I have problems with getting the finished wood components dirty.
Any recommendations for gloves, at least which material would you recommend? The danger of them is minimized since I do not use power tools in the shop.
Replies
Gloves remove a lot of very useful tactile info during tool use, especially during hand tool use. I recently took up spoon, bowl and other treen carving, all using hand tools, and tried the anti-cut gloves that some green woodworkers recommend for use when employing sharp knives and gouges. I found they interfered badly with the process. Learning the tool-use techniques to avoid cutting oneself is far more effective.
But I digress.
In making the spoons, bowls et al I use many green woods, including oak (European and white oak, anyway). None of the timbers I handle most intimately when carving them impart much more than the odd spelk and certainly no "black".
Is it something about your hand-sweat that's causing the blackening or is it perhaps something that you rub into your hands (after shave cream or some other stuff you rub in by hand)? It's always good to know the cause of something before finding a solution.
Alternatively, would a barrier cream of some kind prevent whatever's causing the blackening from contacting the wood you handle?
I find black walnut stains my hands once they start to perspire. Oak, not as much.
I use nitrile gloves similar to what is used in medical practice when I work with finishes or solvents. My hands get really wet quickly from perspiration, I remove gloves, dry hands and put on new gloves. They work for what finishing I do, but I would not use them for general wood work.
If I were to try gloves for general hand tool woodwork, I think I would give the light weight white cotton gloves used in the antique book trade a try. They look like they would maintain most of one's tactile feel without build up of moisture inside the gloves.
I am looking at using some form of cut resistant glove for my left hand when wood carving. Age is offsetting any improvement in technique, and I have enough scars.
Good luck.
Try mechanic’s gloves. I use a brand called Mechanix…yea, really creative branding. I find them thin enough to maintain some feel. I tend to use them when working with rough sawn wood, which tends to spear my hands with splinters. I recently used them with hand planes while leveling rough cut wood in cold weather. I discerned no difference between that and bare hands…and I got a bit of warmth too.
This is fairly common, and I think it's from acids in sweat reacting with the tannins in wood. I just wear nitrile gloves when I notice it happening with certain woods.
I worked in the manufacturing industry for 20 years in plant operations and workers doing hand assembly task would prefer coton gloves with rubber dots or coating at the end of the fingers. It allowed them to still perform precision, repetitive assembly tasks and protect their skin.