Get a Grip!

I've owned a lot of gloves over the years and not just the kind that keep my fingers warm when I'm walking to the bus on a cold winter's day.  I'm talking about Work Gloves.  Gloves are a requisite item for working anywhere, not just here in the Lovely South.  But, (you knew there was a but, right?) once I got to the South, I discovered that gloves can also be wrong.  Above you can see my very own collection of gloves that I use for different chores.

For the most part, in the past, I used a pair of medium weight leather gloves. You can see them there in the photo to the right. They gave me a grip, saved me from cuts and thorns and overall made me feel like a construction worker. Growing up out west, they made me feel like a cowboy, too.  

Then I found that those were almost too much glove when doing some jobs. For doing small jobs around the house, I bought a set of those cotton gloves with the little dots on them. They are ok, but one trip into the shed, and they look like dead mice... smell like it, too. Wash them once or twice and they fall apart.

Skip forward a few years and I'm walking through the local Big Box Store and I spy the pair of gloves above.  They are made from a stretchy spandex like material which has had the fingers and palm dipped in Nitrile rubber.  They are thin, light and fit like second skin. Not only that, they give a grip like no other glove I've ever owned.  I bought two pair immediately. 

Never mind the fact that they say "BOSS" on the back, they are great for working on anything.  I can even keep them on when I dig into my pocket for my pocket knife! Get them wet and they only get a better grip! Only drawback I can see is that the more you use them, the less life they have. (Well, DUH!) By that I mean that the rubber will stick to the spandex for only so long.  My oldest pair is already losing the Nitrile off the area between the thumb and forefinger and it's less than a year old. The grip is still good though, so they will remain useful for some time to come.  Much longer than the dead mouse looking cotton gloves I mentioned before.  

In addition, the Nitrile gloves are cheap, by comparison to leather, which means I'll pick up another pair soon to put into the rotation when the time comes so I'm doing ok.  Though by using them I'm not sure if my not using the old leather work gloves will keep me from being a good ol' boy.  

Only time (and neighbor Bubba) will tell.