A Buyer’s Guide to the Best Workwear Gloves

The main reasons for wearing gloves in the arborist and forestry industry is for protection against chainsaws, to reduce the effects of vibration, to give the user improved grip, to protect against thorns and splinters, and give protection from the elements.

First though, let’s start with some considerations.

Considerations when Choosing Workwear Gloves

There are several questions you should ask yourself when selecting a pair of workwear gloves. These include:

• What exactly are you needing to protect your hands from?
• What level of grip do you need?
• How much dexterity?
• Are your hands particularly small or large? (ie, do you need sized gloves rather than ‘one size fits all’)
• How important is breathability? (Tip – probably more than you thought. Cool hands are happier, safer and more productive)

For grip, you want to look for a glove with a rough or textured coating. Thinner gloves will give less protection and less insulation in the cold, but a lot more dexterity – so it is definitely about picking the right glove for the job.

When it comes to getting the fit right, did you know foot size often roughly correlates to glove size? As an approximate guide to decide what size gloves you need, measure your hand across the width as shown below:

And compare to the measurements below:

Up to 8.5cm: size small

8.5-9.5cm: size medium

9.5-10.5cm: size large

10.5-11.5cm: size XL

Over 11.5cm: size XXL

Most of the mid to top range gloves we stock are available in a range of sizes. The B749 Maxiflex Endurance, being our most popular glove, is available in the biggest range from small (7) through to XXL (12). Further to requests from some of our lady customers, we’ve got quite a few gloves in small sizes – such as the Maxiflex Ultimate, Maxitherm, and Ladies Grip & Grab gloves.

Some professionals will avoid wearing gloves because they can’t find a pair that are comfortable and a good fit. If this is you – we have some recommendations! We have had exceptionally good feedback on both the Maxiflex Endurance and the Maxitherm gloves, with our enthusiastic reviewers reporting these gloves to fit well, last well, and be extremely comfortable to wear.

Now let’s look at gloves aimed at specific outdoor work activities and uses.

Best Workwear Gloves for Climbing

The Maxiflex Endurance glove is a nice thin glove which affords it good dexterity. This allows for easy use of karabiners and climbing devices, and the dots on the palm and fingers provide excellent grip. This particular glove is a very good natural fit with slightly longer cuff and very wide range of sizes from small to XXL. One of the key benefits of the Maxiflex Endurance is it’s exceptional durability – meaning it will last significantly longer than many similar gloves on the market. Also importantly, the Maxiflex Endurance has very good breathability to help prevent hands getting hot and sweaty. This glove can even be machine washed for ongoing freshness.

Best Chainsaw Gloves

The best all-round chainsaw gloves we stock here at Landmark Trading has to be the Husqvarna. These feature high-quality leather palms and fingers, so they are supple and comfortable, with a stretch fabric on the back of the glove to allow easy flexing of the hands. A neoprene band across the back gives knuckle protection and the knitted cuff helps keep out debris. The general feedback we have on this glove is that it is comfortable and more durable than similar gloves in other brands.

The only consideration to bear in mind is that leather naturally tends to get ‘slimy’ when wet, so if you anticipate using them in bad weather, consider a pair of Harkie chainsaw gloves. This is a synthetic glove with rubberised grip pads on the palm and fingertips to help maintain grip in wet conditions.

Best General Workwear Gloves

A great pair of all-rounder gloves will come down to the specific nature of the work you’re doing, but a good all-rounder, in my opinion, has to go to the Maxitherm glove. These extremely comfortable and ergonomic gloves have to be tried for the comfort to be fully appreciated, and will easily outlast many other similar gloves when it comes to durability.

Available in a very wide range of sizes, the Maxitherm glove has a tough latex foam coating giving it a very good non-slip grip, ideal for a wide range of general handling tasks. These gloves are suitable for use in both wet or dry applications (they’re not waterproof but will offer a certain level of protection). They can withstand temperatures as low as -30oC and contact heat up to 250oC. The feedback we’ve had on these really speaks for itself (select the ‘Reviews’ tab on the product page to read more).

Best Waterproof Workwear Gloves

Undoubtedly the best waterproof option we stock here at Landmark Trading are the Maxidry gloves. These come in two options – Maxidry regular or Maxidry thermal. The regular is a fully coated, ultra-lightweight nitrile coated grip glove designed to provide comfort, grip and keep hands dry. This glove not only keeps the hands dry but provides protection from oil and high-grade chemical resistance, without the associated loss of comfort and dexterity normally found in chemical resistant gloves. The fit of the glove mimics the ‘hand at rest’ position to reduce hand fatigue. The Maxidry Zero glove has all the benefits of the regular version but with a thermal lining – making it a fantastic glove for wet and cold applications.

Best Gloves for Dexterity

For good dexterity, on jobs where you need to feel what you’re doing (such as handling small parts, operating buttons, triggers or opening karabiners) a glove with a very thin coating is required. In our opinion, the best option in this regard has to be the Maxiflex Ultimate gloves. These gloves are up to 35% thinner and lighter than most foam nitrile gloves on the market, are ergonomically shaped to minimise fatigue to the hand and feature 360o breathability (a system that helps to transport heat away from the hand). They are also extremely durable. This glove has become the world benchmark for precision handling. An excellent glove at an extremely affordable price.

Best Gloves for Thorn Resistance

One of the questions we get asked most often in relation to gloves is, What glove protects against thorns? If you’ve ever had to clear blackthorn from a site, you’ll no doubt be painfully familiar with the damage this can inflict. Unfortunately, no ordinary workwear glove will provide complete thorn protection – for that, you’d need to be looking at something highly specialist such needle resistant gloves. We do however have three gloves which will help provide a good level of resistance at an affordable price: a thick leather glove such as the B771 Drivers open cuff glove or B773 Drivers knitwrist glove or the B776 Leather gauntlet. The Gauntlet is very tough but also quite stiff; whereas the Drivers gloves are made from much more supple leather and will cause less hand fatigue over time. Some customers like the knitted cuff of the B773 Drivers glove as it helps to keep out sawdust and debris.