An idea for gloves

[Rick Brinkman]

We use equipment made of ballistic cloth(packs, coveralls), so why not gloves?

Could a comfortable glove be made with ballistic cloth and a leather palm(or another material) for rappelling?

Anyone else think this would be a good idea :darkcaver: or not?

[NZcaver]

Nice suggestion, but I'm not sure it's very practical.

The gloves life expectancy versus the time/effort/money factor might kill the idea. Ballistic Nylon is tough, no doubt there, but I wouldn't think it's practical for the major wear surfaces - the palms. You'd likely have very little sense of feel or grip. Feel might not be quite so important when rappelling, but then your glove is producing Nylon-on-Nylon friction when rope slides through it. There could be a melting issue there. If you go to leather palms like many caving gloves, is there any advantage in having a Ballistic Nylon backing to them, compared to other (commercially available glove) fabrics?

I currently use a pair of leather-palm "SUG" gloves, with a kind-of Nylon mesh backing. They come in 3 sizes, cost about $10 from Wal-Mart, and I seem to go through 2-3 pairs a year. They fit "like a glove" (sorry! ), and don't seem to get as stiff and crusty as the cheaper ones after I use them and/or wash them.

As for your glove idea - If you can, by all means try it out. I'd be interested in the results...

[Caver John]

I love my glacier glOves for caving. There neoprene lined with microfleece inside and have a waterproof sticky rubber coating on the outside. These things are warm and very sticky on wet rock. They cannot be used for rappelling though unless you glued some leather to the palm....

[Jon]

Gloves. I use nitrel for general cave moving....HomeDepo had nitrel /nylon gloves 12 pair for $8. What a deal Yeah you want leather for vertical work but Nitrell is more cave friendly than leather for general motion. I carry spare gloves due to mud etc and also straight nitrel gloves for 1st aid or sci work. Latex is a no no due to the natural element

Dig deep enough in my cave pack and you will find sterile latex gloves....I hope I never need them

[Cody JW]

I agree with Jon in the previous post. I prefer his type for horizontal. They are inexpensive and durable and do not get heavy or lose shape when wet like any kind of leather. Of course leather of some type for vertical.

[self-deleted_user]

Yeah I use the nitrile-dipped gloves, cheap, and have yet to ruin a pair since getting them, and sticky! I like the grip of them. I should add some standard lab nitriles to my kit in case i ever need them. I would never use latex, as I'm allergic. Jon - might want to keep that in mind especially if you have them as first aid backup (which I assume as you say they are in sterile packaging) - person might be allergic, which isn't that uncommon at least around here.

For rappelling I found gardening gloves with leather palms for $12. Cheaper than fancy rappelling gloves, but actually fit my small hands for the mostpart, which is very handy to not have an inch plus of loose fabric at fingertips!

If you want to try making the gloves as you say, I had great luck with this person on ebay: http://stores.ebay.com/Textile-Specialist-Direct?_rdc=1 it's $7/yrd for the 1000d cordura, I think $6/yrd for a lower d which she does have a few colors of at times. They carry ballistic (1650d or something like that) as well I think that is $10/yrd or such though. It's "buy it now" the quantity is the number of yards. ~7 yards fits into the priorty flat rate medium so that's $10 or such for shipping, and they'll combine if you want different colours. Message 'em if you want something not listed, I was able to get bright green by asking as they had 3 yrds on an end of a roll somewhere I was able to get.

Probably would want lower d for gloves so it's less stiff? I'm working on my oversuit project still, I will likely have some pink (don't let the "Violet" fool you, it's magenta, some of their photos are a bit off colour-wise which is my only complaint) and green 1000d left over if you want scraps.

[NZcaver]

I've also been using the nitrile-dipped cotton gloves for several years. They work well for most non-vertical caving, except I would still use the neoprene type for prolonged cold/wet trips (which I generally avoid anyway).

My previous post in this topic was from 2005. Haven't used those SUG gloves in years...

[self-deleted_user]

Oh wow, I didn't even look at original post dates 0.o oops

[Mugger]

I use the cheap nitrile-dipped cotton gardening gloves for most of my non-vertical limestone caving, cheap leather work gloves for my non-vertical lava tube caving, and some fancy Petzl gloves (a gift from my wife) for the vertical stuff.

[Rick Brinkman]

WOW...my old post got revived?? LOL!!

Since my initial post in...2005!!(somebody actually USED the search function)...I have found Nitril gloves at Ace. Cheap, they fit, relatively durable. No warmth though. Yes, I rappel with them.

Cave on.
Rick

[rlboyce]

Check out these bad boys!

http://wvunderground.net/gloves

[Smells_Familiar]

Thanks for the link Ryan!

I've had nothing short of fantastic experiences over the years with Best Manufacturing and their Butyl and Nitrile gloves (for lab work). I guess Showa and Best have merged since the last time I dealt with Best, but I'm happy to report that their customer sales dept. still rocks (Showa Best Gloves manufacture the Atlus gloves linked to above). I just contacted them and requested samples of their 305, 377, 350, and 7000PR gloves and they should arrive soon. I'll be testing these gloves out over the next few months and buy a couple dozen of my favorite from a local distributor.

I'm super excited now that my caving gear ensemble is finally well rounded and all I have left is some tweaking!

[Moff]

Check out these bad boys!
http://wvunderground.net/gloves

In Russia and Ukraine we use gloves similar to these:

Brand: Showa
Cost: around $10

Although some folks prefer MTDE Guantes gloves, almost elbow length, latex gloves with cotton inside.

Brand: MTDE
Price: $15

For dry caves and dry clay 'extraction' simple cotton construction gloves are enough. They breathe and dirt cheap (30 cents/pair).