I buy deerskin and goatskin leather gloves from the arc-welding shops to pull poison oak vines so I'm forced to wash the gloves after use.
Even though I buy XL (the largest size they have in the non-cowhide gloves), once it's washed (even in just cold water with air drying), they shrink so much, that I can barely fit them on my hands.
I actually doubt there is a solution - but - just in case, may I ask ...
Is there a way to un-shrink leather work gloves?
While still moist, tightly stuff with shredded newspaper or toilet paper, starting with the fingers. When dry, remove that.
Plan A.....I would start by wetting them, put dowels in the fingers approx. the same size as your fingers and a block in the palm until they dry.
Plan B.......go visit OJ Simpson for advise.
Hank
An industrial supply house should have gloves more suitable to what you are doing. There are plastic coated types with metal reinforcements and many other unusual designs. Check McMaster and Grainger for possibilities.
Joe
I soak mine in water for about an hour, then wear them until they are dry. Werks fer me.
Steve
Heart surgery pending?
I buy cheap $0.67 cotton gloves and throw them out when I'm done using them or they are dirty, not for poison ivy, but other stuff.
Poison ivy I just wash well with dishwashing detergent (the soap of choice has to cut oil/grease) *within* an hour or two and never have a problem.
Do a combination of the two and you may have a solution to getting poison ivy.
I offer this advice because I never had any good luck with unshrinking leather. Or I suppose you could take the leather gloves to a dry cleaner?
Cotton gloves over single-use nitrile sounds like a good compromise for pulling poisonous weeds. I wouldn't throw them out after every use, but I would mark them with a sharpie and store them in a dedicated sealed container between uses. Only open the container when wearing the fresh nitrile, and seal the container before taking them off. That way, bare skin never touches the contaminated gloves. Note for casual readers- you never wash anything with poison or irritating plant oils in a washing machine used for regular clothing. Plastic bucket and garden hose, while wearing rubber gloves.
I always wash clothing that contacted poison ivy in the washing machine and never had a problem. I think in my case the detergent washes the oily poison away.
There are glove maker's forms. Dont know what they are really called. Part of making some gloves is to put them on a form wet and let them shrink to fit/
Jimmie
I buy deerskin and goatskin leather gloves from the arc-welding shops to pull poison oak vines so I'm forced to wash the gloves after use.
Even though I buy XL (the largest size they have in the non-cowhide gloves), once it's washed (even in just cold water with air drying), they shrink so much, that I can barely fit them on my hands.
I actually doubt there is a solution - but - just in case, may I ask ...
Is there a way to un-shrink leather work gloves?
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Heat shrinks things. Try cold water and do NOT throw in dryer.
Newspaper dries things really well.
Try your dishwasher. Any parent of a teenager that has a 50 dollar baseball cap knows to wash the cap top rack of dishwasher, then air dry. That's actually how I wash my oven mitts.
I always wash my clothes right after working with this poison oak. The clothes come out splotched with black oils from the poison oak. It looks like I've been in a grease-gun fight. The gloves are stained black as if the kids put markers all over them. That's all the poison oak oils after they've oxidized in the wash.
This isn't little stuff. These vines are as thick as your wrist. Little cotton gloves are NOT going to cut it. I was hoping the leather would hold up. Gas welding gloves were nice and long but the cowhide was too thick. The arc welding gloves fit and worked perfectly.
The main problem is they shrink. I like the idea of 'dry cleaning' them. I wonder if I can buy dry-cleaning solvent at the hardware store.
What dry-cleaning solvent can I buy at the hardware store that will clean leather gloves of urushiol?
What I tried, which worked somewhat, was to put nitrile gloves on, and then put the shrunken leather gloves on, and then pour new motor oil into an oil-drain pan and then dip my gloved hands into that motor oil.
Then I clamped my fist and 'stretched' them for about a half hour in the oil.
They're 'drying' now. Hopefully that might work. Dunno if I'm going to get cancer from the motor oil though. :)
I did both of those things. Apparently 'just' plain old cold water shrinks things too.
Drying isn't the problem. Shrinking is the problem.
Novel idea. I'm not sure how the dishwasher is any different though than the washing machine. How is it different?
That, I think, is the best suggestion so far.
Of course, it's too late for this set of gloves - but in the future it will be tried.
Of course, given these arc-welding gloves are mid-wrist in length (far longer than your typical garden leather gloves), it will be a bear to get shredded newspaper into or out of the finger holes.
This is (in a way) what I'm trying.
I soaked them in motor oil and wore them for about a half hour, flexing like a muscle builder the whole time.
They're currently drying.
I did both of those things. Apparently 'just' plain old cold water shrinks things too.
Drying isn't the problem. Shrinking is the problem.
Novel idea. I'm not sure how the dishwasher is any different though than the washing machine. How is it different?
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You wash things likes caps in the dishwasher to PRESERVE the shape of the item. I wash oven mitts in the dishwasher to de grease them and they never lose their shape. When they tumble around in a washing machine they lose their shape and even stiching from the grease and salt that eats away at them. That's why $50 baseball caps get washed in a dishwasher. The dishwasher is much gentler and as effective.
It's worth a shot to throw a pair of gloves in and see if a gentle wash in a dishwasher might do the trick to keep the shape of your gloves.
they didn't lose shape. they lost size.
leather shrinks after it gets wet unless it's put on a form of the correct size whlist it's still wet. some leather can be treated to resist this; the leather parts of my sailing gloves shrink a bit, but not much, when i get them wet with salt water. i'd doubt that welding gloves are so treated.
I had read that goatskin shrinks less than cowhide due to the 'lanolin'; but still, it shrinks too much. :(
I wonder chemically, 'why' leather shrinks when it gets wet.
Does that 'wet' only apply to water? Or is "motor oil" also 'wet'?
Tetrachloroethylene, AKA brake cleaner (Brakleen - red can). Unless you live in California, of course.
Otherwise, a good detergent removes the oil.
Jon
I would have to live in the Republik of Kalifornia!
There are no chlorocarbons on the shelves, I think.
Is there something else I can use (perhaps from the auto parts store or the hardware store)?
Here, for example, is a picture of all my experiments (all of which failed)!
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