Waterproofing for work gloves?

[Jan Flora]

Get a can of Huberd's Shoe Grease or a can of Snow Seal.

Heat your oven to 200F. Keep the door open and put your gloves on the oven rack. Let them get warm/hot. (Watch them -- you don't want to fry the leather.) Then get your can of waterproofing goop, open it, put the gloves on, dip a finger into the can and start doing a "washing your hands" motion, to work the goop into the leather. Repeat as needed.

Get a good coating of the goop on your gloves, then set them back on the oven rack for awhile and let the heat work the goop into the leather. You can put the gloves back on after awhile, and wipe any excess goop off on a rag. The gloves will be nice and soft and waterproof under some pretty severe conditions, but the leather won't get softened so the gloves will wear out faster. They'll be fine.

I live on a beef cattle ranch in coastal Alaska, in a wet climate. I wear Carhartt brand insulated leather work gloves all winter, and came up with the above process out of frustration. It works.

Re-goop the gloves as needed. (Doing my process about twice all winter should do it. Winter last for 7-8 months at my latitude.)

Jan

[Jan Flora]

Have you tried wearing surgical gloves under your leather gloves? (You know, the kind your doctor and veterinarian buys by the box? IIRC, they cost about $12 for a box of 100 pairs.)

I put a pair of surgical gloves on under my welding gloves when I have to arc weld something while standing in water or standing out in the rain. (It keeps you from getting shocks when the leather welding gloves get wet. Standing on a piece of woods helps, too, if you aren't knee-deep in salt water or something.)

Jan

[Jan Flora]

Sprinkle some baby powder inside the gloves before you put them on. It makes them easier to peel off, too.

[Jan Flora]

Nope. Leather gloves that have been properly waterproofed will let the sweat out, but keep the water out for long enough to get a day's work done. They'll dry overnight just fine, if put on the rack over the woodstove or in front of the heater.

BTDT daily for 12 years, so far.

Jan

[Kelly E Jones]

That's the purpose, but it doesn't work when it's raining. If it's raining, then the relative humidity is pretty close to 100%, which means that moisture inside the garment won't be able to diffuse out. So, if it's raining, you're still going to be pretty damp if you're perspiring on the inside.

Kelly

[Michael Daly]

Given that immersion tech Goretex works underwater, I have a problem with the claim it doesn't work when it's raining.

Goretex and other waterproof breathables work on insensible perspiration. That means that the perspiration is in the form of water vapour. If you are sweating so much that the sweat is in the form of drops, it is going to stay on your skin or whatever is under the Goretex. The problem in that case isn't how the fabric breathes, but how much heat you are producing.

Mike

[Kelly E Jones]

Works for what? Keeping water out? Sure, I'm not arguing that.

Not sure exactly what you mean by that. Of course we're talking about water vaopour, not liquid water. Goretex is permeable to water vapor, which means water vapour can diffuse through it. Water vapour diffusion through Gore-Tex is governed by the same laws of physics as all other diffusion is, which means that diffusion goes in the direction of high concentration to low concentration. If the concentration of water vapour outside the glove is the same as the concentration of water vapour inside the glove, then no net diffusion is going to take place.

Kelly

[Offbreed]

I suspect that if Goretex is wet on the outside, then it has a layer of water over it, and the fluid acts as a vapor barrier to prevent vapor inside from leaving.

[Michael Daly]

Letting vapour out.

Except that there can be a temperature differential across the Gore Tex membrane. That will assist the diffusion even if the concentration is the same.

Mike

[Phillip Fairchild II]

replying to Bill, Phillip Fairchild II wrote: Another good thing to use is mink oil helps condition the leather of the gloves water proofs them makes it alot easyer to use after they dry from water dripping in the wrist on a side note what ate the best gloves for warmth I load flat bed trailers with trucks for a hauling company in ohio it does get below 0 here alot during the winter I'm trying to figure out the best glove to stay warm wile doing this I move ramps and tighten down ratchet straps so I don't really need to feel but they do need to be durable