I'm trying to find a more durable glove for the buoy deck crews to use. Currently we use Mechanix's Heavy Duty Glove. This glove is nice for the first couple of buoy runs, but after a short while, the leather in the finger pads starts to wear away.
If anyone has any experience with good gloves that last, please let me know. These gloves can get expensive and I'd like to not buy any more that just don't do the job.
A pair of full leather gloves will do you good. The mechanix gloves are more for like wrench work and the like. During winter we use heavy duty neoprene gloves, they work great. During the summer I've seen the guys use heavey duty rubber gloves. I'll get the part numbers for you on Monday if no one answers you.
The ATON Seamanship Manual says that the gloves used by buoy deck crewmembers have to have a leather palm. You cant use rubber or neoprene gloves on the buoy deck except for battery handling.
We buy inexpensive gloves for two reasons... 1) If a glove comes up missing or gets damaged - no big deal. 2) You can issue two pairs out and they can dry out one pair while wearing the second pair. This helps keep hands dry and warm during the winter.
I was on a tender up on the "Lakes" for several years. The best thing I found was pigskin. In the winter just a couple pr of inexpensive wool liners would do the trick under the pig. Like U_Wonlyway says 2pr is good so you can have a pair drying at all times. I always used "snow seal" as well on the leather.
Just my 2 Cents.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: j_duncan,
a great pair of gloves are the Kinco brand leather gloves. Just rub mink oil on them every other day and you will keep them water proof as well as soft, not hard. Oh, keep them well away from Calcium Chloride as that stuff shrinks them like crazy.
My favorite gloves on the buoy deck were a pair of fireman's gloves. They were leather and padded. My hands were always happy in them and I had a couple of people try to "borrow" them (can't hide em, when you've got your name all over your gloves)
