How to Choose Welding Gloves for Your Applications

As you drag the rod across the joint, your hands are first in line of danger. The heat and radiation of the welding arc can severely burn your hands unless you are wearing an essential piece of personal protective equipment - welding gloves.

If you browse the market, you will find dozens of welding gloves. Some are thicker, providing better heat protection, and some are thinner to improve dexterity. But which one is the best for you?

To answer the question, we compiled this detailed article on how to choose the right welding gloves for your applications. Let's explain everything you need to know to keep your hands safe during welding.

Wearing Proper Protective Gloves for MIG Welding
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCV4_2ov0OM

Welding Gloves: Key Piece of PPE That Keeps Your Hands Safe

Welding is a hazardous profession that carries risks of burns from direct heat, arc radiation, or heated metal. An arc can burn any piece of exposed skin, especially if it is close to it. Your hands are often closest to the arc, so protecting them is crucial in safe welding.

The easiest way to keep your hands safe is to wear the appropriate welding gloves. Welding gloves are an essential piece of personal protective equipment (PPE) made of fire-resistant materials, such as goatskin or cowhide.

Using Welding Gloves During Welding
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qApwlqHe5FQ

Welding gloves will keep your hands safe, but choosing the right pair is more than that. While safety should be your priority, gloves should provide a proper fit and the dexterity needed to manipulate the torch or rod.

That's why there are dozens of welding gloves, including different types, leathers, designs, and features. Understanding which one is the best for you is crucial in making the right choice, so let's learn more.

How Do Welding Processes Affect Your Choice?

Before you even start looking at gloves, you'll need to understand the basics of welding processes and your applications. Knowing the fundamentals of the most popular welding methods, such as MIG, TIG, or Stick, will greatly affect the choice. So, here are the basics.

TIG Welding - Low Heat, High Dexterity

Gas Tungsten Arc Welding (GTAW), or TIG welding, is a low-heat method ideal for thin, delicate, and exotic metals. Due to exceptional heat control, welders often use it to weld heat-sensitive sheet metal such as aluminum, reducing the risk of warping or distortion.

In most cases, TIG welding occurs at low amperage, and micro TIG applications can go as low as single-digit amps. As a result, TIG welders don't need too thick gloves. Quite the contrary, TIG is all about the manual dexterity and torch movement. TIG gloves should favor agility over heat protection.

MIG Welding - A Perfect Middle Ground

Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW), or MIG welding, often falls between TIG and Stick in many aspects, such as skill requirements, equipment costs, and protection. In MIG welding, an arc forms between a continuously fed wire and the base metal, producing medium heat.

Welders, especially beginners, use MIG welding due to ease of use and the ability to weld medium-thickness pieces quickly. MIG arc produces medium amounts of heat and spatter, while it is easier to use than TIG, so you'll need a balance between protection and dexterity.

Stick Welding - High Heat, A lot of Sparks, and Spatter

Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW), also known as Stick/Arc welding, is an industrial workhorse. It can form some of the strongest bonds without complex or expensive equipment, making it essential across industries worldwide. Therefore, Stick is crucial in the pipeline industry, structural steel welding, shipbuilding, and many other areas.

However, Stick produces the highest heat among the most popular arc welding methods. High-amp applications often involve sparks and excessive spatter, so safety should be the number one priority for any stick welder. That means you'll need thick gloves that provide unmatched protection.

Types of Leather in Gloves

As noted, welding gloves are made of heat-resistant materials, most commonly leather. Leather is naturally heat-resistant and provides exceptional durability, as well as protection against sparks, spatter, and slag. Its abrasion resistance protects hands from sharp metal edges, making it an ideal choice for welding gloves.

However, several types of leather are used for welding gloves. These differ in terms of flexibility, protection, and abrasion resistance, so knowing the differences is crucial for making an informed choice. Below are the most common types of leather, with their advantages and drawbacks.

Elkskin Leather

Elkskin leather is highly heat-resistant, as it withstands high temperatures without hardening as quickly as other leathers. The material is rugged, providing high abrasion resistance while remaining soft, offering great dexterity for heavy-duty work.

Most commonly, elk skin leather comes in thick cuts, which are perfect for MIG and Stick gloves. Its texture provides excellent grip, aiding material handling and torch manipulation, but its thickness doesn't offer the highest level of dexterity.

Stick Welding with Elkskin Leather Gloves
Photo by @__tdaddy__ (TikTok)

Cowhide Leather

Cowhide leather is renowned for its durability and heat resistance. The material is resistant to abrasion, sparks, and high heat, making welding gloves ideal for heavy-duty welding. As a result, most cowhide welding gloves are used for high-amp Stick and MIG welding.

Although they provide higher protection to elk or deer skin gloves, cowhide gloves are often stiff at first. They can feel stiff, bulky, and inflexible, often requiring breaks during long welding. Nonetheless, cowhide gloves are cost-efficient and suitable for heavy-duty work.

MIG Welding with Cowhide Leather Gloves
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55hLt-o77xQ

Note: Pigskin leather gloves are a cheaper and more comfortable alternative to cowhide leather gloves. However, they provide lower heat-resistance and abrasion resistance. They are less cost-efficient, as they wear much more quickly in welding and other heavy-duty applications.

Deerskin Leather

Deerskin leather offers an extremely comfortable fit, providing exceptional dexterity. Gloves made of deerskin leather are soft, thin, and pliable, offering the best feel for precise, fine-motor control. Over time, this material molds to the shape of your hand, making it ideal for your everyday welding applications.

But keep in mind that deer skin is less heat-resistant than cowhide or elk skin. Although thicker cuts offer better resistance, welders recommend deerskin leather for applications that prioritize dexterity over protection. Therefore, you'll mostly see deer skin gloves used for TIG welding.

TIG Welding with Proper Protective Gloves
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rh3SqlSbRUM

Goatskin Leather

Goatskin leather offers superior comfort and dexterity. Gloves made of goatskin leather are ideal for precise, delicate, or intricate welding, most commonly TIG (GTAW). Thin leather combined with superior comfort is perfect for handling and feeding thin filler rods. Supple leather reduces hand fatigue during long, detailed work sessions.

However, goatskin leather is limited to low-heat applications, as it can shrink when exposed to high heat. Nonetheless, despite being lightweight, goatskin leather gloves offer high abrasion and tensile strength.

TIG Welding with Goatskin Leather Gloves
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3szt51c9zk

Full Grain vs. Split Grain

Choosing the gloves is not only about the type of leather, but also the layer of the hide the leather is taken from. Depending on the leather layer, welding gloves can be full-grain or split-grain. Each layer has different properties that can affect protection and dexterity.

Full Grain Leather vs. Split Grain Leather
Photo by @HUB (Facebook)

Full-grain leather is taken from the top layer of the hide. It offers superior durability, flexibility, water resistance, and comfort. Full-grain gloves are ideal for high-dexterity, long-lasting use, and provide natural resistance to water, oil, and abrasion. In welding, welders commonly use full-grain leather gloves for high-dexterity tasks in TIG welding, where precision is crucial.

Split grain leather is created from the inner, rougher layers of the hide. Split leather gloves often provide a rough, fuzzy, and textured feel, but they also offer much higher heat resistance than full-grain gloves. With exceptional abrasion and heat resistance, these gloves are ideal for high-amperage applications and heavy-duty welding. Although tougher, split leather welding gloves wear more quickly, but they are initially cheaper.

Understanding the Hazards

Knowing what awaits you with your welding tasks helps you make the right choice. To choose the right gloves, you should understand the hazards associated with your everyday applications and welding.

Primary hazards you and your gloves will face in the everyday applications are:

• Heat
• Cuts
• Abrasion
• Cold temperatures

As safety equipment, most welding gloves are tested and rated according to ASTM or ANSI standards. These explain how much damage gloves can withstand before damaging your hands. Below is a brief explanation of each.

Welding Gloves Heat Standards

Heat is the number one enemy of every welder, as the arc can reach extreme temperatures. To ensure safe operation and protect you from burns, your gloves must provide suitable heat conduction resistance.

Stick Welding with Proper PPE
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcgj4RJqvZ8

ANSI/ISEA 105 is the North American standard that provides hand protection and cut-level ratings. Within it, there is a specific ASTM F1060-08 test that measures conductive heat resistance in gloves.

The test measures the temperature at which a person wearing PPE develops a second-degree burn within a specific time period. Simply put, tests measure the maximum temperature gloves can withstand the heat for at least 15 seconds before you get a second-degree burn.

According to measurements, gloves receive levels of protection, ranging from the following values:

• <176°F: Level 0
• 176°F: Level 1
• 284°F: Level 2
• 392°F: Level 3
• 500°F: Level 4
• 608°F: Level 5

Each pair of welding gloves must meet the ANSI requirements. However, the level of protection will depend on the processes and applications you use.

Cutting Protection Levels

If you are handling materials around the workshop, especially sharp-edged metal sheets, metal chips, and burrs, your gloves need appropriate cutting protection. The ANSI/ISEA 105 standard rates cut-resistant gloves on a 9-level scale, with A1 being the least resistant and A9 the most.

The rating is determined by ASTM F2992-15 testing, which measures the force in grams required to cut through the material. Cut protection levels are often grouped depending on the common applications in the following groups:

• A1-A3 gloves: Suitable for packaging, light assembly, and food prep.
• A4-A6 gloves: Best for construction, glass handling, and sheet metal work, including welding applications.
• A7-A9 gloves: Designed for heavy-duty use in high-risk, extreme-cut hazardous environments.

Abrasion Resistance of Gloves

Exposure to repetitive friction against various materials and rough metal surfaces causes gloves to wear. ANSI/ISEA 105 standards measure how much repetitive friction gloves can withstand before they get damaged.

To measure the abrasion resistance, testers use the gloves against the Taber abrasive wheel. Based on the number of cycles required to damage, there are 6 levels of abrasion resistance. But, like with cuts, these are often sorted into the following groups:

• Level 1-2 abrasion resistance: gloves for light-duty handling.
• Level 3-4 abrasion resistance: gloves for construction/material handling, welding, and related applications.
• Level 5-6 abrasion resistance: heavy-duty gloves for mining, oil & gas, and manufacturing.

Cold Weather Gloves

Besides welding performances, welding in cold weather can also impact your dexterity, grip, and material handling. If you often weld in cold conditions, make sure your gloves are also suitable for severe conditions.

Cold-weather welding gloves combine thermal insulation with specialized coatings to maintain grip and protect against cold, wet environments. High-performance fibers also provide some level of cut resistance. These are highly specialized gloves, but they can protect your hands from both extreme outdoor cold and the extreme heat of an arc.

Designs and Features of Welding Gloves

Welding glove manufacturers can sew leather into several designs that can make wielding a torch much easier. Leather, especially from thicker hides, can feel stiff, and the design can make moving fingers and everything much easier. The most common glove designs are:

• Gunn cut welding gloves: The Gunn cut pattern moves seams from the palm to the back of the hand, reducing wear and improving grip.
• Clute cut welding gloves: These feature a seamless palm design for comfort, with a 1-piece palm and separate finger backs. The gloves are often reinforced with Kevlar stitching to improve heat resistance on sewn areas.
• Wing thumb: Many gloves, including gunn cut design, feature a wing thumb, a thumb sewn onto the side, to improve flexibility and provide a natural, comfortable feel.
• Straight thumb: A traditional design in which the thumb normally lies straight with the index finger.
• Keystone thumb: Features an inset, separately sewn thumb designed for maximum flexibility, comfort, and ergonomic performance.

Common Leather Welding Glove Designs

Helpful Features in Welding Gloves