Harbor Freight Reviews

Link: http://HarborFreightReviews.com/HFRreviews.html

Item: 5-Pair Black and Yellow Leather Work Gloves
Item number: 66291
Retail price: $9.99
Frequent sale price: $5.99 (with coupon)
Target price: $5.99
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We love our roping gloves reviewed earlier but for more serious work you need a more serious work glove, and Harbor Freight offers this heavier work glove in a very cheap 5-pack. That's right, this is a FIVE-pack that at our target price puts these gloves at just over a buck a pair. You'll pay that or more for cotton "work" gloves at the big box retailers and probably end up with cut and calloused fingers. But how good are they?

These medium-duty work gloves offer great hand protection for material handling and other manual work that would otherwise leave your hands cut, abraded, or calloused. They are medium-thick leather with a canvas back. This design keeps your hands a bit cooler but most importantly prevents the gloves from being overly stiff. You still get a decent feel for the piece you're handing, unlike full leather work gloves that are stiff and somewhat more tiring even to wear. Interestingly, your hands get rather 'dirty' in these gloves; some combination of the dye and/or dirt filters through the gloves to leave your hands dirty after working in these gloves for a while. Of course you're doing serious work when you don these gloves, so a little dirt is not bad to remind you that you were working hard. In contrast, our preference for an all-round work glove (roping gloves, click here to read our review) leaves your hands as clean as they were when inserted into the glove, so they're a much better choice for carrying in your vehicle for loading and for all but the heaviest yard work.

We rate these conservatively as medium-duty work gloves only because once you jump into the world of real work gloves some types get noticeably heavier. They're great hand protection for heavier jobs, but they don't keep your hands clean like our recommendation for light-duty work (click here to read our review of our favorite all-round work gloves).

At around a buck a pair even the frugal Harbor Freight customer can afford to trash a pair up now and then. This makes them great for 'dirty work' that might leave concrete, epoxy, or other building materials on the gloves. They're even inexpensive enough to loan a pair to your helper when handling plywood or other materials. (Don't volunteer what you paid for the gloves and they will be impressed that you thought of them.) And at this price, leaving them accidentally at the job or dropping them down a big hole is no real loss, just as long as you have another pair handy for replacement.

If you're working professionally with these gloves, expect to go through a pair a day. But just as it's nice to start each day in clean, fresh work clothes, at a buck-a-day you get to start with the feel of clean gloves as well. They may last longer even under heavy use, but keep your expectations low commensurate with their price and you won't be disappointed.

Bottom line: A great buy on medium-duty work gloves when purchased at our target price. The canvas back leaves them supple enough for most work, while the leather palm and fingers offer good protection.