Best Welding Gloves: Just Glovely

Top 8 Best Welding Gloves

Following up our list about welding helmets we felt it appropriate to compile a list of welding gloves. After all, you’re not trying to stick metal together with your bare hands are you? And that pair of cotton gloves is totally inadequate, by the way.

A good pair of welding gloves should be thick enough to protect your hands and long enough to protect at least part of your forearms. Wearing a too-small pair that is akin to using a scuba mask that doesn’t fit your face; things are going to leak, it’ll be hella uncomfortable, and you’ll generally have a poor experience.

Here are eight options we found on Amazon. Now, please reserve those cotton gloves solely for taking out the trash.

From the pros at Miller Electric we find this pair of gloves with a pig split leather palm and abrasion-resistant cuff. Multi-layered insulation is designed to wick moisture away from your disgustingly sweaty palms while a sheet of foam should improve comfort.

Those pre-curved fingers are ergonomically designed to facilitate grasping welding materials, while the keystone thumb design adds a bit of dexterity. It's what separates us from creatures devoid of opposable digits, y'know. Flame resistant Kevlar is fun to say and comprises the tread along this glove's seams.

There's an excellent chance that the Amazon brand will eventually appear on just about every consumer product on this planet, though the first time I drink an Amazon beer will be a sad day, indeed. These welding gloves seem perfectly serviceable for the price and are even offered in a trio of colors. Pro tip: choose red or blue.

Amazon says these leather gloves offer complete defense against molten metal, ultraviolet rays, and hot embers. However, Amazon says lots of things so it's best to turn to the 100+ real-world reviews. Fortunately, the 4.5 out of 5-star rating largely back these assertions.

The brand of Lincoln Electric makes some dandy welding machines so it stands to reason they'd also put their name on a series of welding gloves. These things cover yer meathooks with high-grade leather that's lined by soft cotton. Common stress points are reinforced with leather so they don't wear out prematurely.

Kevlar thread shows up here, too, along with a natty red flame design incorporated into the cowhide. Recent reviews are positive save for the few poor souls who only got one glove in their order package. Note that some five-star reviews came from customers who are using these things for grilling, not welding.

Here's a pair of gloves that will cover the forearms of even the most long-limbed welder. A total cuff length of 15.74 inches means these things should run all the way up near most people's elbows. Speaking of the People's Elbow, last night's repeat episode of Voyager featured The Rock.

These gloves are said to be thick and durable, locked stitched for added strength. The heat and flame resistant leather with double layer palms is designed to protect from fingertip to forearm. Total length of these suckers is almost two feet.

These welding gloves have a grain cowhide exterior with a soft cotton inside lining that's asserted to be not bulky at all. Its seamless index finger should help with precision placement of tools and materials.

Reinforcement patches show up where they are sorely needed: in the palm, thumb, & index finger. Like others from well-known brands, these traditionally brown gloves are Kevlar stitched throughout for maximum durability and resistance from heat, sparks, and slag.

Here's a glove option that merges the two markets of impact gloves and welding gloves to good effect. Back-of-hand protection is said to deflect and absorb impacts while delivering protection from heat and open flame. A premium grain goatskin leather shell provides dexterity and abrasion resistance.

The manufacturer actually seems to respond to customer inquiries on Amazon, something few companies choose to do. The vast majority of real-world customers seem very happy with the gloves but a few have complained about spotty quality, bringing down the overall rating.

Sold in a couple of different sizes (big and bigger), these mitts from Lincoln Electric have a top hand made of an aluminized PFR Rayon material which is said to reflect 95% of radiant heat. The silver coating will surely develop a super cool patina over time.

The glove itself is made from multiple types of lightweight grain and split leather. Its three-layer liner combines flame-retardant foam and soft flame-retardant cotton. All seams are stitched with extremely high strength Kevlar thread to prevent seam failure and the fingertip areas are reinforced for better wear protection.

This brand claims they are the only ones to offer double reinforced Kevlar layer padding on welding glove fingers, palms, and back-of-hand areas. In an impressively specific statement, the seller says these gloves are guaranteed to withstand extreme temperatures up to 932°F (500oC).

The 16 inches extra-long glove with 7.5 inches long sleeve protects your forearms from grinding debris, welding sparks, hot coals, and open flames. This helps explain why some reviews praise the glove's ability to handle a campfire. The seller is also remarkably active in the product Q&A section.

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(Editor’s note: This post is meant to both help you be an informed shopper for automotive products but also to pay for our ‘90s sedan shopping habits operating expenses. Some of you don’t find these posts fun, but they help pay for Junkyard Finds, Rare Rides, Piston Slaps, and whatever else. Thanks for reading.)

[Main photo credit: guteksk7 / Shutterstock.com. Product images provided by the manufacturer.]