Turing purpleheart and ebony

For a "full hand" glove, I agree. But I use, on my left hand only (I'm right handed) a leather glove that the fingers have ben cut off of (sorry about the lousy grammar). It protects the side of the "tool rest hand" from hot sharp shavings and from bark, which can also sting and I consider it safe.

Kip Powers Rogers, AR

I often wear a pair of old cycling gloves. No fingers, and the padded palms are quite comfortable.

djb

Direct the chips and splinters into a different direction. Adjust your cutting angle, flute, tool choice, and/or technique. Try different things before you resort to wearing a glove or coating your fingers/hand with something like CA glue, bandaids, or applied flexible plastic (New-Skin is what I've seen used before). Gloves and most protectants that trap or adhere to your skin are never "safe".

Yes, most if not all of us have experienced this. When all else fails, I simply tough it out. You'll eventually toughen up your skin a little and it's not so bad. I won't wear a glove of any kind because I've seen the results of that one up close. Trust me ... take the splinters, heat and little pain and be happy.

- Andrew

what happens?

The gloves get caught by the whirly parts and the soft parts come off with them. It could ruin your whole weekend. Dave in Fairfax

If you have the stomach for blood & gore google for hand + injury look at the pretty pictures. The glove can get caught on the spinning wood, trapped between the work and rest, and while the tools, wood, and lathe are made of hard materials, your hand is not. As I've told my own son- guess which is gonna have bits come off of it first?

vic

Yeah, what Dave in Fairfax said ... whirly parts and soft parts leads to too many parts where they shouldn't be.

I saw a lot of things when I was working at the sports medicine/orthopaedic clinic many years ago not to mention the time in the ER. One of the memorable things (at least now because of my own woodturning) was a guy that got his glove caught in a spinning chuck. Took his hand and arm with it instead of tearing off. Snapped his ulna (forearm) against the lathe bed and took out a good chunk of his hand (bones and flesh) with the loss of 2 fingers by the chuck eating away at it ... crunch crunch crunch. After surgery, we worked with him so he could use the remaining fingers. The OT's eventually got him back to using the lathe. It took awhile though. At least he could still scratch his butt.

It doesn't matter if the glove, or whatever it is that you attach to your flesh, is tight, loose, fingerless or just a partial flap. If it gets caught, your hand WILL go with it if it won't tear apart completely by itself.

Wanna hear about the neighbor that popped off his ring finger because he was slinging haybales out the top floor of his barn and got the ring caught on the pully thereby pulling him out of the barn making his finger stay up there on the pulley and him down 20 feet? Oooops, I guess I reveiled it already.

Be careful out there,

- Andrew

Discussing gloves/no-gloves is like discussing religion and/or politics. Search the archives and you will find more than enough threads on the subject. Personally, I will *NOT* turn without wearing gloves....period. Tight fitting fingerless leather gloves will save your skin. IMO, those who have gotten gloves caught in moving machinery were either not being careful or wearing LOOSE gloves. A tight fitting glove is like a second skin.

Peter Teubel Milford, MA

But to answer your original question. Assuming that you are going to turn the wood as a cross grain, cut the blank round on a bandsaw first. Knocking the corners off with a gouge will splinter the hell out of it. From there, (I use a fingernail ground gouge) take little bites against the face and start to define your outside curve. Point the bevel in the direction of the cut and rub the bevel. You may also benefit from a secondary bevel (relief) to allow heat dissipation under the gouge as you cut the shape away. It helps alot in oily and kiln dried hardwoods.

-- Steve Worcester

Search the archives and you will find more than enough

gloves....period. Tight fitting fingerless leather gloves

machinery were either not being careful or wearing LOOSE

Well, thanks for all your answers. You have me more afraid to wear anything on my hands then before, which is probably good. I will try different techniques with different tools. I will definately do a better job at rounding on the bandsaw. I was just cutting off the corners before. I dislike my bandsaw very much. Its a OAV POS. I am going to buy some of the best blades for it and of it doesn't start cutting better, its going to become a dust collector like my G5979.

Leslie

And if you needed another story to help convince you .... A seasoned, well-respected and highly competent turner in one of my clubs tonight came in with his left hand/wrist all bandaged up with a metal splint on it. When asked by the group what happened, he said that he was (yep) wearing a TIGHT FITTING, LEATHER glove while sanding. He got a little close to the the drive spur (thankfully it wasn't a chuck!) and the glove caught it. It pulled him into the turning and the spur. He won't be turning anytime soon but hopefully he'll make a full recovery.

A little moment of inattention? Certainly. But who of us dares to say that they've never had something like that happen to them?! Ironically, our feature demonstrator of the evening mentioned and showed us how he finishes some of his turnings by burnishing with a loose, leather glove.

- Andrew