Leather glove rehab.

How many of you wash your leather work gloves?

I wear gloves all the time and they usually develop a hideous smell long before they wear out. I don't mind chucking an uncomfortable, nasty pair of gloves, but when I do find a pair that fits I am reluctant to part with them just because they smell like poo.

And they do smell like poo. Poo seems to me a big part of my daily routine, shoveling it, piling it, using a finger to flick it out from between the teeth of the poo fork. Even if you give a horse a good rub down with a glove, the glove will smell like poo because the horse smells like poo because they lay down in the mud and the mud smells like poo. Which it shouldn't with all the shovelling I do. BUt it does. A mystery.

I soak my gloves in a bucket of warm, soapy water, give them a good scrubbing. Rinse. Roll them in a towel and stomp on them, then lay them on the register to dry and become hard as a rock. Once they are dry I try to convince Horsey Daughter to chew on them to soften the leather again, an ancient and cultural way of working leather, but she has never taken me up on this offer. So instead I roll and knead and fiddle with them until they are un-brittle. They shrink a bit but stretch out after a few wears.

Does anyone else wash their fave work gloves? Share.

Mine go in the washer, and I put them on a few times while they dry to stretch them back into shape. Once a pair went through the dryer and never recovered -opps.

Uno, I have found leather gloves to be terrible for chores here for the reasons you stated. So, I have been experimenting with alternatives and found a fluffy inside insulated pair of rubberized work gloves, black with elastic at the wrist that I really like. They cost about 3 dollars for the pair. I have worn them almost a month now and they are still in good shape. I can pick ice out of water with them on and not get my hands wet or cold. The poo does not stick to the gloves either, so they are pretty clean most of the time. I have tried washing similar gloves and they got sticky. I guess after a while, I will just dispose of these and get a new pair. I hang them half inside out , over the wood stove on a clothes hanger with a clothespin to dry the inside lining. It does not dry 100% so now the gloves are beginning to stink. At this point I think it is time to invest in another pair, though technically these are still good. I might try putting baking soda on my hands before I toss the gloves, to help with the stink, which comes from my hands, and wetness inside the gloves which does not dry properly. They do not turn inside out easily so I only turn them half inside out, which does not appear to be good enough. Still, compared to the leather gloves which I washed and were stiff and uncomfortable, these are a dream.

My gloves are all leather and top quality with no cloth. They fit like a....glove! The seams do not chafe. I believe they are deer hide. I wash them and dry them either by air or by machine. When dry I put on the hard crusty things and do finger and hand exercises. They soften right up. Then I rub some neetsfoot oil into them. They stay lovely.

If I am doing something really mucky I can put a rubber or cloth glove over them to protect them. They stay cleaner longer.

Building and constructing- leather gloves alone
Working with dry and dirty- cloth over leather
Working with wet and dirty- rubber over leather
Working with animals- bare hands. I find I need that tactile sense with animals. It is important to touch and feel them. You can identify health issues much faster this way.

Yes I use neets foot oil as well on washed gloves gets them supple again.

I wash them in our laundry sink and put them to dry by the wood stove. When dry I pull them on and hope the next usage is cleaning up oil filters. I wear them until the fingers are no longer protected. We moved chickens from a very wet run and few weeks ago and my wife washed the gloves in the washing machine. They survived and have been put back in service.

I wear really good leather gloves with a removable insulating liner. They are for ever dirty and smelly from blood at butcher time, to moving the billy goat. By removing the liner they dry quickly. When they are too dirty I just pull them apart and throw them in the washer with a load. I have put them through the dryer and let them partly dry, then oil them, and finsh dry them by the wood heater or just put them by the heater to dry. They seem to be better from the dryer, not as stiff. The secret is to put the neatsfoot oil on them when they are wet. Some time my gloves get washed after one day, some times a month. I wear out about two pairs a winter. I rotate them so they can fully dry. If they are oiled well, they should not dry stiff.

I will have to try oiling when wet. I imagine the oil spreads better and doesn't sink in as fast.

I don't wash any. I have various gloves for various jobs. Soft and supple deerhide for easy jobs like gardening and such. Pigskin for things like fencing and wiring and any other tough jobs in tough weather. I have different styles and types. Including those insulated rubber ones as mentioned.
I still find I wear them out LONG before they smell horrifically bad.
Maybe I'm just a Guy though.....

Hillbilly wrote:
I still find I wear them out LONG before they smell horrifically bad.
Maybe I'm just a Guy though.....

Hillbilly! Are you still making your wife do all the stinky jobs with her gloves! I am shocked!

Schipperkesue wrote:

Hillbilly wrote:
I still find I wear them out LONG before they smell horrifically bad.
Maybe I'm just a Guy though.....

Hillbilly! Are you still making your wife do all the stinky jobs with her gloves! I am shocked!

Shhhhh, she hasn't caught on yet!