Hesitant Handyman Reviews - Firm Grip General Purpose Gloves
When I first started working with tools and wood, the first thing that everyone said was to make sure you’ve got a decent pair of gloves as they’ll save you a bunch of heartache and woe. I listened, although I’ll admit at times I’ll forget, and generally when I forget to put them on is when something stupid happens. When building my pair of media consoles for our living room, on two separate occasions I didn’t wear gloves and pinched the same finger in the Kreg K4 pocket hole jig I was borrowing from Ramone at American Crokinole. And realistically, my blood blisters from that are nothing–I remember hearing from Jeremy at Jericho Home about how he would have lost a finger in an accident working on a table for Workbench Conference had he not been wearing gloves. As annoying as the gloves can be (especially for people who do content creation and are simultaneously trying to use their phones to capture video), they save your digits more often than not.
The first pair of gloves I bought was a set of Firm Grip General Purpose gloves. If you’ve ever seen the wall of gloves available in Home Depot, it can be almost overwhelming trying to decide on the right ones, and these seemed like a pretty good value for someone who knew nothing about gloves coming into it.
Recently, Firm Grip sent me some of their newly upgraded General Purpose gloves to review, which I was super excited to get to try out and see how they held up against the OG general purpose gloves.
Disclosure – the product reviewed in this article was provided by Firm Grip Gloves for me to review. Aside from the product I’m reviewing, I’m not being compensated for my opinions, and my opinions remain my own. For more information, see my financial disclosures page.
Main differences between the old and the new versions
Sleeker design – The new version of the gloves has a sleeker, almost more tactical feel. I liked the fit a lot better than the original, not that I had any issue with it to begin with, but something about the new style felt more comfortable.
3 touch fingers vs. 2 touch fingers – The original general purpose gloves had three touch fingers, the thumb, index, and middle, whereas the new version has only two. It’s not a big deal (in fact I remember wondering how many people use their middle finger when using their phone, but then my toddler points at everything using his middle finger, so who knows?), but it’s a difference.
More robust palm padding – When you look at the palm of the gloves, there’s a definite difference in how it’s padded. The new version has a lot more padding noticeably distributed across the palm.
The Glove Trials
I’ve been using the gloves for general work around the shop for a while now, and they’ve been super comfortable and have held up well. When it comes to gloves, I have two tests that I run them through aside from just normal use. They’re tests that are relevant to me because they’re the two primary reasons I take gloves off when I’m trying to work with them — picking up something small, and using a touch screen while working in the shop.
The Pickup Test
Basically, I dropped a bunch of screws on my bench pickup-sticks style, and then proceeded to see how easily I could grip them. I found that the new version was a lot easier to grasp with, generally because they fit the contours of my fingers better than the old style.
Winner – The New General Purpose Gloves
The Touch Screen Test
One of my pet peeves with the original general purpose gloves was the “touchscreen compatible” fingers–for whatever reason, they never worked well, assuming they ever worked. Since I spend a lot of time jumping over to my phone and getting pictures/videos while I work, this usually wound up with me taking the gloves off because I couldn’t get the dang things to cooperate.
The new style, I’m happy to report, works MUCH better, even having one less finger to work with. Even having used them for a while, the touch screen fingers still work well, and I can use my phone without having to take them off.
Clear Winner – The New General Purpose Gloves
Overall thoughts
I love these new gloves–they’ve replaced their predecessor for use in the shop, and are usually with me when I’m making lumber runs so I don’t get slivers in my hands. If you’re looking for a solid work glove that’s still breathable, these are great.
