Am I alone on this one? Has anyone else encountered the "surgical gloves are okay" attitude?
Yes. Usually in folks who’ve picked it up in some non-standard
fashion, and usually not from a decently trained jeweler. Gloves of
various forms do clearly have their place. All are usually designed
for specific types of use, and for similar uses, gloves are good.
Thus, in handling flask tongs while removing flasks from the burnout
for casting, I often wear simple leather gloves to protect my hands
from the radiant heat of the oven. And in handling chemicals and
acids, I may use proper rubber gloves to protect my hands from those
agents, just as the gloves were designed to do. I find surgical
gloves sometimes of use when I’m doing work with resins, as they fit
closely, and preserve most of my ability to work delicately, while
also protecting my hands from the resins. But gloves use for
purposes where they’re not designed to work, are often a mistake.
I’ve had coworkers who liked surgical gloves for polishing. He
claimed that they were weak enough that if they caught on something,
they’d just tear, so he wouldn’t get injured, and I must say, in the
couple years he worked with me, that seemed to be the case. But on
the other hand, I’ve never quite forgotten my other experience with
gloves and polishing, which I related in an earlier post, where a
young man lost and entire finger, in part due to using gloves
(cotton ones, not surgical) to polish.
To a certain extent, much of shop safety is a matter of common sense
and care, not a series of hard and fast rules. gloves are just
another tool. If one uses that tool in ways it was not designed for,
but uses them with a full understanding of the tool, then it may be
possible to do so safely, and with some benefit from the tool. But
gaining the proper knowledge of the tool’s behavior can be tricky,
so someone who just starts polishing with surgical gloves will have
to teach themselves the limits of what they can do, and the dangers
they may present. I can’t say I’m totally comfortable with that…
But each of us is responsible for our own safety. By far, most of the
injuries we’ve shared in this thread are the result of carelessness,
or inattention, or forgetting some proper method of working safely.
Instructions on proper use can only go so far. The real, and best,
method to avoid injuries and problems in our work is a good clear
mind, thinking about what we’re doing and being sure we have
anticipated what might go wrong. Too much speed, cut corners,
inattention, an assumption that since things worked right the last
time they will again this time, and various distractions are usually
the root causes of accidents. Gloves, like almost anything else,
CAN be used safely if one is able to think through just how that
needs to happen. But personally, I see little benefit to surgical
gloves when polishing. Washing ones hands is easy to do, and the more
direct feel of the work seems safer to me. Most of the time when I
need to hold something in polishing, it’s because the darn thing is
getting too hot. A surgical glove won’t help with that…
cheers
Peter