Protect Your Hands: Top Mechanics Gloves To Keep Your Hands Safe

When working on a car, every mechanic is occasionally met with minor frustrations. We’ve all dropped a nut into the depths of our engine bay, broken a bolt and had to drill it out with an Easy-out, or rounded the head on a screw. But perhaps one of the most infuriating things that can happen is busting your knuckles. This happens most often when using a lot of force to loosen a bolt, and either your wrench slips or your hand slips. The resulting pain is searing, the blood is real, and the bruises are lasting.

By far the best way to protect your hands against knuckle busting damage is to wear a good set of mechanics gloves. These are not to be confused with nitrile or latex gloves (which are great for fine detail work and keeping your hands clean) but rather these are gloves made from heavy cloth that shield your hands from sharp or blunt objects. Having worked on cars for a long time, we have used our fair share of gloves. Below we will showcase our favorites that we have found over the years and show you what we consider to be the best mechanics gloves around.

The Best Mechanics Gloves

When it comes to mechanics gloves, there are tons and tons of players on the market. Some are great, some are okay, and some are just downright terrible when it comes to quality. Below we have picked our favorites that we know will perform well.

Mechanix Wear Original

When it comes down to it, Mechanix Wear Original gloves are by far the best mechanics gloves on the market. They’ve been around forever, but the fact it that they are some of the most durable and well made gloves around. In addition, they also have quite a few features that make them extremely comfortable.

On the palm they feature robust synthetic leather that protects your hand from blisters as well as resists wear on the glove caused by constantly holding tools. The leather is supple rather than being stiff and limiting your motion. On the back of the hand, there is a form fitting and permeable TrekDry fabric that allows your hand to breath which keeps you cool while wrenching on hot summer days. The gloves fasten via velcro (aka hook and loop for the nitpicky about semantics) around the wrist which keeps them firmly in place.

Overall quality is great and even better is that they are machine washable which means that you don’t have to stick your hand into a greasy glove every time after the first use. The price is fair, and although slightly more expensive than other mechanics gloves, we feel is entirely justified for what you get. On that note, Mechanix gloves come in different colors and styles(tactical multicam, coyote brown, vented and non-vented as some examples), and sometimes certain colors and styles come at a slightly discounted rate. It pays to look around to save a few bucks if color isn’t too big of a concern. We are confident that you will be super happy with this pair of work gloves.

Custom Leathercraft 125M Handyman Flex Grip Work Gloves

Our other favorite pair that we like is made by Custom Leathercraft. Their Handyman Flex Grip Work Gloves feature many of the same features as the Mechanix above. Dollar for dollar, they are right up there with Mechanix.

The synthetic leather on the palm is of high quality and is nice and soft such that it doesn’t impair your hand motion when you are trying to grasp wrenches. Furthermore, it is resistant to wear so you should expect them to last quite a while before you start to see holes. The velcro fastener along the wrist does the job perfectly well. Sizes include small, medium, large, extra large, and XX large which means that you won’t have to settle for a glove that doesn’t fit right.

One feature that distinguishes these gloves from the Mechanix is the padded knuckle section. This padded area takes some of the edge off if you slip and whack your hand. While both pairs will absorb this impact, we think that the Custom Leathercraft gloves do a slightly better job. Conversely, these gloves aren’t quite as breathable as the mechanics gloves on the back of the hand, so there is a tradeoff. Overall, quality is good and it’s tough to go wrong with these. They cost a little bit less than the Mechanix gloves which makes them a strong value proposition.

Conclusion

When it comes to finding the best mechanics gloves, we have selected the gloves that have treated us well over the long haul. Despite this truth, there are many other options available so if one of these doesn’t speak to you, we recommend that you click here to check out some of the other gloves that are available! Happy wrenching with knuckles intact!