Naive glove question


 
M

Matthew Appler

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This question is very naive (please forgive me).
I am interested in getting some new grilling gloves. Searching here shows lots of folks recommend welding gloves. This sounds great to me, but I want to make sure I undestand something:

These will let me pick up live, hot charcoal?

-Matt
 
I pick up and spread hot, glowing lump with mine but they do get hot. You don't want to be holding or moving lit coals for a long period of time. Sometimes i have to get the glove off in a hurry cause it gets quite hot. But the down side to doing this is the leather gets quite hard and stiff. If you do this just use caution when handling hot coals with welding gloves and make it quick.
 
For very short periods of time, they'd be ok, at least the el cheapo ones I have, but I don't make a practice of it. I use tongs for handling hot coals.

It is however better to use the glove instead of bare fingers...sounds obvoious, but when emptying some lump into my kettle, a little piece slipped out and onto my table. I didn't realize it was a piece of hot coal, just thought it was a rock or something, until I picked it up w/ my forefinger and thumb. I got lucky in that in only left me with some small blisters, but it was a valuable lesson learned, wear gloves.

I take no pride in any of those battle scars as they are really signs of complete stupidity. I got my gloves for about $7 at Menards, they go up my forearm and have no problem wearing them no matter how small the task might seem.
 
Use tongs to handle lit charcoal. There's just no reason not to. Gloves are a great safty precaution but fire is best left as far away from the body as possible.
 
I have a pair of welder's gloves I picked up cheap at Harbor Freight. They offer great protection, but I wouldn't be using them to pick up lit coals. I once picked up a very hot cast skillet while wearing one, and it wasn't long until the heat was coming through. I know a 400+ degree cast iron skillet conducts heat better than a lump of charcoal, but it still shows that these things don't make you impervious to heat.

Erik
 
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