I was making good progress untying some difficult knots. The wind had taken down a tree in a marshy area in the woods by our home. I had used a block and tackle to pull the tree to drier ground so that I could process it for firewood. Now I was busy tidying up my ropes.
Suddenly, I realized that something was different. I was wearing gloves. Usually shedding my gloves is the first step in the process of untying difficult knots. The Bear Knuckles G305 Hybrid Driver Gloves that I was wearing provided such good grip and dexterity that I had unconsciously just continued to wear them while I engaged in the untying process.
The Bottom Line, Up Front
Bear Knuckles G305 Hybrid Driver Gloves are comfortable, tough, provide a secure grip, give excellent dexterity, and breathe well. The fronts of the gloves are made of drum buffalo hide and the backs are made of nylon. The backs of the thumbs are covered with terry cloth, which is very convenient for scratching an itchy nose or chin. The gloves are also machine-washable, which is evidence of their toughness and handy if you like clean gloves.
Best of all, a pair of the gloves only costs $17.98 at the time of this writing at buybearknuckles.com . That is amazingly inexpensive for gloves of this quality. For example, a pair of Mechanix Leather Fastfit Gloves (which are excellent, but not quite as excellent as the Bear Knuckles G305 gloves), cost $24.99 at the time of this writing at www.mechanix.com .
The G305 gloves are made in Pakistan.
If you need a good pair of work gloves, I highly recommend these. They are my new favorites.
Background
Bear Knuckles Gloves were originally designed by bareback rider Shawn Schild to give himself a better grip during rodeo competition. The gloves utilize a double wedge pattern along the sides of the fingers to conform to the natural curve of the fingers. This provides a better grip while producing less resistance and fatigue.
I had previously reviewed two kinds of Bear Knuckles gloves on SurvivalBlog: Their HD361 Heavy Duty Cowhide Driver Gloves and their D357 Double Wedge Water Resistant Cowhide Driver Gloves. Both types of gloves are outstanding.
The heavy-duty gloves quickly became my favorites for chainsaw work, while I favored the water-resistant gloves for pretty much everything else. I wore the water-resistant gloves so much that I eventually wore them out. This took place shortly before Christmas, so I asked my wife, “Kari” for more of the water-resistant gloves for Christmas. She bought me three pairs!
I recently noticed that Bear Knuckles had come out with a new model, the G305 Hybrid Leather and Nylon Driver Glove. A pair of the hybrid gloves cost $17.98 in contrast to $29.72 for a pair of the water-resistant gloves. I generally prefer hybrid leather and nylon gloves because they are tough over the palms and the fronts of the fingers, but light and breathable on the backs.
I was eager to see what my favorite brand of gloves could do with my favorite style of gloves. I contacted Bear Knuckles to see if they could provide me with a pair of the hybrid gloves for testing and evaluation. They did me one better. They sent me two pairs.
First Impressions
Like other Bear Knuckles gloves, the hybrid gloves have the patented double wedge on the sides of the fingers that promote such excellent grip. The double wedge makes the fingers predisposed to grip, so that they work with the wearer rather than against him when he is trying to grip something.
There is a QR code on the tag that directs the owner to a web page on glove care. The instructions there advised breaking the gloves in by putting them on, spritzing them with water, and then wearing them until they dry. I wondered if that was truly necessary. The extra elasticity provided by the nylon back made the gloves fit quite comfortably even without any breaking in. But I decided to follow the manufacturer’s instructions to the letter. I put the gloves on, spritzed them with water, and went to bed.
The breaking-in process did indeed make the leather of the palms and the fronts of the fingers more supple, thus providing more dexterity. The gloves provided so much dexterity that I was able to turn the pages of a book that I was reading while wearing the gloves.
The results of breaking in the first pair of gloves were so satisfactory that I promptly broke in the second pair as well. I put the first pair of gloves in my work jacket and the second pair in my everyday jacket.
Testing
I quickly found that the nylon backs of the gloves made them more comfortable than all-leather gloves in warmish weather. The nylon backs breathed better than leather backs.
I also discovered that the gloves provided an excellent grip on a wet axe handle while I was splitting wood during a steady rainstorm. Ecclesiastes 11:4 tells us that he who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap. So in all but the most adverse weather conditions, I usually just ignore the weather and get to work. I am going to need firewood next January whether or it is raining today or not.
I was also pleased to note that I could easily manipulate the key pad on the automatic opener on the pole barn door.
I have already mentioned wearing the gloves while pulling the tree out of the marshy area. That process left the gloves covered with black muck. I threw the gloves in the wash with my work clothes that evening. This was not primarily because I wanted the gloves clean. Rather, it was a test of durability. In reference to washing machines and durability, I have on a couple of occasions referenced The Jetson’s episode “Test Pilot”. In that episode, George tests a “indestructible” suit. The suit survives a missile attack, but it is destroyed when Jane puts it through the wash. I am happy to report that the G305 gloves passed the laundry test with flying colors.
Per the instructions from Bear Knuckles, I repeated the break-in process with the gloves after taking them out of the washing machine. I did this by simply putting them on while they were still damp from the wash and allowing them to dry on my hands. The process took five hours or so. The gloves molded nicely to my hands as they dried. Bear Knuckles has subsequently informed me that it is sufficient to just wear the gloves briefly and then hang them on the line to dry.
I wore the gloves for things like driving my car, walking the dog, moving our camper, loading wood in the outside wood boiler, moving wood from a wood stack to the wood shed, hauling trash to the township trash collection site, and a host of other tasks. They performed well at every task for which I utilized them.
Over the course of time, the gloves acquired a patina of ground in dirt. That patina did not impact their performance in any way. The drum buffalo hide remained tough and supple throughout.
Moving
“Kari” and I went out of state to help our middle daughter “Ella” and her family with a move. The coat that I took had a pair of the Bear Knuckle heavy duty gloves in the pockets. As I mentioned above, those are excellent gloves that I usually use for chainsaw work. But as I disassembled beds and taped up boxes, I quickly came to miss the extra dexterity of the hybrid gloves. I spent a lot of time pulling the heavy duty gloves off to complete a task, then looking around to find where I had left them when the task was done, and finally pulling them on again. The hybrid gloves are much more versatile for all but the heaviest tasks.
Gravity Intensification
I noticed that gravity had gotten stronger over the course of the five years or so since the last time I had helped Ella and her family move. Items that were fairly light back then had grown significantly heavier in the intervening years. Patrick F. McManus had previously commented on this and related phenomena, “I asked a couple of older friends about it, and they said that they had seen the same thing happen. They said probably the Earth shifted on it axis every once in a while and caused trails to stretch. I suggested that maybe that was also the cause for the ground getting harder, the nights colder, and the air thinner. They said that sounded like a plausible theory to them. (My wife had another theory, but it was so wild and farfetched that I won’t embarrass her by mentioning it here.)” (from “The Backpacker”, in A Fine and Pleasant Misery, pp. 86-87, 1968-1978).
Conclusion
Bear Knuckle G305 Hybrid Driver Gloves are outstanding everyday work gloves. They are durable, comfortable, washable, reasonably priced, and provide excellent grip and outstanding dexterity. They are my new favorite everyday work gloves. I highly recommend them.
Disclaimer
Bear Knuckles provided me with two samples of their G305 Hybrid Driver Gloves for testing and evaluation. They had previously provided me with samples of their HD361 Heavy Duty Cowhide Driver Gloves and their D357 Double Wedge Water Resistant Cowhide Driver Gloves for an earlier review. I tried not to allow their kindness to interfere with the objectivity of my review, and I believe that I have succeeded. I did not receive any other financial or other inducement to mention any vendor, product, or service in this article.
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