I'm curious about this…how did you get the calluses? I'm an amateur woodworker who has been working in the garage for most of the year and I don't see any signs of calluses yet. I use the Grripper and hand power tools a lot to avoid using my hands on the typical screw drivers when possible, so maybe that's the case?

 

I don't have huge calluses, but the two most prominent are on the inside of my thumb, right at the joint, and on my palm, between the first two fingers, about an inch down from the finger joints. I don't do anything to avoid calluses-I use power tools when they're handy. My wife tells me my hands are just getting generally rough.

 

Mani pedis.

 

Despite handling rough lumber constantly and woodworking 5-6 days a week, I don't have major callouses. Most roughness comes from frequent hand-washing and neglect to use any sort of lotion. What does work is to rub a drop or two of glycerin on the hands after washing them - especially in the dry, Midwest, winter months.

Of course I always forget to do that until my hands get to the point where the glycerin stings.

 

 

 

Have you ever taken a good look at Roy Underhill's hands? Wow!

Just working around the house, I usually get what I call 'handyman nicks' on my fingers or hands.

If I get oil based paint or stain on my hands and I'm going somewhere public, I use mineral spirits to get the majority of it off, then spray WD-40 on them and rub, then wash copiously with soap and water. I don't usually use gloves, but I think I'm going to start.

I worked for 13 years in a small print shop using inks, solvents and chemicals. I used to keep a sandwich bag handy to put my hand in for the really dirty work.

 

Ok. Seriously now. I use gloves when finishing including stains and sealers and solvents like mineral spirits or denatured alcohol. Not with lacquer because it melts the darned gloves. I keep a can of bag balm in the bathroom and I rub it in after shop time. If I do something stupid like get stain on my hands I use goo be gone followed by soap and bag balm.

 

This is a good topic. My hands are stained most of the time from wood stain, varnish, and glues. It's a pain when I go out in public. A partial solution is to use the stuff that comes in an orange jug that auto mechanics use to get grease off. I mix it with hand soap, scrub with a little hand brush and it helps, somewhat. I used to use paint thinner, lacquer thinner, or acetone, but I don't anymore due to health concerns. As for callouses, I don't seem to get them much. What I do get though is drying out and cracking of my finger and thumb tips. Then they become extremely sore. An antibiotic ointment and a couple days time is all I've found to help that. I use a lot of hand lotion, and that helps some too.

 

I have had calluses on my hands ever since I was 23 and most folks in the south respect that. I shake hands with people a lot older than me whose hands are so rough you want to give them a hug. There is nothing like feeling one's hand, in a handshake that says this person uses his hands to make things come through; farmers, ranchers, woodworkers, roofers, construction folks; not body builders!

 

I've been anal about clean hands my entire work life and I've done all manner of rough work.
I use in separate applications, hydrogen peroxide, thinner and even bleach depending on what I was working on.
Diesel fuel and grease are the toughest to remove but a finger nail brush does wonders.
I do wear gloves when appropriate mostly on metal work.
Just in case anyone wonders why, I was a plumber so it's kind of life or death necessity.

 

I live in Colorado where the humidity measures "unhealthy low". As I get older, my hands get rougher. I've learned the hard way that raw wood really pulls the moisture from my hands. Now I wear nitrile gloves all the time when I'm in the shop. not just when I'm staining. It traps the moisture so it can't escape my skin. I also rub my hands with a good dose of hand cream before I put them on. Saw dust really dries my hands, so picking up sand paper is a memory trigger to "glove-up". Can't begin to tell you how much my wife appreciates that gesture.

 

I have to keep a professional appearance for work, but I'm not really worried if my hands get rough. Some people definitely respect people that work with their hands and some look down on it, so you can't please everyone. I use gloves if I'm doing anything that will stain or get too much grime under my fingernails. If I forget I use the orange pumice hand cleaner. Works well, but tears the skin up even more. If that doesn't work I'll wet a bit of a rag in mineral spirits and wipe whatever area on my hands needs it instead of rubbing the mineral spirits around. Works almost as well, and way less MS exposure. When my hands get too rough where my wife complains or they are cracking from being dry I put a good layer of her Neutrogena Hand Cream on before bed and having it on all night it usually helps a lot. Bob, I get that same thing with my thumb tips splitting sometimes, and same for me, the antibiotic ointment is the only thing that helps, besides just ignoring it long enough.

 

What's the idea about not using gloves in the wood shop ? I have a pile of specialized gloves for each operation. I rarely go without gloves when handling rough lumber, and when using most of the machines.

Who says gloves shouldn't be used in the shop and why, I wonder ?

 

I only wear gloves when handling very rough lumber (which is rare) and when I am staining or lacquering, because the PVA glue I use washes off easily, I don't get stains on my hands. I do get nicks and scrapes of all manner, but those heal quickly and I am not particularly worried about having my hands look like I'm a prince.

To answer Yonak's question: you don't wear gloves when handling machinery because it is incredibly dangerous, just as any other loose garment or hair is. think of ripping something on a table saw, having your glove get pulled into the blade and your clearance plate. BTW, since your glove is on your hand, you'r hand will follow the glove into the blade, router bit or whatever… that is a nasty thing indeed, I could have lost most of my fingers on my left hand last in the beginning of this year by an accident just like that. Luckily my glove didn't get stuck, but I would have not been nicked if it weren't for the gloves.

So since then I never wear gloves when I am handling power equipment.

I also have unwinded my grandfathers hand from a pole which is he was turning on the lathe, because his sleeve caught the rough iron pole.. after you see a grown mans hand wrapped around a 1" diameter pole 4 times, you take safety more seriously.

 

One word - Boraxo

Better than ANY other soap at getting off dirt grease and stains. Used with a nail brush it will get anything off except Gorilla Glue and black walnut stains.

MIKE

 

+1 to Roger in Colorado. I wash windows part time with my uncle, and the conditions are pretty rough on hands. During the winter, it is mid 30's and your hands are basically marinating in dish soap all day. Not only do your hands start to dry out and crack and look bad, but they start to ache pretty badly to the point where it'll make me not want to go into the shop. Lotion inside a nitrile glove does wonders to at least trap the moisture in, even if the cold is still an issue. It basically rubs all the lotion into your hands as you work and by the end of the day when you pull them off, it looks like your hands went to the spa. This solution isn't applicable all the time in woodworking, but it could work fine for some operations. Works well for sitting inside reading a book, and overnight.

 

Hahaha! It's a topic both serious and humorous, very good CharlesA.

I have the complete opposite problem: even in the years I was working manual labor in addition to woodworking, every cut, burn and blister simply healed immediately. I just don't callous, even serious scars and keloids just vanish over time. And my first job, at 14, was digging ditches with a shovel for sewer pipe, "LOL". The only person who ever guessed, correctly, that I've been doing something with my hands even as a child was a police officer a few years ago, trying to take my fingerprints: they told me that in thirty years they'd never come across anyone who had hands that looked like a musician's, but had fingerprints worn down like like stonemason's.

But I'm glad of this genetic abberation (my dad at 81 still working wood, metal, earth or stone every day has the same), because it's one of those things that has taught me the discrepancy between what people say and what people do.

There's a lot of lip service to such great, and dare I say divine, ideas like "by their deeeds you shall know them", but the fact of the matter is, to the continuing delight of every con man, politician, and psychopath, people actually judge by physical appearance and demeanor. The real question is whether you play along with this anti-reality, and anti-divine, or not?

 

A "Gentleman" woodworker:

1) Uses only clean S4S wood (no nasty dirt or splinters).

2) Only works for short periods at a time in an air conditioned space (no sweat, blisters or sore muscles).

3) Uses hand tools with complete safety gear and apron, spending more time to secure the work than actually working (no major injuries).

4) Uses warm liquid hide glue in convenient squeeze bottles (washes off with soap and water).

5) Finishes with 100% pure oils (conditions hands, washes off with soap and water, no staining).
Note: Shellac is also acceptable if mixed with pure ethyl alcohol (which can also be added to the beverage of choice).

 

As they say in the courtroom dramas on TV, you "opened the door".

Inquiring minds want to know. What do you do in "real life" that makes a few calluses an "issue"?

Are you a "hand model"?

If it is something embarrassing or illegal, feel free to ignore this information request.

 

In my day to day work, I don't have to have hand model hands. But showing up with stain marks any day is not a plus. And I do a lot of public speaking, leading executive meetings, etc., where having torn nails, rough hands, stain marks, a clear negative. I also have fairly high level meetings with leaders of other organizations where one might be judged by such things. And were I to interview for another job, etc.

I know that in many executive business, law, and other professions, one is absolutely judged by things like nail grooming. It's just a fact of life, good or bad.

 

...you don t wear gloves when handling machinery because it is incredibly dangerous, just as any other loose garment or hair is. think of ripping something on a table saw, having your glove get pulled into the blade and your clearance plate. BTW, since your glove is on your hand, you r hand will follow the glove into the blade, router bit or whatever… that is a nasty thing indeed, I could have lost most of my fingers on my left hand last in the beginning of this year by an accident just like that. Luckily my glove didn t get stuck, but I would have not been nicked if it weren t for the gloves.

- Jake

Jake, except for rarely, such as sometimes when loading lumber into my truck, I don't wear loose fitting or bulky gloves. Gloves these days are made to fit tightly, acting as an extra layer of skin, if they fit properly, providing specialized benefit.

I don't believe I've ever suffered an injury because of the gloves I've worn, but I can remember specific times when gloves saved me from injury. Without gloves, by the end of the week, my hands would be cut, scraped and rough. I don't believe I can work as efficiently without them. Everyone has to operate to their own comfort level.

 

I stopped wearing any gloves when I saw pictures of folks whose gloves caught in a table saw or lathe and their hands where pulled in. Then I discovered that in many professional shops, wearing gloves is prohibited for this very reason. Form-fitting or not, you don't want something around your hand and fingers stronger than nitrile that can catch a blade.

To put it another way, a nick on a finger from a blade could become a major injury if even a thin nylon or leather glove is on your hand.

This thread discusses this in detail.

 

One thing jumped out at me in the OP Charles ….... Epoxy.

I've used a lot of it building boats over the years and it is well known in that industry that epoxy has a cumulative allergic effect. The more you touch it the more likely it is that you will become sensitized. If you become sensitized, you can get a violent skin reaction every time you get near it. This can be a career ender in some lines of work.

I have a couple of hard and fast rules for using epoxy:
1) Don't get any on you.
2) Don't get any on your handles

I did a blog on epoxy handling techniques. Give it a read if you are using epoxy. ....please.

 

Shipwright,

thank you. I've never given epoxy much thought.

Charles