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Made in USA work gloves and welding gloves?

anchorman

Titanium
Joined
Dec 19, 2005
Location
Opelika, AL
Who sells and makes leather welding glove with USA as country of origin? or at least not PRC as country of origin?

I have to buy a bunch to restock our welding area and don't want to spend made in usa prices for china junk. if they are all made in china now I will just go to harbor freight directly and pay bottom dollar for them... It kills me to spend $13/pair on the same gloves made in the same chinese factory as the gloves at HF.

want to spend this money on american workers if I can.

thanks,

jon
 
I asked a similar question a few months back (more pertaining to quality) and got 'Tillman' as an answer.....dunno where they're made, but they cost $3.99 a pair at the welding supply place I buy from.
 
USA? Yes and no. I use Tillman for tig welding. Great gloves, but some are made here and some are made in Mexico or China. Doesn't say on mine where they're made.

Ray
 
Tillman has factories in the USA, still, but also factories in Mexico and China.
You would have to either call em, or look at individual gloves to find out which one they came from.
$3.99 might be drivers gloves- but it sure aint Tillman Tig gloves. Ten bucks a pair is more like it.
 
I bought some Starrett stuff that said "made by Americans". I didn't know there were so many Americans in jail in China.......... :-)
 
$3.99 might be drivers gloves- but it sure aint Tillman Tig gloves. Ten bucks a pair is more like it.

There ya have it (I just remembered)....Ries recommended the Tillmans.....

yep, they are the drivers gloves, but I use them for TIG when they're new, once they get burned and stiff a little, they end up as "around the shop" gloves;)
 
I figured tillman must be made here, or at least some of them, but i hadn't seen anything but tig gloves. i need heavier ones for stick/mig, and I need to stock them in smaller sizes for small to medium woman hands, since anymore women is all who take sculpture class for the most part.
 
I asked the PRAXAIR salesman the same question a few years ago. He said that Tillman 810 gloves were made here, so that is what I use. A couple of dollars more than chink, but worth it to me. Some Tillmans are made here, some in the PRC. You need to ask.

Bill
 
Tillman welding leathers and gloves are a mixed bag. Some items may be made here and some may be made here of materials/parts from "elsewhere". We had an experience with Tillman welding gloves and a mechanic at the powerplant where I work. The mechanic was welding pretty steadily, wearing a new pair of Tillman insulated rawhide leather welding gloves. He came down with a severe dermatitis, and it reached the point he needed medical treatment. I believe it took an injection and some prescription medication to clear up the dermatitis. The Health & Safety officer here at the powerplant investigated the matter. The Tillman gloves are "made in USA", but the lining and insulation are made in China. The Chinese used some kind of fiberglass material for the insulation and possibly as a non-combustible fabric for the lining. No word as to where the hides are tanned.

The answer here is you cannot trust anyone. Simply saying "made in USA" is not necessarily a guarantee the materials are made here, let alone what they are made of (or contain).

The tanning of leather has largely shifted to Chinese tanneries for environamental reasons as well as costs. Chinese tanneries use whatever they please, and at one point were putting naked convicts serving long felony stretches into the tanning vats to work the hides. A welding jacket or welding gloves mad ein USA may well be made from hides tanned and processed in China, so be wary !

OT, but parallel: Harley-Davidson markets all kinds of what they call riding leathers as well as boots and gloves. They get a handsome price for it, but the goods are made in China. There have been incidences of dermatitis amongst the people who buy/wear H-D boots and leathers. Sweat in a set of H-D leathers or a pair of their boots and it can bring on the dermatitis. Chinese welding leathers and gloves are just as bad. Our purchasing department buys bundles of leather "driving gloves" at the powerplant. The price was so low, and bieng purchasing agents, they could not resist the bargain- despite our protests. They were getting Chinese gloves, and people were winding up with stained hands if the gloves got wet or perspired into, and people were getting some irritations.

I think we buy Boss gloves now for driving gloves. I think those are made or assembled in Mexico. A sight better in quality than Chinese.
Joe Michaels
 
wow... that is a crazy story joe. but I am glad you passed it on. I will do a little more research into what I am getting. if anyone else finds any more info about american made with american materials, or at least not with chinese leather, I would appreciate it.

these guys are totally unscrupulous.
 
USA Made Gloves

There's a store located in Lansing Illinois, (Suburb south of Chicago) called Blue Collar Supply. I know they carry American made work gloves. They go out of their way to carry American made shirts, pants, boots, and tools.
 
My wife has a woman she works with, who is an incredible seamstress. She sews custom leather jackets for people, usually using hides from animals they have shot themselves.
She says there is now ONE tannery left in the western USA. There was one in Utah, and it closed last year.
That leaves the one she works with, in Marysville or Arlington Washington.

Tannery work is nasty, unhealthful, and low paying. And the Chinese undercut everybody. So it is really tough to compete in the USA- the guys she work with only stay in business because they do so much unusual stuff- Buffalo, wild boar, exotic african safari kills, and so on.

Most of the Chinese stuff is not cow leather- in rural southern China, in particular, most people live with pigs- often on the lower floor, with humans living upstairs. The vast majority of american consumer leather, be it Harley Davidson or Calvin Klein, is chinese pig leather. Which is not necessarily bad, in and of itself- pig is usually thicker, and often tougher, than cow, and can be quite soft at the same time.
When I was a kid, there was a Tandy leather store, not to mention real wholesale leather dealers, in most every big town- now, its much rarer.
The low price of the chinese pigskins has driven a lot of the old cow leather out of the market place, especially here.
I have been in Argentina lately, and they still have really nice cow leather there- but not too much of it makes it up here, and when it does, it gets pricey.
I would imagine that for really good leather, you need to hit the interior decorator/ upholstery supply guys, who get really high prices.

So most work gloves these days are pigskin too. I dont know if thats better or worse than old cowskin gloves would be- but we dont have much of a choice. The chinese dont raise cattle.
 
Do a search for "Westchester gloves". They are made here in a suberb of Cincinatti, Westchester Ohio. They should have a pretty large catalog based on the quantity and variety of "seconds" the vendors sell at the local flea markets. -Mike
 
Most of what we millwrights are furnished are driving gloves from Pakistan made of goatskin. They are reasonably well made, thin enough to handle small parts, and hold up pretty well. BUT apparently Pakistani fingers, especially the thumb are about 3/4" longer than the rest of the world.
 
I bought a pack of "leather" work gloves at Blowes a couple months ago. One glove was missing a thumb right out of the package. The 4 sets were all trashed within a week. It didn't say where they were made, but I have my suspicions.
 
To keep bacteria down after sweating in them for an hour, I put them in the microwave for a minute , kills them little buggers.
 








 
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