I have noticed a lot of promotional photos or reviews of flashlights which show a gloved hand holding the flashlight.
As a newbie I have been using my flashlights with bare hands and I am concerned that I might be putting myself at risk by doing so.
I do not use gloves when using my chain saw, lawnmower, barbeque or high pressure cleaner, and other power tools.
The only reasons I think one would need gloves to use a flashlight would be :
1. The flashlight could get very hot (valid reason)
2. If you are a burglar
3. If you are a spy
4. If the photo was of Inspector Clousseau from the Pink Panther movies.
5. If it was a Health and Safety requirement in a workplace (even having a cup of coffee requires gloves these days)
6. If you were going to sell the flashlight “as new” and didn’t want to leave sweaty fingerprints on it
7. You have very ugly, hairy hands
8. You have a tattoo that could incriminate you
9. You have nasty solder burns from modding a flashlight
10. You’re a big tough outdoors sort of guy, but have “lady hands”
Thanks for that - it’s a really valid reason that I never thought of
Where I live it’s stinkin’ hot in summer and even in winter I would never wear gloves.
You still see some walking around in shorts and T shirt in winter
People still go swimming and surfing in winter (usually with wetsuits)
Swedish born but long term Aussie. The Scandinavian in me puts on gloves when it’s cold - most skips don’t get it, not a lot of gloves around Melbourne even when it was below zero this week. Black leather - H&M - good gloves, got a pair from Rivers too. Hard to hit the tail cap sometimes.
I Imagine in warmer climates gloves are never worn. Up here in Missouri it sometimes gets ignorant cold in the winter and the older I get the colder I get in the winter. Funny I use to love winter. The wife walked out on the first cold night of winter one night and she said “honey, I can see my breath” “honey why do we live someplace where we can see our breath?” Damn fine question.
It is easy to forget when you live in the hotter countries.
In winter, at night, in a very large part of the developed world, people wear gloves more often than not outdoors.
Once the temp gets significantly below 10C, extended periods outdoors without gloves are a bad idea.
Just look up the winter temperature of London, which is in one of the warmer parts of the U.K., it is under 10C at midday.
Much of Europe is North of London, hence colder.
I certainly wouldn’t be heading outside in the snow without gloves.
A flashlight with a finicky side button may be very annoying to operate with gloves, perhaps difficult to use even after you have found the button.
This is one of the reasons a tail clicky operation is ideal for an EDC light in many cases.
The gloves I’ve seen in such videos/photo’s seem to be the tactical type the army/police/airsoft/paintball etc wear, and a great deal of smaller flashlights have what you might call a tactical finish/style as well - so maybe it makes them look doubly tactical and fit for those type of rugged uses?
Thanks for all your feedback.
I have never lived in a cold climate and our temps might bottom out at close to zero degrees C some nights in winter, but bounce back to almost 20 degrees C in the day. Many houses here are not fitted out for these cold nights but are geared up with air con for the hot summers.
It is not uncommon for temp to get above 40 degrees C some days in summer, but people are used to it.
In some countries in the northern hemisphere anywhere near that is considered a heat wave and some people can’t cope with it.
I think the flashlight manufacturers just have their models wear “tacticool” stuff to appeal to that market segment.
Having said that, I’m legally blind and wear impact gloves whenever I’m outside. That way, my hands are protected when I walk into things, instead of getting all the bruises, scrapes and cuts of the day.
I occasionally get double-takes and questions in the summer
As you may imagine, I refuse to carry any flashlight where I can’t find and operate the switch by touch whilst wearing heavy gloves in pitch blackness. Most of mine have tail switches for that reason, although I do have a few side switch lights with decently prominent switches.
When it’s cold in winter, I wear merino wool glove inserts that fit inside the impact gloves. When it’s really cold, I switch to skiing gloves - they’re toasty warm and have enough padding to take the hits. I don’t have to do that very often, though.
