Gloves / knee pads for water

[spcchap]

Hey everyone,

 

I've seen this question asked before, but I am looking for something specifically for shark tooth hunting in shallow creeks.  As for the knee pads, they will be getting soaking wet.  So my concern is that the velcro might not hold.  Does anyone have experience with kneeling in a creek with knee pads?

 

Also, I was thinking about some 1.5mm or so neoprene diving gloves, but I absolutely need something that leaves my finger dexterity intact.  I'm not getting the gloves for cold water, per se (I live in Florida).  It's mainly so I don't cut myself on shards of glass or other sharp objects while I am sifting.  I'd like to be able to pick out a small shark tooth from the sifter without having to remove my gloves every time.

 

Thanks in advance!!

Sam

[caldigger]

Sam, my experience is not in fossil hunting in rivers, but rather many years of gold sniping in fast moving rivers and streams.

I have used simple neoprene with nylon fabric covering knee pads for many years. They have Velcro strap fasteners and have had no problems with them holding in the water under extreme conditions.

As for the gloves, dexterity for crevicing is a must so I wear Nitrle coated gloves. They are very form fitting on the hand and hold up magnificently to constant wear and tear on sharp rock handling. Yes, I do handle broken glass, sharp rocks, fish hooks and a variety of potential injury causing objects.

Never had one penetrate the gloves yet!

The ones I use come in a ten pack from  Home Depot for $10. That's only a dollar a pair.  

Each pair will last me a week of daily grabbing and sweeping of rock underwater. Most of the wear is on the backsides when I am scraping the rock and sand out of tight crevices and holes.

I do have vast experience with wetsuit type neoprene gloves ( like you are suggesting ) and I guarantee they won't stand up to much abuse at all.

[spcchap]

Thanks Caldigger,

 

The nitrile coating would seem to do the job.  My only concern is the rest of the material.  I don't need the gloves to be waterproof, but I worry about that fabric coming apart when it's soaked.  My hands will be underwater quite a bit.  At $1/pair, I can throw them away after each use.  But I do want it to hold up for an afternoon of fossiling.  Thanks for the info!

[caldigger]

The ones I showed you do not separate between the fabric and nitrle coating like some gloves do.

When I am sniping, I am literally underwater for the entire day. The fabric will not come apart I assure you.

[digit]

As for kneepads--several years ago I visited the Withlacoochee River in southern Georgia to hunt for silicified fossil corals with John @Sacha and we wore gloves and kneepads since the silicified corals (chalcedony) tends to be razor sharp when broken. In fact, the Native Americans used this material for knapping projectile points and blades. Kneeling on broken bits in the river bed while hunting for nice specimens would have resulted in more bloodletting than a bucket of leeches. I picked up some kneepads from one of the big box home improvement stores that were hard plastic on the outside and padded on the inside. They secured around the knees with wide strips of Velcro. Other than this bunching up and sometimes being less than optimally comfortable, the Velcro held admirably in the water. In fact Velcro closures are found quite often on wetsuits and have lasted for years. The only thing that can reduce the gripping strength of this hook-and-loop attachment is getting fine sand in the loopy part.

 

I don't use gloves while hunting as I don't care for the lack of dexterity when picking up smaller items. Places like the Peace River (and basically any waterway in Florida) sadly are peppered broken glass. The larger shards are the most dangerous but by the time glass gets ground down to smaller squarish pieces it ceases to become as hazardous. I'll usually collect larger jagged broken bottle pieces and take them back with the rest of the trash I collect when on the Peace but the smaller nuggets are too numerous and not a safety concern. This is also why I never fossil hunt in the Peace River in bare feet, reef socks, or dive booties--I always wear and old pair of gym shoes. People worry about gators on the Peace--I worry about broken beer bottles that would make for excellent weapons in a bar fight.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[sharkdoctor]

+1 for @caldigger's recommendation.

 

I use the exact same nitrile gloves when scuba diving and a single pair will last for several days of grubbing in sand, gravel and broken glass. They are cheap and effective. Neoprene will be shot at the end of one day of hard river work.

 

As for knee pads, I use the cheapest Home Depot knee pads (with plastic fronts) with mechanical connectors, rather than velcro. I find that the mechanical connection just takes more of a beating. On average, a pair of knee pads will last 5 years of hard use during the spring and summer. 

 

 

[Harry Pristis]

 

For all my diving career in Florida (decades), I used basketball knee pads.  You know, an elastic sleeve with a dense foam insert.  They are easy-on, easy-off and very comfortable.  They provided years of service -- I may have replaced them once.

 

As for gloves, I always used leather work gloves.  (My dive buddy's father managed a leather glove factory.)  Generally, it was the index fingertip of the leather glove that wore out after a dive season, or two.  Subsequent to my diving, I bought a pair of knit Kevlar gloves, the sort made for butchers and other at-risk workers.  The Kevlar gloves are stretchy, form-fitting, and provide dexterity -- I use them now occasionally for yardwork, but I think they would well serve for diving or sifting.

[Gizmo]

After an exhaustive search I bought these, they're the best gloves I've found for warm weather scuba, surface collecting and sifting.

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07818WG4J/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[digit]

Ah, those look ideal. My problem with using gloves is the lack of dexterity in picking up things like smaller shark teeth from a sifter. The 3 exposed fingers would fix this issue and yet allow the gloves to help with protection from abrasion or cold.

 

Thanks for the research.

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Gizmo]

5 hours ago, digit said:

Ah, those look ideal. My problem with using gloves is the lack of dexterity in picking up things like smaller shark teeth from a sifter. The 3 exposed fingers would fix this issue and yet allow the gloves to help with protection from abrasion or cold.

 

Thanks for the research.

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

One of the many features of these great gloves.