Knuckle Save Glove

This invention relates to safety gloves of the type used by mechanics, machinists, tool and dye makers, or any other workman exposing his hands to potentially dangerous situations, such as the loss of control of a hand or power tool, and contact being made by the hand at a high rate of speed against the sharp edges of surrounding objects or machinery thus inflicting cuts or abraisions to the knuckles or back of the hand. This invention would eliminate accidental cuts and abraisions by the use of eleven natural sharkskin and rubber pads that would cover and protect the entire back of the hand and ten of the knuckles, and four vinyl and rubber pads would cover and protect the remaining four knuckles, thus a total of fifteen protection pads on each hand would prevent cuts and abraisions for an area extending from the wrist to the fingertips and the end of the thumb, with the exception of the small areas between the knuckles where the elastomeric bands connect the protection pads together. The unique design of this invention would provide this protection with a mminimum of loss of manual dexterity, thus allowing the workman the freedom to accomplish the more intricate tasks of his work without removing the gloves.

This invention would also aid the workman by providing an aid for his grip on slippery tools, by the use of a sharkskin and rubber pad located at the top of the palm. This pad would greatly increase the friction of the hand on tools, especially when a great amount of grease or oil is involved in the job, because sharkskin, being very similar to sandpaper, is not affected by oil and grease.

Such gloves have very rarely been used by mechanics and other skilled laborers because of the loss of manual dexterity that is essential to their work, and they can't afford the time involved in putting on and removing the gloves during a job. The main objective purpose of this invention is to provide the protection of gloves without the cumbersome disadvantages and loss of work time caused by ordinary work gloves.

Due to the very unique design of this invention there are no patents similar enough to draw any comparisons, there are a few with similar purposes, however their design is so radically different that no comparisons are possible.

The object of the present invention is to provide protection for the knuckles, back of the hands, and the back of the thumbs of the auto mechanic or any other workman, without any loss of manual dexterity for the wearer.

Accordingly the invention provides a protective glove for mechanics and other workers, comprising a large natural sharkskin pad backed by rubber that is anchored to the wrist by the use of a VELCRO.TM. wristband anchor strap, and covers the entire back of the hand and the five knuckles directly adjacent to the back of the hand, five short bands of elastomeric material connect the large back of the hand pad to five smaller sharkskin and rubber pads that cover the middle four knuckles of each finger and the outermost thumb knuckle, four short bands of elastomeric material connect the four middle knuckle pads to four vinyl pads backed by rubber that cover the four outermost knuckles of each hand. The purpose of the vinyl on the outermost knuckles is to provide protection while preventing the discomfort that sharkskin would cause the inside of the thumb if it were to make contact with that area because sharkskin has the abraisiveness of very coarse sandpaper. Five short elastomeric bands connect the four outermost knuckle pads and the outermost thumb knuckle pad to five fingertip covers that are constructed of a very thin nylon material for the purpose of preserving manual dexterity at the fingertips, and these fingertip covers anchor the entire knuckle protection assembly for each finger.

Thus the protection of this invention includes all fourteen knuckles and the back of the hand of either or both hands, if worn as a pair, and manual dexterity is preserved due to the fact that the entire front of the hand, except the fingertips and the small friction pad in the palm, is open and free for normal use.

Accordingly the invention also provides protection for the said areas against extreme heat, cold, electric shock, and many corrosive chemicals. The fingertip covers of the invention prevent the fingernails and cuticles from becoming covered with dirt and grease and the thumbtip cover reduces the pain of the wearer after the wearer hits his thumb with a hammer.

Further features of this invention will become apparent from a description of a preferred embodiment of the invention with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a view of the knuckles, back of the hand and thumb, and the back of the wristband anchor strap. Each knuckle is individually numbered for clarity of the explanation,

FIG. 2 is a view of the fingers, palm and wrist and illustrates the location of the sharkskin and rubber friction pad, the fingertip covers and the front of the wristband anchor strap,

FIG. 3 is a close-up view of the sharkskin backed by rubber feature of the invention,

FIG. 4 is a view of the wristband anchor strap with the VELCRO.TM. material being used as a means of fastening.

Referring to FIG. 1, the protection for the wearers knuckles is provided by four vinyl backed by rubber pads 1,2,3,4, and ten sharkskin backed by rubber pads 5, 6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14, and the protection for the back of the hand is provided by a large sharkskin backed by rubber pad 17. Referring to FIG. 3 the rubber backing 22 for the sharkskin 21 is shown which provides shock resistance and comfort for the skin. Sharkskin is very durable, however it is abraisive, thus the vinyl-rubber pads 1,2,3,4, to avoid discomfort while the hand is closed around a tool.

Referring to FIG. 1, all the knuckle pads are joined together by elastomeric bands 16, except for pads 10, 11,12,13,14, which share the same rubber backing as the back of the hand pad. Elastomeric bands 16, also attach pads 1,2,3,4,5, to fingertip cups 15, thus anchoring the entire finger protection assembly to each individual finger.

Referring to FIG. 2, the wearer's grip on slippery tools is aided by the use of another sharkskin-rubber pad 20, which is attached to the glove by the use of elastomeric bands 18.

Referring to FIG. 4, the wrist end of the glove is anchored to the wrist by the use of a wristband anchor strap 19, and is fastened by means of VELCRO.TM. material 23.