Around here I'm seeing a lot if these cloth gloves with a rubbery grip on fingers and Palm. Why are these so popular? Seems the rubber would get cold easy.
Well, they do get cold. I am finding that in sub-freezing temps, I am going back to the leather gloves. However, the company that makes the gloves I use (Atlas) also makes a thermal glove that is supposed to be a lot warmer - probably an insulated knit glove with the same rubber coating. I haven't tried them yet but I am going to get a pair or two and see how I like them during the winter.
What I like about the rubber coated gloves is that they are incredibly durable and cheap. I cut, split and stacked all of next year's firewood, about six cords now, with a single pair of the Atlas Showa 300 gloves, and they are filthy dirty but show no apparent wear. I normally would have holes in at least four fingers and split seams in a pair of my usual Wells Lamont leather gloves. Plus the coated gloves fit my hands much better, and I find that I have pretty good finger/hand dexterity with the rubber coated gloves that I don't have with the leather ones. They also grip tenaciously to splits of firewood, where the splits would just slide out of my grip with leather gloves on.