And even your dullest knife is likely to be much sharper than your prop. You're suppose to sand down the flash, remember? Not file the edge of the prop into a razor sharp blade.
And as another poster mentioned, the cleaver will have a lot more momentum than the prop, and the cleaver/glove combination also doesn't let the glove move out of the way after being hit like the glove/prop combination would. If you want to do a better test, put some hotdogs (fingers) into a glove, and test that in your running prop. The hotdogs will be a lot more fragile than your fingers, but should give you a good feeling for what could happen to your fingers.
The `we don't use gloves when doing wood working' data point doesn't really apply either. When you put something into a band saw, it just keeps going. If you slow it down, it just pulls harder, and if it's a gloved hand, it'll happily pull it in and shred it. But if you put something into a prop, the engine usually stops immediately. In that case, you'll be glad you have the glove.
| Moral of the story: Leather gloves provide JACK SQUAT in the way of | protection from high-speed propellers.
If you say so. I don't buy it. I certainly believe it's not perfect protection, but I imagine it's way better than nothing. And I'm not going to stick my hand into a running prop, gloved or not, to test it. (But maybe I'll try some gloved hotdogs sometime.)
My finger is aching a bit today, where the engine backfired and hit it (cutting it deep and doing some nerve damage.) I fully believe that if I'd been wearing a leather glove at the time, there would have been no damage -- probably a stinging finger (for a few minutes) at most.
| Gloves also mess with your sense of touch.
Yes. And this makes many activities more difficult or impossible, and probably does increase the chance that your hand will end up in the prop (which I imagine is your point.) But I imagine it's still worthwhile protection -- but still no replacement for being aware of the danger of the prop.