Intereating topic. As a guitar player, actor and woodworker I really want all my fingers and not to have too many nicks etc. The worst problem I have is splinters from rough lumber. I am to cheap to buy surfaced lumber. I wear gloves when handling rough lumber until it has gone through the planer. The caveat is I always use pushers and roller stands so there is a long distance from me to the blade. I always use bare hands around the router or saw. To treat the inevitable split skin and sharp wood edge paper cut like nicks use superglue. It seals the skin and let's it heal.

 

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Stain on my hands, NEVER

 

CharlesA
I know what you mean about a professional look at work re how your hands appear . Even though I'm a giant Charles Neil fan the first time I saw him on video I thought doesn't this guy ever wash his hands,of course later on I realized it was dye that was all over his hands.
Like Paul I do every thing I can to avoid getting epoxy on me or things I'm going to touch.When I get excess epoxy on a part of a project I'm making I use a acetone to remove it. As far as having dye on your hand usually household breach will take it off.
As far as Yonak's statement about wearing gloves. DON'T DO IT! I know a doctor who was wearing gloves while sawing on the table saw and just barley touched the blade with his glove and the blade pulled his hand into the blade. This doctor WAS a surgeon before the accident . It's not worth the risk. Gloves are fine for carrying lumber but not when using machinery.
As a contractor and woodworker of almost 30 years my hands are rough and get splinters all the time it's just part of working and working with wood.

 

I wear gloves when applying an oil based finish using a rag. This is primarily to keep my hands oil -free because I usually am working with some other unfinished project after applying the oil and don't want to get any oil on the unfinished wood. Who wants to spend unnecessary time trying to sand oil stains out?

Callouses…well, when I create a sculpted piece of work I do a lot of hand sanding with sandpaper wrapped around my fingers so I can follow the curves. This creates a lot of callouses but it gets the job done where mechanical sanders can not. I have more splinters still in my hands that I could never get out and therefore my hands are 5% wood

 

I guess I'm pretty vigilant about wearing gloves while staining and finishing. I do almost exclusively hand tool work, and haven't really had many calluses build up yet. Maybe that means I don't get to spend as much time in the shop as I would hope lol

As for glue, when it's yellow glue (titebond) I usually just rub my fingers together when it's still wet and it will eventually roll up and fall off.

The thing that usually gets my hands messied up quickly is when I'm sharpening an iron (chisel or plane), or restoring an old rusty tool

 

I wear gloves 100% of the time, but that's because I have a lot of contact sensitivities to various woods. I don't ever feel like it's dangerous to wear them (the form fitting light synthetic gloves with a textured front) when using tools.

 

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Stain on my hands, NEVER

- CharlesNeil

I forget my nitrile gloves about 25% of the time when finishing, and then I'll see the stuff on my hands and remember. One Monday I was at work going into a meeting, and I looked down at my hands, and I had big stain on my index knuckle. I'd washed it with soap, so it was about 50% gone, but I'd forgotten to use something stronger to take it off. Next time I'll just defend myself by saying, "This is the way Charles Neil's hands look" Maybe that will work.

 

Most paint stores have a good grade hand cleaner that will remove most paint and stain products. At my
young age, it is hard to work up a good set of callus pads anymore. To prevent cracking of fingers, I have
taken to using Vaseline Intensive rescue every night and find that GoJo with pumice takes care of most
dirty hands. When taking on old greasy woodworking machines or diesel engines, most auto repair places
have a product that you rub into your hands and under your fingernails before you start that makes your
lhands come clean with a minimum of scrubbing, but you have to remember to put it on before you get
greasy-not saying that any of us has memory problems. Now all I need to figure out is how to get this
global warming to heat up my cold wood working shop.

 

I grew up in Utah (top 2 or 3 driest state in the country) so my skin is very tough without being especially rough. I don't actually have a pair of gloves unless you count the pair I use while ice fishing. I have one leather work glove whose partner went missing a year or so ago and I haven't needed to replace. My hands have built-in callouses that have been around as long as I can remember but they aren't especially rough and I am not uncomfortable when shaking hands with those that might just me. Personally, I don't find 'manly' or 'used' hands as a bad thing unless your grandmother would flinch when running her hand across yours. Stained fingers or dirt under your fingernails isn't good at all though.
My biggest issue is remembering the nitrile gloves when finishing. Whenever I forget I somehow get dark finish or something similar deep under my fingernails where it is hard to get out. The only way I've been able to remember more often is to store the box of gloves in front of all of my finishes and hope that I see the gloves before I find what I am looking for!

 

I'm not sure what you can do to avoid callouses except to wear thick gloves when it's appropriate, and try to avoid motion that causes rubbing on a particular part of your hand. If you use hand tools, maybe a different posture or different handle on your tool will help.

If you just want your hands to look clean, that's largely a matter of discipline.

1. Use an appropriate type of gloves, if possible, when finishing or gluing (the key, as with all safety equipment, is to keep them handy all around your shop, wherever you're likely to need them).
2. If your hands get greasy or grimy, use a gritty hand cleaner like Lava or Fast Orange. Even after hand-sharpening a plane iron or changing the oil in my car, you wouldn't be able to tell from looking at my hands.
3. I haven't tried this yet, but somewhere I saw a suggestion to wrap your fingertips in blue tape if you want to protect your fingers but don't want to wear gloves. I'm still not sure I would do this when working with machinery though. It seems like it would also reduce your grip. It looks like some people use a latex-impregnated fabric tape to protect their fingertips and improve grip when carving or scraping.