Im in the middle of a batch of chairs from hard maple. Besides a reminder of just how much of a pain it is to work with hard maple, I started wearing gloves while planning.
Usually I dont like gloves at all. I like to feel the surface, the fit, etc. But for working down the surfaces/shaping the chair legs, its been useful having the gloves on. Just for handling the pieces with the sharp edges if nothing else (a 90 degree corner draws blood if you run your hand across it).
I keep flipping around between a smoother, a scraper plane, a scraper blade, a skew block, regular block.... and back again (tearout is the enemy on this stuff and I can never predict what its going to do - I havent found any one method to work on every piece, so its a roulette game to get it to smooth out).
Im a little surprised, but have been liking working with the gloves on (just regular leather work gloves - that fit proper).