OT: Question about baseball glove care~

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Posted By: BcD

It's baseball(or softball)time right! I got this from the other board and thought it was a helpful question as I too have a dry Nakona glove to restore for use in April!


can someone please tell me what to use and where to acquire whatever is best to soften the leather of an old dry glove?

BcD

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Posted By: Chris

Vintage Glove Forum...has an entire section devoted to this with helpful hints:

http://www.vintagebaseballgloveforum.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=9&sid=979b5ad0b5a84869b649ee4b25bb 950d

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Posted By: Bob Donaldson

I've had good luck using shaving cream in the past.

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Posted By: leon

On my new gloves I use Mink Oil...always have, and it works great to soften the leather and break it in...

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Posted By: Dan Koteles

they put it in the oven.

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Posted By: Al C.risafulli

There's lots of folk remedies for baseball gloves, including shaving cream, slathering it with shaving cream and microwaving it (really), olive oil, and glove oil, among other things.

The thing that I've found works best, both for restoring old, dry gloves and for helping break in new ones, is lanolin. It's sold by the tube, in the drugstore you can find it near the baby products (nursing mothers use it). Squeeze out little bits of it and rub it into the dry areas on the glove, working it into the leather as deeply as you can. Then, stick a ball in the pocket and wrap it with rubber bands or tie it in place with string.

-Al

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Posted By: Jim VB

Al is 100% correct. The reason shaving cream works is that many shaving creams contain lanolin.


Also, after oiling it up well, and using a ball, rubberband or string to secure it, I used to put mine under my mattress for a few nights.

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Posted By: ralph

I ve always found that neatsfoot oil is by far the best product for baseball gloves

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Posted By: Steve

I'm with Leon, Mink oil.


Steve

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Posted By: Dan Koteles

Mink oil is mainly used to condition a glove , not for new gloves to break in.

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Posted By: Tim

"I ve always found that neatsfoot oil is by far the best product for baseball gloves"

I swear by Neatsfoot oil. Use a rag and wipe down the inside of the glove until the leather stops taking the oil. Place a ball in the web and tie it closed. Wipe the outside of the glove until it no longer takes the oil. Let the glove sit in a bucket or foil tray for a few days. Untie the glove and wipe off any excess oil. Repeat the process as needed.

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Posted By: leon

It's always worked for me, but maybe that's why I am not that good. It's the oil I use on my glove. That's the ticket. That's also why I can't hit well or pitch well either.. And while we're at it maybe that's why the economy is sucking; mink oil.

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Posted By: Steve

Dan didn't the OP say it was for an old dry glove?


Steve

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Posted By: Frank Wakefield

Well I used to use neatsfoot oil always. But not any more.


Neatsfoot oil comes from the leg bones of cattle; the foot and shin. Not the hoof. In pure form, I think it may be suitable for ball gloves. The problems with it are that mineral oils are added, these hasten the breakdown of stitching, lacing, and the leather itself. Neatsfoot oil will darken the leather. The glove will become heavier. And it will attract and retain dirt and dust more than a normal glove.

I quit using neatsfoot oil after reading a book about baseball gloves (which I can't find at the moment). I recall in there that glove guru's thought neatsfoot oil was bad stuff.

I can't recall what was recommended, but I'll keep an eye out for that book. I think mink oil is ok, lanolin is ok, I last used Glovoleum, or something similarly named, by Rawlings I think. Oddly, I think petroleum jelly is ok.

Part of the goal here is preservation of the glove, not just loosening it up for one season. That's a reason to leave neatsfoot oil alone.

Storage of a glove is a significant factor in preserving the glove. Dark and cool is good. A car trunk or back seat with sun, heat and humidity variation is bad. ALWAYS clean dirt off of a glove when you're done; if the glove got wet then it MUST be dried off well, if you want the glove to remain functional. A really large ziplock bag would do well for glove storage, zip that bad boy up and put him in the bottom of your closet.

My recollection of the glove book was that it was almost square, hardbound, maybe about 140 pages long. It had lots of little stories, tales, and segments about ball gloves and players. I think it was published about 15 years ago, or so.

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Posted By: Frank Wakefield

I just Googled about and found Glove Affairs by Noah Liberman on eBay. That's the book! Looks like I was 10 to 20 pages short, and about 9 years off. But that is the book. Neat book to read a few minutes at a time.

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Posted By: Dan Koteles

as kids we used Mink oil, it took along time. Over the years the quickest method based on a couple of area coaches has been the shaving cream in the oven.

The best gloves when I was young ...the WIlson A2000 .I prefer the Rawlings ,but now am breaking in a new Glovesmith. The last 3 gloves i owned were all stolen from mates. My gloves could trap a bowling ball in flight.

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Posted By: Al C.risafulli

I love baseball gloves.

Here's a cool story. At least it's cool to me.

I've had the same baseball glove since I was about 18 years old. I love that glove. It's a Rawlings (only brand I've ever owned, save for one tryout of a Wilson A2000). I can't find it now (so I can't tell you the model), but the glove is nearly 20 years old, and no matter how well you take care of a baseball glove, eventually it breaks down. The piping is all cut up, the padding inside the glove has worn down, and it's SO well broken-in that sometimes the ball just falls out of it.

Two summers ago I got hold of my dad's old glove from when he used to play competitive softball. It had been abused over the years, and needed to be completely re-strung. So I decided that, for Father's Day, I was going to re-string and recondition his old glove for him.

Unbeknownst to me, my wife also had a plan - Rawlings had released a line of updated gloves that were based on old models from the 80s. She brought my beater glove to a sporting goods store and found a brand-new model exactly like my old glove - it's an SL120 model (I know this because it's sitting right next to me as I've been conditioning it for this season).

So on Father's Day two years ago, I presented my dad with a reconditioned glove, and my wife presented me with a brand new one. Then, my dad and I went outside in the yard with my oldest son, and the three of us played catch for hours. My son, my dad, and me. I will remember that afternoon for the rest of my life, playing catch in my backyard as the sun went down, until we couldn't see the ball anymore, my wife and my mom firing up the barbecue for dinner.

And that, my friends, is what baseball is all about.

-Al

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Posted By: leon

That was a great story. I have been a free agent this year and don't think I got picked up ....... The real story is how in the heck did you get your wife and mom to do the grilling? Baseball/softball is still my favorite sport...

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Posted By: Frank Wakefield

Al, thank you for that!!! Wonderful.


That is what baseball is about. It isn't a game, or a season... it is a continuum, passed along, generation to generation. What is great is that your son will remember that day when he's throwing with his grandson. Maybe he'll tell the grandson about it. And it will be meaningless to that young man until one wonderful day when he's playing catch with a son or grandson of his own. Great stuff!!

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Posted By: tiger8mush

great story Al!

So what new softball glove would ya'll recommend for an outfielder with small to average hand size?

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Posted By: S Gross

Bag Balm

good for utters, good for gloves ......

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Posted By: Ken McMillan

beer..... .if it doesn't work on the glove, you can drink it and you won't care about the glove

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Posted By: Frank Wakefield

I found my book, Glove Affairs.


http://www.lexol.com/ you can read about Lexol. It has lanolin, and THAT is what's supposed to be the best. They say regular Lexol leaves a dry slipperiness on the glove until you get some dust or dirt on there. The company also has "Lexol nf" which has a neatsfoot blend, that provides some of neatsfoot's tackiness, to avoid that dry slipperiness. A similar product is Glove Loogie.
http://www.mobileleatherservice.com/GloveLoogie.html

So that's the deal... either 'Lexol nf' or 'Glove Loogie'. Those are the "best" of the oils or lubricants to use on a dear ball glove.