Glove restoration project
 

For anyone interested in what can be done with old gloves, I'll post restoration progress for these two. I'm going to do as much as I can on my own, but one or both may end up with a pro.

I am not a glove collector, but have been trying to buy a 1900-1915 full-web for about two years, and my ebay bids have consistently been too cheap. Well...the other day I won TWO from the same seller. I love them both - one is dark brown and the other is white.

The brown one looked like a real horror at first glance, but there was no dry rot in the leather, meaning it had great potential. The white Spalding was in much better shape, but extremely dirty. Here are the before pics. I will respond to myself to show progress.

Here is the dark brown one after applying Lexol generously to clean and restore some suppleness to the leather. You can see a wool-looking interior. I thought that the thin leather liner had been removed, but I could not see any evidence (bits of leather attached to the seams). I bought several thin pieces of dark leather, thinking I would sew in a new liner, but before sewing it in, I called a glove expert who told me that this is actually a full asbestos liner that, if you removed, would be a thin wooly mitt. I checked and, sure enough - the wooly lining extended all the way up the fingers and covered the entire interior of the glove.

The Lexol worked very well. There are a few places where raw leather shows - if I don't have it professionally done I will dye these spots and then add a leather finish only to those spots

There is a separated area in the palm that I had planned to stitch back together myself if possible. Turns out that the leather is very supple and can be stitched, but it's too complicated for me to do correctly. I have contacted a professional. If he doesn't do it, I will connect with basting stitches, but it won't look totally correct.

Very eager to see how the White one turns out. I came within a hair of bidding on that one, but declined because the white leather is typically so tricky to clean. I am always afraid of it darkening, and altering the original white color. Have seen many instances where the attempted cleaning only made the glove look worse.

This white Spalding is a stellar example, outside of the soiling. So am very eager to see the magic you're able to work on it. Perhaps you can give us a ray of hope. I recently parted with a stellar NRMT white glove, and am now beginning to think it is irreplaceable. To say these have dried up is an understatement.

Best of luck and please keep us posted... great thread!

Mark, I feel your pain on letting one go - I had a real beauty 10-12 years ago and have never been close to touching one since. I bid on this one hoping I'd be able to find a way to clean it.

I spent two hard hours working on it this afternoon and will post pics in the morning when the sun returns.

scott f
 

I'm eager to see how this goes! Is there any health risk with the asbestos inner lining?
I don't collect gloves either but have found myself picking up some of the
late 20s and early 30s tunnel loop split fingers--- a travis Jackson alex taylor;
a schalk Wilson mitt; a Manush Davega; a Cronin Marathon.
all the best,
barry

I'm sure that was just the encouragement Scott was looking for! :eek:

Good luck, Scott. Looking forward to seeing the results!

Haha! It does actually look worse at the moment, but I am confident that the results will be good.

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Still a few more passes to go, but here's where I am. I was worn out after cleaning the palm side, so the back is dirtier:

Wow Scott... just excellent! That's a bigger improvement than I thought possible. Please let us know the process and what products you used, once all is said and done...

Even the burgundy piping is glowing now... you really made it "pop" and come alive. Great work! :D

Thanks Mark. The piping was unexpected - all I did was dampen it with water and let it dry, so it must have just been very dirty.

Also, white is very reflective, so the improvement is not as drastic as it appears in the top pics of the back side - the bottom pics of the palm are a much better indication of the improvement so far. I'll post new pics tomorrow morning after the next round of cleaning - it is quite labor-intensive.

Cool gloves. Look forward

"Find a job you love, and you'll never work a day in your life."

They're looking good, Scott!

In progress, after yesterday afternoon's work:

After this morning's work. Still in progress, but getting there:

WOW!! It is really, really looking good!

Final. In my zeal to remove as much of the dirt as possible, I made a few mistakes; however, it still came out better than expected. There was no getting around roughing up three of the fingertips and the forefinger - it was either that, losing some of the surface smoothness, or leave the nasty dark stains. Same thing on the palm, but the leather on that surface is rougher, so it's not as big of a deal. The piping came back to life better than expected, with a little Lexol, careful not to apply any to the glove leather.

Excellent restoration job, Scott! :cool:

Thanks Scott. I put about 9 hours of work into it, so if your time is valuable, it might not be worth doing. I'm dying to play catch with it - odd how the web plays almost no part in the glove's use.

Great work, and thanks for sharing the process.

Greg

Scott,
I think I'm missing something. After wetting the white leather, did you dab it dry with a clean rag or paper towel to absorb the dirt?

John, I haven't explained the process - just trying to show what is possible. The person who told me how to do this has not yet gotten back to me - when he does, I will probably add more detail here. If he is not okay with me sharing, then I won't.

Boo! :mad:

This is a sharing forum!

Seriously.. very eager to hear what cleaning product or conditioner was used on the White one. Unexpectedly nice work!

Mr Clean Magic Eraser will do a great job on these white leather gloves.:)

I tried that first

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Strike that - I tried artists erasers. I would be leary of the soap in magic erasers, although I use them to clean blue chalk off of cue shafts and even to strip old finish off of wood. They are a bit abrasive.

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I was going to SHOUT it out! :rolleyes:

Your Magic Eraser recommendation reminded me of my 'Poll Parrot Shoes' glove, which has writing all over it. I just took the Magic Eraser to the ink writing, then went through the same 2 hour first cleaning I used on the white Spalding. So 'Glove Restoration Part Deux' is now in progress. This is a tan glove with a finish - not the white glove leather like the last one, although it was extremely stiff prior to 1st cleaning and now it is extremely soft - I'm wondering just how much softer and lighter it will get.

Here are the 'before' pics - there is inking on the thumb, forefinger, palm, below the advertisement and on the strap. 'In progress' pics will be posted in the morning.

I had used it on the white nappy "suede" type leather that seems to darken when it gets wet. The leather in the glove you just posted looks different.

I understand. I decided not to try it on the white glove, but I tried it on this tan glove because of the ink writing. I'll show you the results in the morning.

The ink writing on the palm, and the marker writing on the strap were pretty bad. I probably scrubbed too much on the thumb, as shown by these pics. Not too worried about it, as the leather was so stiff and bent that it was really an unpleasant piece. It's now softened up a bit and almost all the ink writing is gone. Just a matter now of getting a more uniform look to the leather.

I'll post the next 'in progress' pics later today, then the final results early this week.

Looking good

Thanks Mike. The glove is finished, but I'm not going to post pictures. I think this is boring to most forum member, and the first glove illustrated what I was trying to show. If anyone picks up an old beat-up glove and wants to try restoring it on their own, please feel free to contact me. The white ones are rare, but I probably learned more trying to restore the last one I posted.

I would post the results Scott. Your thread has over 1000 views, so I don't think it's boring at all. Just because I didn't post prior to now, doesn't mean I am not interested in seeing your results. Often times, I'll just file info like this away until i need it.

Okay, Mark. I was just thinking that since I'm not a glove restoration professional, and there actually are several really good ones, I might be going a bit too far with this thread. If you check William's homepage (Huntington BBC), you'll find loads of examples of 'before and after' restoration pictures. He does a fabulous job and my dark brown one should arrive in his shop Monday or Tuesday.

I have done quite a bit of vintage pool cue leather restoration, including dying, so this isn't a foreign area to me, but trying to make old black leather look like nicer old, black leather is a lot different from handling these old gloves with their various shades of brown, and various levels of damage. It's always a gutsy move to dive into something like this if the item has any significant value, and I would say it's generally best left to a professional.

Done. The 'inside' pic shows the pieces of leather that were supposed to be inside the fingers. They had each been tucked under the padding, so were pristine. I put them back in the fingers, which is why they are now crumpled a bit on the end.

Very nice, Scott. :D
I must say it takes a lot of guts to try something like that. When you think about all that could go wrong.... < shudder >

P1K :D :D :D

I've been following this thread and have been wowed by the results. I've cleaned and conditioned a couple of gloves that I have, but nothing this old. I even showed this thread to my wife, who really has no interest at all, and she was impressed. Keep it up, this has been one of my favorite threads this year.

Thanks guys. It was a lot of fun. I don't plan on doing any more of these, but I guess if I spot the right candidate in an antique store, it will be hard to resist.

Came out very nice.

Nice job Scott. How did you darken the back of the thumb again? It looked a lot lighter in your previous photo.

Mark, that thumb was a mistake - I rubbed off all of the finish (but not any leather) using a small nylon brush. I decided that doing that to the rest of the glove might ruin the glove, so I stopped. I rubbed Lexol into the glove, and the thumb became darker because the leather was exposed with no finish to protect it. Fortunately it blended fairly well with the rest of the glove. It's a little too dark on the back side, but fine on the palm.

Wow. You really brought those pieces back to life!

I am curious about the cleaner that you use. I have done some glove restoration research in the past, and one of the recommendations was to use Horseman's One Step Cleaner and Conditioner. I saw how the person used Horseman's and really revived the glove that received the cleaner. However, I used it on a junk Ozzie Smith glove recently and felt like it darkened the leather and removed some of the letting on the endorsement signature.

Does Lexol work easier? Are there dos and don'ts to using that product?

You look like you have a handle on the ways to restore a glove. I am a bit apprehensive, as I don't want to ruin any of my special gloves in my collection.

Thanks Jake. You are looking at ALL of my experience with gloves, in this thread.

I began by locating good information on the internet, including a list of products and opinions regarding each. I have always used Lexol for fedora leather sweatbands with good results, and have recently been using it on leather pool cue wraps as well. So I had no reason to think it wouldn't work well on dark gloves, and it did - just rub it in evenly, not leaving any excess. But everything I have read and been told, says never to use ANY product on white leather - all will darken it.

Regarding the Poll Parrot, after rubbing in Lexol, I finished off with vaseline, then added another rubbing of Vaseline after it dried. You should start with less Vaseline at first than you would with Lexol, and make sure to rub off all of the excess, as it can get sticky, but it's really not that tricky. I used only Lexol on the dark brown one.

The dark brown one is now in the hands of Huntington BBC, so unsure how we will finish that job. I think he'll probably only sew it up, then I'll dye the gashes that go into the flesh, refinish them, then give it a final rubbing with vaseline.

If I pick up any additional cheap, beat-up gloves, I will probably try some of the other recommended products, including the one you mention. As far as being afraid to restore valuable gloves, I think you are right to feel that way - send them to a pro if you are unsure, especially any that are not dark brown. I restored the white one because I thought I could do the job, but I sent in the dark brown one for sewing, because I didn't think I could do a good job of it. It always depends mostly on your comfort level.

Well, you've done a great job "learning" throughout this thread.

If you do end up using Horseman's, please let us know how it turns out.