My son and I have watched a ton of videos online of baseball glove restorations. I had seen enough to convince myself it was do-able for me. I was looking for a winter project of some sort, and started watching ebay for deals. I finally found what I was looking for, a used and abused Wilson A2000 dual hinge glove. The price was right, and I grabbed it for about $40.
I started with a brief soak in warm water and allowed the glove to dry while propped open to try to reform the pocket area a little. It seemed to work pretty well. Next, I hit it hard with multiple rounds of Ballplayer's Balm cleaner.
I was firmly on the fence about relacing the glove. Yes, I wanted to do it, but that was the intimidating part of the project. The original laces were very worn, very cracked, and I figured they didn't have much life left in them. Laces were ordered, and I went with black for some contrast to the leather in the glove.
Many videos were watched on relacing, and I was very thankful that the content was available on YT. I found good videos on the specific parts of the glove I was most concerned about screwing up, mainly the palm area. A few other areas, I took the advice I read online and just retraced the new lace while removing the old. Any "tricky" areas I saw when I was removing the old lace, I would take a few pics with my phone so I could see where things needed to start/terminate and routes.
Finished product, relaced and 2 applications of glove conditioner.
I am pretty happy with the results. The only thing I did not replace was the thumb/pinky loops internally. They were in good shape, and I know their straps coming out aren't black like the rest of the lace, but it doesn't bother me. I made mistakes, think I corrected most of them, and learned a lot in the process. Little man's baseball league will start up soon, and now I've got a glove ready that fits me (unlike my old high school glove) so I can protect myself when he's hitting lasers back at my face.
I started with a brief soak in warm water and allowed the glove to dry while propped open to try to reform the pocket area a little. It seemed to work pretty well. Next, I hit it hard with multiple rounds of Ballplayer's Balm cleaner.
I was firmly on the fence about relacing the glove. Yes, I wanted to do it, but that was the intimidating part of the project. The original laces were very worn, very cracked, and I figured they didn't have much life left in them. Laces were ordered, and I went with black for some contrast to the leather in the glove.
Many videos were watched on relacing, and I was very thankful that the content was available on YT. I found good videos on the specific parts of the glove I was most concerned about screwing up, mainly the palm area. A few other areas, I took the advice I read online and just retraced the new lace while removing the old. Any "tricky" areas I saw when I was removing the old lace, I would take a few pics with my phone so I could see where things needed to start/terminate and routes.
Finished product, relaced and 2 applications of glove conditioner.
I am pretty happy with the results. The only thing I did not replace was the thumb/pinky loops internally. They were in good shape, and I know their straps coming out aren't black like the rest of the lace, but it doesn't bother me. I made mistakes, think I corrected most of them, and learned a lot in the process. Little man's baseball league will start up soon, and now I've got a glove ready that fits me (unlike my old high school glove) so I can protect myself when he's hitting lasers back at my face.
