Vintage Baseball Glove Forum

I had fellow collector ask me this question on early gloves. More often we hear or see descriptions of the liner as "asbestos". Are people using the term asbestos just to generalize. I have seen catalog descriptions of gloves that both say the liner is asbestos and wool. How can you tell the difference or is it the same thing? Or is the asbestos liner only used by certain manufacturers.

I think they have a different feel to the them - I just sold a Reach glove with wool in the finger slots - to me, it's more cushier than the asbestos. The asbestos seems to be more dense.

Definitely different Joel. They have a different feel. The asbestos linings have a finer composition and are pretty tightly combed and are pretty dense like Brett said. Picture a tight handful of cotton balls and you took a comb to them and tried to get the fibers to blend together like horsehair. That’s the asbestos look, more weaved. Wool is much nappier and has a thicker pile. I also believe that most of the asbestos linings I have seen are grayish/brown in color while the wool linings can have a different tint to the color. I also believe the earlier the glove, the better the chance of it being asbestos. The full webs of the teens are more likely to have wool linings. It's hard to tell them apart but it can be done.

JD

Thanks Brett and Jim! I think I can picture the difference in my head from gloves that I've owned. Looking at a crescent glove, I can see what you're saying Jim. A worn asbestos liner has more of a shredded look. Am I correct?

An asbestos pad is usually two layers. The inner layer, the part you don't, or shouldn't see, is the shredded layer. That is covered by a thin, but, denser layer. Asbestos has a tendency to fall apart. Generally, if it looks trashed, it's asbestos. It has a softer "loft" to it. Hence the tendency to fall apart.

A wool pad can either be lamb's wool, like in a wrist pad, or wool felt. Felt can be made in just about any density. It also tends to be more consistent in color, though it can be a hodge podge of greys, or browns, etc.