Vintage Baseball Glove Forum

Hey all. I just wanted to take a second to reintroduce myself to the board. I haven't posted on here in quite some time as I was mainly focused on modern gloves and have gotten away from this forum. However, I made my first vintage glove purchase and did a little TLC work to it over the weekend. The glove I purchased was a Nokona model G12 Carl Erskine, picked it up on eBay. The glove was in real solid shape and just needed a little bit of work to take it to the next level. I want to give a lot of credit to JD for helping me out. I had sent him an e-mail awhile back inquiring about his vast collection of vintage Nokona's. He was great giving me a lot of insight and advice. Since I live in North Texas, Nokona has always been special to me. I have always considered Nokona to be the best of the best, at least in my opinion. I know we all have our favorites, and for me Nokona is it. So with some guidance from JD and a little luck, I dove in head first. It didn't need much, but I think the results were fantastic. If anyone can give me a little know how about posting pics to the forum, I'll put up some before and after shots. I must say I am officially hooked on the vintage gloves from here on out! Being a long time card collector this is a whole new passion with so much more connection to the game. Now I truly understand why you all feel the way you do about your gloves. I look forward to sharing more with you all going forward!

Brandon

Directions for posting pictures can be found here:

http://www.vintagebaseballgloveforum.co ... ic.php?t=2

If you need any help, just let me know.

Thanks Brett, I think I got it. Here it goes...

The before Pics...







The after pics...

My cleaning method was first to hit the whole glove, including the lining with St. Ives facial scrub. JD said never use anything you wouldn't put on your own skin and my fiance' uses this stuff so I figured it would work on the glove. It really did wonders and worked well in removing some of the ink from the name on the pinky. It has crushed walnut shells in it to make it mildly abrassive. It helped lift out some of the heavier soiling in the pocket and on the pinky and thumb. Then I gave it a quick wipe down with Murphy's Oil and water, light mixture. I left it outside in the heat for about 15 to 20 min to dry. That's all it took in the Texas heat to suck out the excess mositure. Then I worked the whole glove with a light coat of petroleum jelly. I stuck it back outside for about 10 to 15 minutes to open up the pores and let the PJ soak in a bit. Then I hit it with another light second coat and it was perfect. The leather then had the same mild tackiness that my new Nokona AMG600 has. I have to say the leather on this thing is so supple I can't truly put it in words. It feels so soft on the hand. It's taking a trip to the ballpark this evening for a little round of catch. Thanks agan to JD and to Brett for their help with the glove and pics so I could share this with you all.

Drop me a PMessage her if you get a chance. I handled Nocona's marketing and advertising for 30 years, etc. Not much that I don't know about the company and the gloves. And you should get the Glove Catalog Source book
to look up the Nokkonas you pick up.
I began using a Nokona Kangaroo glove in 1957 (first experimenting with the Kangys) and have used them almost exclusively to now where I play senior softball with an AMG700K (14 years old) with an AMG650 Buffalo to back it up. However I've fallen in love with an AMG175 coolmax lining that is to die for.
We produced replica Nokona Carl Erskine G57 gloves for awhile. You did a good job on the G12 and it was in pretty nice condition when you got it, it would appear.
Jim Daniel, bless his heart, was a great source and lends a helping hand on anything.

Nice job of conditioning your glove! One thing I've always liked about Nokona is that their mid line gloves had many of the same features as their top of the liners (like rolled leather piping, Ristankor, and Nokona patch). They sure used nice leather to make them, too. I have a G37 Carl Erskine and the leather is still very supple. Really well made gloves and the boxes they came in weren't too shabby either. Wish I had one!

Thanks all for the kind words on the glove and the cleanup work. I really had a good time with it. Took the glove out yesterday evening for some catch and it was great! The smaller glove makes for more connection with each catch. With the newer gloves which are so large and engulfing, it was a pleasure to have to focus on the ball to make sure each catch stuck! I'll be enjoying this glove for a long time to come.

I'm in Dallas, you're in Frisco. Come by for a game of catch with our nokonas.
JP

I'd love to JP, just let me know a time and place. I work in Dallas, off of 635 & 75.