Vintage Baseball Glove Forum

Hello everyone, I didn't know whether to post this here or on the glove restoration topic but i purchased a Mickey mantle glove in decent shape but it is missing the button. I have robbed gloves of all kind of parts but have never tried removing a button or tried purchasing one. Is it possible to remove one from an older torn up glove or is it possible to purchase them?

The easiest way would be to have Kenny Jenkins put one in for you. I'm sure he has access to that part.

Depending on how it was put in you may be able to work it out yourself. The shank isn't designed to come undone but sometimes they can be convinced. I wouldn't recommend pulling too hard though as you're likely to bend or break the button. A broken shank means you have to start over. If you don't care about the donor glove, an easy way to do it is to cut the button out of the donor glove, leather and all, and remove the leather from around the shank with a sharp knife. If you are lucky enough to have an undamaged hole on the glove that the donor button is going in to, you can work the new button into the hole on the restored glove. It's a delicate procedure though. If the hole is too big, the button will be loose and probably fall out.

I have seen many gloves without the button and the hole is the size you would think it should be for the size of the neck of the button but on this glove it looks like there was a sharp pin hole where a pin would have attached to the base kind of like a tie tack. I like that suggestion of removing one and gently widening the hole to put the button shank through. Thanks for the reply.

I agree with William that cutting out the replacement button is the best way to go. I've tried pulling them apart and drilling them out and have ruined more than one. I have an exacto knife with a saw toothed blade that works really well for removing that pesky leather that's wedged around the shank after the button is cut out. A hacksaw blade may work also, as long as you're careful close to the shank. Works much faster than a knife blade.

Thanks for the help on this. I'll bet I have a donor glove somewhere in my " gloves that looked better on ebay than in real life" box

I've got a few of those boxes myself. Unfortunately they far outnumber the box that contains my "hey, this is actually pretty nice" collection. Good picking for glove bits though.