February find

[Rickybulldog]

February is the month for g"lovers". Well, me for one. I was fortunate to come across this square top Rawlings basemitt at a local antique store. It was with 3 other gloves (all were beaters) and a softball mask. The mitt was by far the dirtiest glove I've cleaned so far!! The lining is great and thanks to JD's wonderful site, I was able to see the model/ endorser. The mitt is a Jim Bottomley model. The mitt still has the 1922 patent and I can make out the script J and some scribbles for the last name. Still a great find nonetheless. I provided a before and after picture of the basemitt. I found it funny that once I bought it what a fuss the older ladies working the counter made over it. They were so interested in it and were so amazed that people collected such things. Of course I had to ask if their husbands had any old ball equipment at home they wanted to sell. No dice though. I will post my other finds on my site next week.

http://hometown.aol.com/rickybulldog/page1.html

[vintagebrett]

Awesome find!

[quaz95]

rickybulldog,

How do you clean up your finds so nice?

Rookie

[BretMan]

Check out the "Glove Conditioning" and "Glove Restoration" sections of the forum. There are tons of tip for getting your old leather back into shape.

[Rickybulldog]

I use a combination of things that I got from glovers (that I have a huge amount of respect for) over the years.

For general cleaning: I use the white Fiebings saddle soap suggested by Rob "Glovecrazy" Mucha for darker leather gloves. I use the orange soap for the more modern gloves. The guy at Tandy Leather says there's no difference between the two, but I use both.

For deep cleaning and if I'm tired: I'll use the Fast Orange that Brett suggested. It does dry the gloves out quickly though almost like rubbing alcohol.

For the final touch up. I use what Robbie Leonhardi (theluckydogkind) uses. I've always loved the gloves I got from him and had to ask. He uses the Doc Martin leather Balm that comes with the shoes. It gives a great sheen and I like the smell. Hope this is helpful!!

And for suede gloves I use the suede eraser!!!

[oldballfan]

Those are great before and after photos......nice job of cleaning that glove up!