Vintage Baseball Glove Forum

I bought that nearly destroyed Hack Wilson glove that was on ebay recently. It cleaned up pretty nice though, and turned out to be a Marathon. All I need to do now is replace the liner, wrist strap, etc. If it ever comes together, I'll post pictures again.

Greg,

I debated on that bad boy for like 5 days. I thought what a great deal for a Hack Wilson! Truly you did a great job on the clean-up, remarkable in comparison to how it was. What do you use to clean up the leather and remove grime?

That clean-up job is incredible!

Thanks guys! I talked myself out of buying it a few times before I took the plunge. Luckily the leather turned out to be pretty solid, dry but no dry rot. I cleaned it with Murphy's Oil Soap and a toothbrush. It's a little darker now after conditioning with Lexol. The odd thing is that it looks like someone just needed a piece of leather and cut it out of the liner and the back of the glove. Kind of a shame because what's left of it is in pretty decent shape.

Well, this is how it turned out. I may redo my patch job. It looked okay until I sewed the wrist strap on. It will be awhile before I buy another glove that was as rough as this one.





I found a couple of Hack Wilson glove pic's:

Nice Job on the repair. That looks like it took a lot of work.

Dave

I think you did a real nice job. The liner looks vintage. I guess you have some donor gloves or at least parts. Was the wrist strap from another glove or did you redo the whole thing including the piping? I have resewn piping by hand and it is as tedious as can be.

Thanks for the encouraging words, guys. I ended up making the wrist strap from the leather of a pretty beat up Marathon glove from about the same period. The piping and liner came from a different beater. Sewing the piping on by hand is indeed tedious, Mike (and nerve wracking when it's old and worn.) If it wasn't for the fact that the signature was pretty decent and I really wanted a Hack Wilson glove, I would have done the smart thing and just walked away.

Very rewarding work Greg. For you and for us to view!
Wondering on the lining, did you just patch the lining? How were the finger channel areas?
I'm faced with an even more unsurmountable job on a '20s professional buckleback C. mitt where a lot of the leather has just dried out and chipped away. Only the oil on the front of the mitt
has held that part of it together.

Absolutely incredible Greg. I sure wish I had your talent and patience. Do you mind if I post the pictures to the Marathon Gallery?

JD

Thanks much! I thought about patching the liner, Joe but so much of it was missing from the palm area that I decided to replace it with one from another oldie. It's a shame, because the original was high quality, thick leather. Luckily I came across a replacement of about the same quality. Good luck on your '20s catcher's mitt. It is tough to pass on an otherwise quality mitt or glove because the liner has issues. I would love to have the glove in your Marathon Gallery, Jim. I have a couple of others that I've been meaning to send pictures of, too. Try to get them to you soon.