Vintage Baseball Glove Forum

I have been playing around with a USA made Mizuno World Win glove I've had for a while and again noticing the high quality leather it uses - made from Salz leather. This is arguably among the best leather ever used for baseball gloves. Salz also provided leather for Coach... thought I would throw it out for discussion. What are the best leathers used for baseball gloves and how do they rate? Everyone always mentions Horween but where is Horween on the " top 10 list" ?

Back to Salz, they were a small Tannery in Santa Cruz, CA. Closed in 2001 - could no longer compete with cheaper non-USA leather operations (mainly Asia). Googled it for fun and read about Vince who worked there:
http://www.greatlifestories.com/life_st ... 216_4.html

http://www.santacruzpl.org/history/work/salzsent.shtml

Here is a Salz leather glove example:

High class glove....Mizuno has always been very high, if not the highest on my list.

Great pic too....although that granny knot on the thumb loop is going to give me an ulcer....

ha ha ha

Knots - another topic worth going into... if not a Granny Knot - what type of knot should be used?

The key with these knots is simply to make sure you reverse the order the strings take from the first "over and under" to the second.

The base of the square knot is just the thing that you do when you tie your shoes, but instead of making the loops, do the first step, then do it over, but reverse the order of which string goes over which. If you do it correctly. the knot will lie flat, with the remaining lace resting parallel to the thumb of the glove.

In your pic, the knots used to pin the thumb pad down, as well at the pinkie pads are both square knots. It may seem picky, but if you look at any display glove, the knots are always tied neatly. Ideally you always want the flesh side turned towards the glove, and the skin side facing out.

It took me a while to be able to tie square knots well, but it really adds to the 'clean' look of a great glove like you have there.

Maybe that helps??

Thanks! I'll be sure to fix that knot!

Man...and I thought I was picky!

But I always try to do the same thing. Only square knots, with the finished side of the lace facing out, unfinished side facing under.

Besides the "varying over/under" method David descibes above, here is another take on a square knot, borrowed from the Sandal Lady glove repair website.



This must be the way sailors and boy scouts do it!

I love the knot discussion. Ever since I was a little kid, The knots on my gloves had to be perfect. It's one of the details that tells me how dedicated a craftsman is.

Back to the Leather discussion, Horween has always been the most well know tanner of baseball glove leather, but Cudahy in Wisconsin also specialized in baseball glove leather. Cudahy was recently purchased by Prime who will be integrating Cudahy's glove leather tanning into their operation. The Cudahy plant will be shut down as Prime takes over.

What glove manufacturer used Cudahi leather? Some other leathers off th etop of my head for comparison: Deguchi (Mizuno), Gutman (Rawlings), Kip is a type of leather...don't know who tans Kip and is it the same for Rawlings and Wilson? What about Wilson USA A2000 ( forget what the leather used is called) leather? Some say that was the best ever...

Astoria leather...that was vintage A2000, but I haven't a clue as to who tanned it.

In the Wilson A2000 thread someone says: Ansonia Leather was used...

Astoria is where all the Greeks live in Queens N.Y !

ha ha ha

My fault.....

pretty funny one though!

I can't speak with any authority about the clients of the Cudahy Tannery. I was speaking with Steve Slymon a long time sales rep at Prime who has a lot of knowledge about baseball glove leather. He knew all the Tanneries, and the glove designers for various companies. Plus, he is a real dyed in the wool baseball guy. It is his opinion that the best leather is being made in Japan.

dwags4him wrote:The key with these knots is simply to make sure you reverse the order the strings take from the first "over and under" to the second.

Or put another way, (1) left over right and (2) right over left. If you have a left side inclination you can do it the other way (1) right over left, (2) left over right. Either way it results in a square knot.

And the clarion voice of sanity enters the picture and silences the babbling of fools.

Well said buddy. That is what I was thinking, but something got in the way between my brain and mouth.....which is not wholly unusual.

ha ha ha

The Wilson leather of old was tanned by Ross leather co. no longer around but it was great leather. we use the square knot also. (rawlings) And if you were an x sailor you would see that knot in your dreams ha
Bob