by BretMan » September 6th, 2008, 7:25 pm
Been there and done that- those Tanner's laces are great and work well with modern gloves, but on many older gloves they are just too darn thick! Pulling those laces through the smaller holes, or through holes where the lace enters twice becomes quite a chore. In some cases it's downright impossible to get them through without damaging the glove or stretching out the hole.
From a practical standpoint, it can be a pain. From the standpoint of keeping the glove looking "original" or "vintage", those thicker laces sometimes just don't have the right look.
If you're buying your laces through the Tanner's catalog, using a dealers account, here is a suggestion. For an older glove with the thinner laces, order their individually packaged Rawlings laces. These are great laces, too, just a little bit less wide than the heafty Tanner's laces. The difference and ease in lacing the glove is quite noticable. Getting the lace through tight spots, like the palm on that A3000, is a snap.
I have some of each lying around and should probably take an actual measurement before making this statement, but the Tanner's laces seem to be a tiny bit over 3/16" wide, while the Rawlings laces are just a tiny bit under. The Tanner's laces are defintely thicker.
The Rawlings laces are much closer to what you find on most gloves from the 60's through the 80's. If ordered through Tanner's, they will only be about 30 cents more expensive, per lace, than ordering the Tanner's lace in bulk.