Vintage Baseball Glove Forum

FYI, for those who want to know:

For many years Rawlings Glovolium was a hydrocarbon product, akin to a charcoal lighter type; several years ago they changed to a water-based glycerin triethanolamine soap, similar to the cheap aerosol shave creams that some have used to condition their gloves. I don't know what was in the Rawlings "Glove Dope" sold in little cans in the 1960s, suspect same hydrocarbon.

I'm a chemist in consumer products, so I assayed my older Rawlings and compared it to the current Glovolium. At last review, Dr. Franklins was still hydrocarbon, similar to the old Glovolium.

Cusser wrote: I'm a chemist in consumer products, so I assayed my older Rawlings and compared it to the current Glovolium.

Awesome. I noticed that the formula had changed at least a year ago when I picked up a bottle to check it out. Do you think its migration properties have also changed in the sense that perhaps it behaves more like Lexol, rather than the old hydrocarbon oil-solvent product?

I'll have to check to see if wife has any Lexol (she has horses) for me to assay, haven't looked at it in the lab, and its MSDS doesn't say anything. I used the Rawlings Glove Dope exclusively on my new TG12 since 1960 (but I was dumb 7-year-old and never realized that one should also oil inside where the hand goes, and no one wore protective thin gloves on their hands then (I actually use Palmgard, my daughter and the adults throw too hard, and the Rawkings HOH gloves never had that much padding - but they will hold up for decades).

I use GC-Mass spec as first overall scouting assay on these, and I've published several papers on soap analyses, so that makes me quite experienced apparently. For the modern water-based liquid soap type conditioners, we can readily see glycerine, triethanolamine, and the soap fatty acids. In general if the product looks whitish when shaken and is not flammable (label), and label says to shake, then it is an emulsion and all ingredients are not solubilized in the formula, some just suspended. You can also have transparent water-based formulas, where all is soluble. And you can have clear hydrocarbon-based formulas which are clear as well.

Hey, at $3.50 gasoline, can I put these in my car's gas tank?

GloveGypsy, you're only paying $3.50? I'm paying $3.89 for regular. I'm moving to Texas.

Cusser, this is great stuff. What do you recommend then for cleaning? Thanks.

JD