Vintage Baseball Glove Forum

I'm sure I'll get different opinions in this question, but I'm wondering what is the best lacing available for relacing an old glove. I'm looking for feedback on manufacturers, thickness, durability, etc. I would also like to be able to get some different colors for different projects as well. I'm just starting to tackle the restoration bug that I have, so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks all!
Tim

Irish, I recently ordered some laces from 2312 Sports thru ebay. You can also contact them at www.2312sports.com or email them at Rob@2312sports.com.

Their address is:
2312 Sports - Rob Borgwald
205 Foxon Road
N. Branford CT 06471

The laces I got were really high quality and you have your choice of colors.

I'd use them again.

Thud

It looks like the laces sold by 2312sports are Tanner's laces. You can find these in some sporting goods stores for a little bit cheaper than that. Even better, you can order direct from Tanner's and will be a lot cheaper!

Since Tanner's is a dealer supplier, you have to set up an account with them. It's easy to do and they will accomodate small buyers. You will have to buy laces in bulk- say, 25 at a time. 25 3/16" X 72" laces will run you about $1.35 apiece, including shipping.

These are among the very best laces I have found for use on modern, game-used gloves. They are thick, heavy leather that should last a long time.

They don't look quite right on older, vinatge gloves, where the laces tend to be thinner. But if I'm relacing a more modern glove, or one that will be actively used in games, these are all I use.

http://www.tanners.com/

Bret & Thud,
Thanks to both of you for pointing me in the right direction. I appreciate it!
Tim

I was at a craft store with my wife a while back. While she was looking at something I was wandering around and saw some laces and bags of leather scraps. As I was in need of laces, and the price was right, I grabbed a bag and I also bought the leather scraps.

I used the scraps to make some slingshot pouches and a new thumb loop for a glove -- worked great and I was quite pleased with myself over the thunb loop repair.

I eventually used the laces for a friends' glove and an old catchers mitt. Next time I saw my friend after returning his glove I found that the lacing had failed miserably! They were too weak and broke in many places. I took it and relaced it again with higher quality laces. Then, the second time I used the catchers mitt, its laces also failed.

Moral of the story, don't worry about saving a few pennies on laces -- buy the best -- worth it in the long run.

Irish Tim,
I've got to agree with Bret on the Tanner's laces for more modern era gloves. For older vintage gloves which were made much smaller in size than today's gloves, I use Tandy (Tandy Leather Factory), leather 5/32" natural or 1/8" chocolate. The quality of these laces isn't nearly as good as Tanner's, but in comparison their not bad at all. The width and thickness of the Tanner's laces are way too big for vintage gloves. Bret pointed me in the direction of Tanner's as a source of quality rawhide lacing a while ago, when I was asking the very same questions you're asking now, and I have never, ever been disappointed with their quality. robin_buckeye also was 1000% correct in his posting. Spend a little extra money now and buy quality laces, because in the long run they will last a good long time.

bill

Those Tanners laces are so durable I often scavenge old HOH when they come for work to grab their lace for more vintage repairs....

I wish they would come in narrower widths though...

A 1/8 Tanner tan lace treated with my secret oil mix (in some other thread) would be a deam on match for the old vintage lace.

I really stumbled on to some very nice laces and you'll never guess where.
I was at my local Wal Mart. They carry a leather boot lace made by "Shoe Gear" in the shoe dept. sold with all the laces. They are far superior to the Rawlings laces sold at Dick's that cost $4.99 .
They are on a yellow card marked "PRO leather BOOT" and on the back it says super strong for boots, boat shoes or ball gloves. They are thick and come in tan, chocolate brown and black. I highly recommend them. Cost about $3.60 for a pair and each is 72" long so that's 12" feet of laces.



Thanks Don