Vintage Baseball Glove Forum

I need help!!! I’m coming to the experts for assistance…I just bought a very Used Rawlings Pro Preferred Catcher’s mitt. It’s filthy. I want to clean the leather before I give it to my son, so do any of you out there know how to properly clean (maintaining the original color of the leather) a Pro Preferred? The leather color is so light that I’m afraid that if I apply anything on it, it would change the color of the actual leather.
Any suggestions???

Thanks

ENRI26 wrote:I need help!!! I’m coming to the experts for assistance…I just bought a very Used Rawlings Pro Preferred Catcher’s mitt. It’s filthy. I want to clean the leather before I give it to my son, so do any of you out there know how to properly clean (maintaining the original color of the leather) a Pro Preferred? The leather color is so light that I’m afraid that if I apply anything on it, it would change the color of the actual leather.

Get some Lexol leather cleaner (orange bottle) @ Pep boys or another auto detailing store. Follow the directions on the bottle. Clean lightly to avoid damaging the leather. I suspect the PP glove will be somewhat sensitive to hars and abrasive cleaners and you don't want to hurt it. Following the cleaning use the Lexol conditioner (brown bottle) to rehydrate-lubricate the glove. If it is overly dry I would apply 1 coat of Lexol NF to the glove with special attention to the pocket and area in the crotch of the web. Good luck and feel free to pm me or send direct e-mail c/o my website if you have questions, concerns, comments.

http://www.lexol.com

Thank you.

Step 1
How do I clean the dirt off the mitt? Do I use a wet rag? Or a dry rag?

The way I normally do this is to use NEW sponges and three plastic containers of warm/hot water. (I keep old plastic gallon containers that were originally used for ice cream, just for this purpose.) Make sure these containers are thoroughly clean before you use them. Fill all three to about 1/2 to 3/4 full with the warm/hot water. Put one sponge in each of the containers. Using the Lexol PH, either spray it on the 1st sponge or pour it on the 1st sponge depending on which bottle you buy, i.e., spray or liquid. Use the sponge to scrub the glove, and work up a good lather. Keep doing this for the whole glove, inside and out until you've got it looking cleaner. Then use the 2nd sponge and water to wash off the entire glove. After that, use the 3rd sponge and water to wash it off one final time. After that's finished, put the glove in front of a box fan to let it dry completely. Then you can move on to the other steps with the other Lexol conditioners. If you find that the glove is still dirty after the cleaning process, you may have to repeat this, maybe even several more times before moving on to the other Lexol products. Hope that this helps.

VBR, br

wjr953 wrote:The way I normally do this is to use NEW sponges and three plastic containers of warm/hot water. (I keep old plastic gallon containers that were originally used for ice cream, just for this purpose.) Make sure these containers are thoroughly clean before you use them. Fill all three to about 1/2 to 3/4 full with the warm/hot water. Put one sponge in each of the containers. Using the Lexol PH, either spray it on the 1st sponge or pour it on the 1st sponge depending on which bottle you buy, i.e., spray or liquid. Use the sponge to scrub the glove, and work up a good lather. Keep doing this for the whole glove, inside and out until you've got it looking cleaner. Then use the 2nd sponge and water to wash off the entire glove. After that, use the 3rd sponge and water to wash it off one final time. After that's finished, put the glove in front of a box fan to let it dry completely. Then you can move on to the other steps with the other Lexol conditioners. If you find that the glove is still dirty after the cleaning process, you may have to repeat this, maybe even several more times before moving on to the other Lexol products. Hope that this helps.

Solid!

Thanks for the advice!!!

Does anyone know where I could purchase Tanner's new Rawlings Pro Preferred Glove Care Kit? I’ve been looking everywhere and I cannot find it. Can someone “hook-me up”? I tried using the Lexol, but it made the leather really dark.
Here is the link for the new stuff: http://www.tanners.com/pages/newproducts.htm
Thanks