Vintage Baseball Glove Forum

I recently picked up a pro issue pro preferred Rawlings PRO 12-2K, I really like the glove, but it VERY dry, which is very common with these gloves.



The other thing I've noticed, maybe due to how dry the leather is, this glove sucks up dirty like no other. My Heart of the Hide gloves will get dirty, but it always wipes right off, it doesn't really get into the leather like it does on this glove. I was wondering if a good cleaning session with some of the orange bottle lexol for cleaning might do it some good, maybe even do it more than once. See how good I can get it, i'm guessing it's never been cleaned/conditioned.

Following that I was wondering how I decide between the Lexol brown bottle stuff, or the Lexol NF ? The glove is a game glove that I use a lot, don't know if that makes a difference. Biggest concern is that it doesn't pick up any weight. If the color changes slightly but the glove feels great and stops being a dirt vacuum I'd be fine with that Look forward to your input/replies.

RedSoxFan81 wrote:I recently picked up a pro issue pro preferred Rawlings PRO 12-2K, I really like the glove, but it VERY dry, which is very common with these gloves.
I was wondering if a good cleaning session with some of the orange bottle lexol for cleaning

Following that I was wondering how I decide between the Lexol brown bottle stuff, or the Lexol NF ?

I think the glove will be really dry from cleaning w/ orange and would go with an intial treatment of Lexol NF. Following that the brown bottle may be ok. Try a light application with brown lexol following each use to wipe out the dirt and see how that works in the future. Good luck!

I had a glove that was really dry as well and I found it was necessary to condition the leather a bit before I even cleaned it. Else, the leather just sucked up the Lexol cleaner and it didn't do a thing to it.

edingc wrote:I had a glove that was really dry as well and I found it was necessary to condition the leather a bit before I even cleaned it. Else, the leather just sucked up the Lexol cleaner and it didn't do a thing to it.

Great point! I have sometimes had to condition a glove before I could do any work on it at all.

A good cleaning before conditioning is always a good idea. The Fast Orange treatment really gets out dirt and grime, but does seem to remove some of the natural oils in the process. After using it, you really have to plan on using a conditioner to replace some of the oils.

That glove doesn't look super dirty, so you might be able to use a less aggresive cleaner. Something that works well for me on less-dirty gloves is a 50/50 solution of Murphy's Oil Soap and water. I mix that in a spray bottle, then spray it onto a rag or sponge (not directly onto the glove).

You can work this solution into a pretty good lather, then remove the lather with a clean, dry cloth. The results should be close to what you get with Fast Orange, but without the "drying out" effect.

An even better option might be to use Lexol leather cleaner, which is a completely different product than their conditioner. This is good stuff for cleaning a glove, and they advertise that it does not remove essential oils from the leather. In fact, this product is designed to add some lubricating properties to the leather, so it really is the best of both worlds.

For a nice glove like this one, the Lexol cleaner might be your best bet. The second best option might be the 50/50 MOS/water mix. Fast Orange will get the job done, too, but you might want to use a little less of the product just to negate some of the "drying out" issues.

Whichever you use, following up with a good conditioner is essential. Use light coats, let it soak in, then follow up with additional light coats as needed.

Managed to find the Lexol cleaner stuff today and the brown bottle lexol conditioner. Wish me luck Hopefully it turns out well. I'll let you guys know how it turns out.

Oh after I do the cleaning lexol stuff, should I put the glove in front of a box fan in my house and let it dry before putting any of the brown bottle lexol conditioner on it?

RedSoxFan81 wrote:Oh after I do the cleaning lexol stuff, should I put the glove in front of a box fan in my house and let it dry before putting any of the brown bottle lexol conditioner on it?

I have done it both ways. Let the glove dry slowly over a couple of days or apply the lexol brown while the glove was still damp. The Lexol conditioner is water based so I don't think you have an issue with sealing moisture in under the layer of "oil" like you would with a petrolium based product like vasaline (nakona glove goo). Just my thoughts. Perhaps Brett has some other thoughts to share. Good luck.

Well I happened to have 2 box fans laying around my house so following the cleaning with the lexol Ph cleaner I put it between those, and let it completely dry and then went ahead and put the brown bottle lexol conditioner on it. I let that sit for about 5 minutes then rubbed it down with a dry rag and kinda buffed it out.I put the glove after that in front of the fans again. I'm hoping it didn't really pickup any weight during the process. I hate a heavy infield glove. The exterior of the glove feels better , not so dry and rough, the palm and catching area feels a lot smoother now too. I think I'm gonna play catch with it later tonight so I will have to see how it feels. I don't have a digital camera, but I definitely could notice it was lighter in color following the ph cleaner, the brown bottle lexol may have dyed it a tiny bit but to be honest I don't really care. I am far more concerned with the performance of a glove over the exterior appearance since it's my game glove.

It sounds like your approach will work out great. You should be happy with the finished results!

I've done both- let a glove air-dry completely between cleaning and conditioning and applied Lexol conditioner right after cleaning. There didn't seem to be much difference. The only advantage I've found is that when you let it air-dry first, you can get a better gauge on how the leather color is being effected and maybe how much conditioner you will need to apply.

My experience has been that Lexol products, used in even three or four light coats, add no discernable weight to a glove. You would probably have to soak in a whole bottle- enough to saturate the inner padding- to have a weight issue.

I have had the same experience with color issues- after cleaning, the leather might look quite a bit lighter. After using the conditioner, the leather is maybe just a little bit darker. One thing I've found is that as the conditioner dries, the color lightens a bit. You wind up with pretty much the original color- and a very dried-out glove will usually look a little lighter anyway.

Once you go black.....



...never liked the camel

Haha, I know MVALZ. I like that black pro preferred you got. I too am a fan of black, but I didn't want to pass up the pro issue so I got the camel glove anyways. I just got this to cover my need for a black glove:

The glove turned out pretty good. Cleaned everything up a lot, and now is smoother through the catching surface and exterior.May have even softened the palm just a tiny bit which the glove needed anyways. The black glove I posted the pic of that I just got I will do nothing but play catch with to break in, and take my time with. The pro issue should be a good game glove for a while, so I don't really have to rush getting the PRO AK game ready.

Redsoxfan. I'm glad to hear your Pro-Preferred came out nice. I've been very hesitant to clean my kip leather PP. I have been using it a lot coaching my son's little league the last couple of seasons and it can use a cleaning. I have never been a fan of the Orange Bottle Lexol cleaner but I do have it. Are you saying that with the orange bottle and the brown bottle follow-up that your kip leather glove didn't get darker in color? If so, I'll give mine a shot. I really like the yellow color and am afraid it will get darker. It's not dry at all and still feels great. It just needs a light cleaning

What do you think Bret? I trust you as you have a ton of experience with this. Thanks.

JD

Hmmm, I would say maybe wait, just because they do have a pro preferred glove care kit that a few guys on this site are waiting for to use really soon kinda specifically for the camel colored gloves.