Vintage Baseball Glove Forum

A friend of mine has this great glove, a Rawlings GJ59 Reggie Jackson Autograph model, only it's a very poor state. The minute I saw it, I offered to do something for it. I thought relacing it would go as easily as the other gloves I have relaced so far did.

The first big problem I have is that the web has been chewed and partly eaten by some hungry dog many years ago (as you can see on one of the pics below). The owner of the glove thought he'd ask someone to repair it. But I doubt the result will be satisfying for such a great glove. So I thought maybe some of you guys had one to sell in one of your drawers? Please, tell me you do have one somewhere!

Then my second question is about the laces. I have 3/16 laces from Tanners. I'm afraid they might be a little too thick for that glove. But since I read what you all wrote in another thread, I'm not sure any more.

Any help available? Thanks!

http://s395.photobucket.com/albums/pp40/moonlightgraham28/Gloves/

Too bad about the chewed web on that one. Even though it's in kind of rough shape, the rest of teh glove looks structurally sound. Cleaning, conditioning and some lace work would have back into nice shape.

I've worked on other gloves with damaged webs like that and usually you can add a piece of lace or run the lace a little differently to somewhat hide the damage. It really looks like you could lace this one up and have a perfectly servicable glove.

The Tanner's laces are a bit thicker, but would probably work well. Asthetically, from a "match the original laces" standpoint, the standard 3/16" Rawlings laces that are sold in individual packages would be just about perfect. Tanner's sells those, too, and I use them quite often on vintage gloves to keep an authentic look. They are great laces, just a little bit less-wide and not quite as thick.

Thanks for your help Bretman. I'll see if the owner prefers to take chances with the web or if he wants me to try what you advise, running the lace differently. I hadn't thought of that actually. I think it can work really well.

But don't you think 3/16" laces are a bit too thick for the inside of the palm? I'm afraid it might be too hard to close after I have relaced it.

As for the individual packages from Rawlings, I wish I could get some here! I've managed to get laces from Tanners thanks to one of the other forum members.

What about replacing the entire web with a "rolled lace" web? I'm sure that there are folks here who could explain how to do that -- which I'd like to learn as well. I've seen some pictures here of converted gloves and they look real snazzy!