Another old buckle web mitt

[mikesglove]

This one is from a trade and is pretty old. The back seems pretty much OK except for the old repair to the buckle strap. The mitt has the heel lacing and I like the permanent rivet holding the thumb to the body of the mitt. I have seen different variations on this but never owned one before.



The front is another story and the wear and tear has taken a toll. The padding has been flattened and a really ugly old repair done to the pocket. I don't know how much damage is underneath.


One interesting feature is the old stitching pattern visible on the face. It looks like a "double palm" pattern but I won't know till I look inside. The remnant of the old buckle web is visible here and most of it is gone except for a couple of leather attachment points for the strap and D-ring. The thumb side is missing everything except the old stitching holes where a buckle and another D-ring used to attach.


I can't wait to tear into this one and see what's up inside

[mikesglove]

I took off the old repair patch in the pocket of the miit and there were no gaping holes but only some loose stitching and a 3" tear. At least there was no leather missing. Once the patch was off I was able to take a closer look at the stitching on the face of the mitt and traced it with some chalk.

[mikesglove]

This is a view of the inside of the mitt after the padding was removed. The white fabric is the canvas pocket sewn inside to the face of the mitt to create a crescent pad. The canvas is still all there but loose because most of the stitching has been worn through and the original crescent padding has been dispersed.



I have never seen a wrap around crescent pad in an old catchers mitt before so I looked through some catalogs and online to see if I could find any information. Below is an illustration from a 1902 Sears catalog showing a "Commercial League" model. The catalog describes it as having a crescent pad with an "extension quirk".



There is also this photo of a little salesman's sample.

[briggs86]

Mike,

That is such an interesting mitt. Great job at taking it apart and figuring out what it truly was. I would love to see what it looks like when you're done with it! Im sure its going to be a beauty!

Jared

[mikesglove]

Here is the crescent pad after being restitched by hand through the original holes. Almost all of the original stitching was worn through on the face except for a few inches at the bottom. I am real happy with it although quite the ball buster! The old canvas pocket was intact inside, hooray! After stitching it back, I slit open the pocket in a few spots to fill it up with padding. This is where having hemostats come in handy. Excellent for positioning the padding in the tight spaces. White canvas strips were glued to the inside to reinforce the two tears in the leather face.



I glued a little more canvas with contact cement to the inside to reshape the pocket. The old repair and general wear and tear over the decades had creased and flattened the leather on the face of the mitt.


I brushed on a little warm water to front area of the old patched repair and used a tool to flatten out most of the differences in the leather. I am pretty happy with the way it is blending in and think I will be able to get most the old stitching from the repair to disappear when I am done.

[mikesglove]

Here is a before and after photo of the mitt. it was my hardest restoration project yet. The face took a lot of patience and most of the buckle web had to be rebuilt from scratch. I made up a paste from Titiebond molding glue and the pigment from Sennelier chalk pastels. I filled the stitching holes of the old repair in the pocket with this mixture. I let it dry and sanded it smooth. Most of the face of the mitt was pretty beat up and grungy so I applied a pumice hand cleaner lightly over the whole surface with a rag then conditioned it with a bottle of "Hide Bracer".

before


during


after



before


I had an extra buckle for the web that matched the one at the wrist strap. I had to fabricate the d-rings because I couldn't find a store bought one that matched the gauge of the buckle. I have a bottle of JAX metal darkening liquid that I used on the d-rings. Most of the reddish leather shown around the perimeter banding is a restoration. The section on the body of the mitt is original. I was fortunate to have a piece of leather with the right color and age creases for the thumb side.

after


This view shows the intricate twists and turns of the buckle web strap.



The wrist strap on the back came out particularly nice considering it was in pieces. I laminated it with a thin leather underneath and filed in the missing sections with some old leather I had. The seam between the old and new parts of the strap always bothers me. From an old leather scrap, I scraped some fine leather shreds using my x-acto knife. I filled in the seams with thick Titebond molding glue and the leather shreds, let it dry and fine sanded it till it was smooth. I color matched the strap with a mixture of water and the pigment from Sennelier chalk pastels.

before


after