Spalding King Patent lining

[mikesglove]

Here is a illustration of the King Patent lining circa 1915

below is a 1" web Spalding glove with the King Patent lining. The lacing around the wrist is the telltale sign. This model looks like the lining was replaced at one time because of the funky relacing job with an old shoe lace. The ball player wanted to make sure the lining was secure so he double laced through some of the eyelets. Well it definitely worked.


Anybody ever wonder what the King Patent inner lining and padding looks like when removed from the glove?
Here it is, the inner glove sitting on top of the padding.


Interesting eyelets at the top of the fingers. These were portals to sew the inner glove to the padding using thread.


below is the canvas cover to the padding with the same type of eyelets at the top of the fingers. This was a nice attention to detail to keep the sewn connection really secure at the finger tips. The eyelets also made the replacement procedure simpler and somewhat self explanatory for the ball player.


The photo below is the front of the padding where the felt is actually attached to the canvas backing with thread. The thumb, pinky and heel pad is mostly intact.


Below is a photo of the shell of the glove. I am trying out different laces around the wrist. I may just use the old shoelace over again but I like the leather lace shown. It is a chocolate brown, thin flat leather that has the right look with the dark piping of the glove but I may need to dye and age it slightly because it looks a little too new.

[vintagebrett]

Those grommets at the top of the fingers are interesting. Thanks for sharing

[Number9]

Good eye, Mike. I saw that on ebay and thought about picking it up. The lining looks better in your pictures than I suspected it would. Should clean up nicely with the right lace and some more padding.

[mikesglove]

Yes William, I agree the liner looked pretty questionable on ebay. There was loose dirt up in the finger stalls and caked dirt on the palm section of the liner. It made the glove look pretty ragged but the majority of the dirt cleaned off with a little work.

[Bill247]

What are some of the tricks you use to get the "newness" out of the laces?

[mikesglove]

Good question Bill. William will love this too. It is something I learned on a field trip for one of my art classes while in college. The field trip was about making drawings using "found" pigments. The class went to a large field and looked for anything natural that could be used as a drawing pigment. My favorite was mud. Getting back to the glove, I mentioned that the lace didn't look quite right in the photo. On this particular glove lace I decided to use mud to lessen the sheen and age the look of the leather. I raised the grain of the leather a little with 320 grit sandpaper and soaked the lace in a little container of mud from my orchard. My place here has a lot of grey/brown clay soil which works well as a pigment. I set the wet lace on one of my house heater floor vents to dry. As the mud dried it toned down the brightness of the new laces and left hairline cracks due to the mud shrinking. It looks pretty cool now. I'll post a picture when it is all done.

[Bill247]

Thanks, Mike. I've been doing something similar. When I get a REALLY dirty glove, I take a piece of lacing and run it through the toothbrush I use for cleaning the glove to transfer the muddy glop of dirt and Fast Orange, Murphy's, etc. to the lace. It takes the sheen off and darkens the really light lace. Make as many passes as necessary. this may bbe cheating, but I take a Sharpie the closely matches the tone of the lace and run it down the edge to get rid if the bright white that just sereams new lace.

[mikesglove]

I'm happy with the way the wrist lacing came out and the glove in general. The mud gave the lacing a matte sheen which works with the age of the glove. I had to use an air nozzle and my air compressor to blow out all the dirt stuck up in the finger tips of the inner lining. I wrapped some fine grit sandpaper around a small dowel and worked it up into the finger stalls to remove the dirt that the air didn't budge. The liner eventually came out pretty soft and smooth despite the use this glove saw. Some of the original reddish-brown leather color even came back in the palm. I like the plain brass wrist strap button, quite different from the usual logo button.

[deebro041]

Absolutely fabulous job Mike!! What did you use on the buckskin to clean it? I never have luck with white leather.
The piping looks great as well. Did you add anymore to the padding?

Dan

[mikesglove]

Thanks Dan. Here are photos before and after of the front of the glove. I added felt padding to the heel and thumb side where the original padding was missing. It gave the front a little more shape not really evident in the after photo but noticeable when the glove was on the hand. The piping and welting were 100% intact, hooray! I just worked in a little Vaseline a few times to the piping and went over the welting with a small artists brush and some liquid leather conditioner. That was by far the easiest part. Cleaning up the inner lining was a little bit of a chore, but cleaning the white exterior leather was by far the hardest part, one reason for the length of time between the first and latest post. The before picture has a small cleaned section on the pinky so I knew it was possible to really improve the appearance of the leather. The biggest problem for me with white leather is to avoid a "scrubbed" look where the high spots of the leather are whitish and the creases can be very dark. I would have left the glove as it was rather than have it look scrubbed. I have used saddle soap on a smooth leather white glove with good results but didn't want to use a liquid cleaner on the soft buckskin of this glove because the leather seemed just too porous.

before


after

[deebro041]

Thanks Mike for the reply. It is info like this that keeps me excited to search for great finds to cleanup and restore to beautiful leather.
Dan

[deebro041]

Another question Mike, or anyone else. The grommets on the various King Patents, from what I have seen, always seem to be in place. Could there be any difference from these grommets, to other gloves where older grommets seem to loosen off? Maybe thickness of the leather? Does anyone know what i am trying to say here?
Dan

[mikesglove]

The type of grommets on the shell of the glove seem standard for that era and the buckskin wasn't really that thick. What really seemed to help was the leather from the rolled piping was pretty beefy and extended well past the grommets inside and the grommets were secure on a double layer of leather. I have had gloves where that extension of the rolled piping only went to the middle of the grommet at best and part or all of the grommet was attached to a single layer of leather which was a weak point. The grommets on the inner lining were attached where the leather was well doubled over so that area was quite secure. I think my earlier picture shows that. That may explain why the King Patents hold up better.

[mikesglove]

A lot of pumice hand cleaner and a tooth brush on this one. I Used the Napa brand. Pretty formidable stuff. About a half dozen applications to loosen the dirt. I undid the lacing to add more padding and worked the front and back of the mitt with my fingers to knead and burnish the leather. I worked some of my leather conditioner into the leather as I did this because the hand cleaner left the mitt pretty dry. I have this great stuff called "Hide Bracer" that is a pretty mild conditioner and doesn't darken the leather, something great for a light colored glove. It is made locally by a leather furniture retailer. The dirt on the patch wouldn't budge with a light application of water on a Q-tip. Not sure why. I used my X-acto knife on edge and scraped the dirt off, then fine tuned it with the Q-tip and water. It came out beautiful. Besides the King Patent "World Series Model" fielders glove, Spalding made a couple of King Patent catchers mitts and base mitts. This is the model AXP drab buckskin "World Series Model" with the King Patent lace and lining. It is a large beefy mitt and has a substantial "inner" glove with separate finger stalls and not just leather dividers. Spalding made both a strap and strap and buckle web model over the years from the teens into the twenties.

before

after

before


after




before

after

[vintagebrett]

Incredible job! Those red spalding tags seem to be dirt magnets and hard to clean. Not sure I'd trust myself with an exacto knife but it looks lie it was effective