Repairing your glove:
There is a great deal of information needed when repairing your glove. Despite the high durability and long lasting feel that come standard on most of today’s
high-quality gloves, the extensive use and constant abuse that it is subject too will inevitably result in messing up the laces or breaks in the webbing. For the uneducated player, these problems will prompt them to search for a new glove. For those that seek to know more about their equipment and want to increase the life span of their gloves there is a lot you need to do.
The first step is understanding what you need to fix the problems. Then to learn how to properly treat them.
One of the ways to substantially improve your glove’s durability and feel is to re-lace it. Re-lacing a glove can sound like a daunting task and perhaps, not even worth the time. The reality is that re-lacing the glove is not very time consuming but far from an impossible task. Even for the amateur or inexperienced glove owner.
Re-lacing
The first step in repairing a broken or beaten up glove is to purchase tools for re lacing. The first purchase a player or parent should make is, of course, replacement laces. Laces usually come in 72 inch lengths in order to accommodate a glove of any size or pattern. Also to leave plenty of slack to easier thread it through the proper holes. For that extra slack you should also have a knife on hand to cut off any excess leather. For traditional gloves, 3 or 4 72-inch laces should be a good amount. Gloves that feature trapeze webbings as well as catchers and first basemen’s mitt, it will be necessary to have 2 or 3 extra laces. You need them to accommodate the more intricate designs and larger overall size. All these are important when repairing your glove.
The only true way to properly lace a glove is through the use of a U-Wire or straight-lace groove needle. The replacement laces can be safely put on the U-Wire or needle that are then put through the proper holes. It is important that throughout the process, especially for those that are new to it, to take pictures of the glove. This will help you keep track of what the gloves should look like. You should also have a picture on hand of what the glove looked like before the process. As you want the glove to look and feel almost exactly as it did before the process started.
The re-lacing process can also be an ideal opportunity to sure up the leather construction as whole.
Glove Conditioners
When all of the laces are off, take the opportunity to use glove-specific conditioners. With these lightly lather the leather especially around the areas that would otherwise be difficult to maneuver around with all the laces in tact. With glove conditioners, only lightly layer over the top of the leather. so to avoid adding unwanted excess weight or damaging the pores of the leather.Conditioner or oil should also be lathered over the replacement laces so they can be more easily run through the glove holes. The conditioner not only makes the threading that much simpler, it also softens the feel. On top of this it improves the overall health of the leather. Good Luck repairing your glove
