Gloves 101 with Professor Rous

[Rous]

Haha good question. I've been having trouble finding high quality lace, so Chad suggested glensideglovecompany. Good stuff, but I think I am going to try Glovesmith again for my next batch.

 

[Sully]

Love your work! Im sure you've been asked the same questions over and over again. What is your experience with dying black gloves? I have a 3 year old 1781 that I would like to make darker. I use the mizuno strong oil on it and condition it 2-3 times a year but it's still fading from use. It's in real need of new laces also. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

If you go back and look at post #11, that is my Nokona. If you look at the palm pictures closely you can see a spot at the bottom of the fingers where the leather is worn and another on the end of one of the fingers. He dyed it for me and gave me the same warning he just gave you. You can see the difference in the after pictures. I thought he did a great job. I don't use that glove much any more so I can't tell you whether it would wear with time. I can dig it out and send you some close ups if you want.

 

[Rous]

If you go back and look at post #11, that is my Nokona. If you look at the palm pictures closely you can see a spot at the bottom of the fingers where the leather is worn and another on the end of one of the fingers. He dyed it for me and gave me the same warning he just gave you. You can see the difference in the after pictures. I thought he did a great job. I don't use that glove much any more so I can't tell you whether it would wear with time. I can dig it out and send you some close ups if you want.

Haha, it was that AMG400 that made me realize just what a PITA it is! It wasn't so much the dying as the sealing. It just never seemed to completely prevent rub off (and I did like 7 coats of the sealer). I later asked at a Tandy and they said the dye is really meant for new raw leather and once it has been dyed and sealed the first time, even if you deglaze it (which I did), leather won't accept dye the same way. Was she right? I don't know, but I am guessing she knows more than I do!

 

[fredderf]

Haha, it was that AMG400 that made me realize just what a PITA it is! It wasn't so much the dying as the sealing. It just never seemed to completely prevent rub off (and I did like 7 coats of the sealer). I later asked at a Tandy and they said the dye is really meant for new raw leather and once it has been dyed and sealed the first time, even if you deglaze it (which I did), leather won't accept dye the same way. Was she right? I don't know, but I am guessing she knows more than I do!

The people at Tandy know there business. They have helped me out quite a bit.
F

 

[fredderf]

Great job on this Rous! Looks like you brought it back to life.

F

Rawlings PRO-JR24 (one of the Revolution gloves, four dots, so 1999 vintage). Flat as a pancake and pretty dried out too. The re was no pinkie insert (just a piece of leather) and the thumb insert was 5/64". I made a stay for the pinkie and replaced the one in the thumb, both out of 3/32" HDPE. The felt was a very soft synthetic white felt. The thin tan veneer leather is applied as a decoration and the original lacer accidentally went though only the tan layer where the mid-finger lace ends. It had ALMOST torn through, but the new lace goes where it needs to. Always interesting ti find these little assembly errors. The leather has held up well, although I don't think it is Horween. The black dye came off on my rags when cleaning and conditioning and my hands were stained black by the time I was done. IN any case, a lot of life left in this one.

Before






After

 

[fredderf]

I love these Tanks. Beautiful cleaning.
F

Mizuno MZP80

Mizuno used some really great leather on these gloves (Horween level quality); given all the use this one had seen, it was still pretty stiff. The laces on the other hand, did not hold up so well. I forgot to take before pics, but you wouldn't have seen much more than a broken lace. But the laces felt almost like dry rot had gotten to them. So the new owner wanted a standard clean/condition/relace. Pretty easily done, except the previous owner must have used the glove as an ashtray. I actually used the glove to scare my teenagers away from smoking ("hey, smell this glove!").

Unfortunately, the Vaseline used to condition the glove for over a decade just trapped the smell in. This was one of the toughest cleaning jobs I have had. It took two wipedowns with a 50/50 vinegar water solution, cleaning the wrist fuzz with Woolite, and two cleanings with Lexol to reduce the smell by about 95%.

But the effort payed off, the glove turned out great. Probably got another 10 years of hard use before the next overhaul.

 

[fredderf]

Really interesting how the leather on that MZP 80 is sooo much different (nicer) than the 1998 limited edition MZP 80 I had. The one I had had really soft leather and was very very floppy for being nwot.

I would guess your floppy one was a MZP81. They seemed like a cheap knock off of the MZP80. I owned one. The leather was not in the same ballpark, nor was the padding, etc.
F

 

[Nik750]

Thanks for doing the JR24 for me, she looks and feels great!!

 

[fredderf]

Thanks for doing the JR24 for me, she looks and feels great!!

ITs like a new glove again isn't it/
F

 

[Nik750]

ITs like a new glove again isn't it/
F

Absolutely! Feels great and looks even better

 

[Rous]

Cool! Glad you like how it turned out.

 

[Rous]

Vinci RV1961-L

The owner needed a relace and new palm pad as the original was crumbling... well, when I got it I realized what they meant. The palm pad was fine, but the lining was rotting away. Glove came from Georgia where I am guessing it is pretty warm and humid and sweat is an issue.

The finger stalls were also rotting away. So I had the choice to put in three different patches or one big one. I went with one big one. The thumb loop was about to give out too, so I replaced it as well.

The shell is holding up great.

Before






The patch





After

 

[ANNASDAD]

Wow, very cool work! I have to get in the right frame of mind to do a web, fingers, or spiral, not really but I don't think I'd want to tackle that job!

 

[Rous]

I made about 6 paper patterns and then my first leather prototype didn't quire do it (finger inserts were too short). It was about a 3 hour process for just that.

 

[casedawg51]

Sweat is an issue here but not bringing the glove indoors to dry out was the main culprit. All I can do is tell them.

 

[Rous]

Haha, for the next glove, I gave them a regimen of JobSite leather waterproofer, Meguire's wipes, and Lexol conditioner... I hadn't even thought about how they were storing the glove. The lining looked like it had been used for 20 years!

 

[Rous]

This Vinci needed a new web (old one had started to fall apart).

Here it is, all put back together.A little conditioning really brought back some color!

 

[Rous]

Here is a Glovesmith USA made Shadowflex 1250 from about 2002. The foam rubber palm pad was crumbling and the thumb pad was REALLY soft felt. I made a new wool palm pad and thumb pad. A LOT of life left in this one.

 

[Rous]

Nokona L-1300. Great glove, but with some use the hand stall had stretched and gotten too huge. I replaced the thumb and pinkie pads with slightly thicker ones, added felt to the back of the button lap (under the shearling), moved the thumb loop access holes on the inside of the glove and tightened the button lap lacing. The overall difference was night and day. It went from falling off loose to snug and secure.

I also, got an extra long piece of lace for the web so I could fill all the holes without two 5" pieces of lace and four knots. I hate knots.

Before

After

 

[etnstudios]

odd that the Nokona would stretch so much in such a relatively short amount of time

 

[Rous]

These have large hand stalls to start with and the button lap was still at the original setting. But yeah, I think I would only recommend this pattern to guys who use XL batting gloves... although after my adjustments, it fit really well and I wear an L batting glove.

 

[Rous]

Honestly, when I first open the box, my first thought was to call a priest, have last rites administered, pack it up and send it right back to the owner. There was a hole in the palm right between the index and middle fingers that had been dealt with with some sort of glue and the two fingers had been held together with a loop of lace.

But then I put this Nokona AMG700 on and, man, I wanted to go play a game with it. I now regret selling my custom AMG700.

But I digress.

The glove had already been relaced a few times and someone had tried to beef up the thumb and pinkie with thicker HDPE. Problem was that Nokona workers tend to sew through the stays when they sew up the pads. Just makes it hard to replace them. The previous repair guy had given up on the pinkie and had just thrown a huge and thick stay on top of the thumb pad. Then they had fixed the hole by just gluing the edges to the padding and added a loop of lace to hold it all together.

Also though, the hole in the tips of the fingers have started to enlarge (index and middle fingers -- see pic).

Oh, and the web leather was giving out and very soft so I bought a sandstone web off a previous customer.

So, and I sewed together the sides of the index finger and middle finger to keep them from further opening up. Then opened up both thumb and pinkie pads and added a stay in the pinkie and trimmed and moved the thumb stay to the inside of the pad (removing the old 1/16" stay and adding 1/8" of wool felt to the pad as the leather had stretched). I had some sandstone scraps that I used to form a big (and then little) patch.

Amazingly, the lining was still in great shape (must be nice to live where it never gets warm enough to sweat).

Sorry I forgot to take before pics.

Before

One of two patches. One big one fortifies the purlicue (holes were getting big and leather getting thin) and rund under the hole and up the index and middle fingers. The second is just bigger than the hole and is glued in to patch the hole.

Webs are the same size, but you have to stretch the old one to see it. How did the glove shrink?

I punched a few holes to clean up the extra lacing.

And finally done.

 

[tkr18]

Nice web and incredible job by Mr Wizard/Dr Rous or whatever nom de guerre you so choose.

Hope my old Vinci comes out nice!!!

 

[DatDuke]

Its a Frankenstein!! ITs ALIVE!!!!

 

[MaverickAH]

Here is a Glovesmith USA made Shadowflex 1250 from about 2002. The foam rubber palm pad was crumbling and the thumb pad was REALLY soft felt. I made a new wool palm pad and thumb pad. A LOT of life left in this one.

This would be mine! The new padding was exactly what it needed! Much thanks!

The vintage on the glove is actually about 1998/99. Definitely bought it before the 2000's.

 

[Rous]

Nice web and incredible job by Mr Wizard/Dr Rous or whatever nom de guerre you so choose.

Hope my old Vinci comes out nice!!!

It is next in line (that Nokona took a while) -- and thanks for providing that AMG700 web!

Haha, your Vinci is barely broken in compared to the Nokona!

 

[MaverickAH]

I've had gloves with 15+ years of hard consecutive use on all types of rough surfaces that don't look as bad as that Nokona!

 

[Rous]

It's the banana tan leather. Beautiful, but not particularly robust.

 

[fredderf]

Damn impressive!
F

Honestly, when I first open the box, my first thought was to call a priest, have last rites administered, pack it up and send it right back to the owner. There was a hole in the palm right between the index and middle fingers that had been dealt with with some sort of glue and the two fingers had been held together with a loop of lace.

But then I put this Nokona AMG700 on and, man, I wanted to go play a game with it. I now regret selling my custom AMG700.

But I digress.

The glove had already been relaced a few times and someone had tried to beef up the thumb and pinkie with thicker HDPE. Problem was that Nokona workers tend to sew through the stays when they sew up the pads. Just makes it hard to replace them. The previous repair guy had given up on the pinkie and had just thrown a huge and thick stay on top of the thumb pad. Then they had fixed the hole by just gluing the edges to the padding and added a loop of lace to hold it all together.

Also though, the hole in the tips of the fingers have started to enlarge (index and middle fingers -- see pic).

Oh, and the web leather was giving out and very soft so I bought a sandstone web off a previous customer.

So, and I sewed together the sides of the index finger and middle finger to keep them from further opening up. Then opened up both thumb and pinkie pads and added a stay in the pinkie and trimmed and moved the thumb stay to the inside of the pad (removing the old 1/16" stay and adding 1/8" of wool felt to the pad as the leather had stretched). I had some sandstone scraps that I used to form a big (and then little) patch.

Amazingly, the lining was still in great shape (must be nice to live where it never gets warm enough to sweat).

Sorry I forgot to take before pics.

Before

One of two patches. One big one fortifies the purlicue (holes were getting big and leather getting thin) and rund under the hole and up the index and middle fingers. The second is just bigger than the hole and is glued in to patch the hole.

Webs are the same size, but you have to stretch the old one to see it. How did the glove shrink?

I punched a few holes to clean up the extra lacing.

And finally done.

 

[Rous]

Damn impressive!
F

Damn impressive!
F

Thanks! These "lost causes" are my favorite projects.