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Relace Baseball Glove: Be Your Own Glove Doctor

Consider: relace baseball glove. You have a baseball or softball glove that you have invested time and money in to shape your glove just right. You have gone through the baseball glove break in process.

You have your glove broken in just the way you like it. The baseball glove size is working well for you. You are confident when you take the field with your favorite mitt.

There is no reason what so ever to buy a new expensive baseball glove—EXCEPT your glove lacing breaks. Usually the first place a glove lacing or leather stringing will break is the web area. Or the leather lacing in the finger tips sometimes gives out and breaks.

How to Relace a Baseball Glove

Like most jobs you have the to have the right tools to get the relace baseball glove job done right and finished in a timely fashion. To do a good glove relace you will need a few vital tools. A couple you probably have around the house already.

1. Relace Baseball Glove lacing tool: A tool that looks like a screwdriver but has a needle like opening at the end of the tool. Often a frame is shaped so you can get a better grip when pulling the tool.

The end of the leather lacing will go through the needle-lacing tool just like thread goes through a sewing needle eye. Without this lacing restringing tool the glove repair job will be very difficult if not close to impossible in some instances. The relacing tool can be found in most large sporting goods stores and costs usually less than $10.

2. Needle nose pliers or medical hemostat: Very helpful to get your lacing through the final pulls and tugs. Just have a pair handy because chances are good that these pliers will help fix that old glove.

3. Sharp pair of scissors:Good strong well-made glove leather lacing is tough to cut. Sharp scissors help you quickly cut, trim and snip the thick leather lacing.

4. Good quality thick leather lacing. You need a long piece of quality lacing leather. Probably at least 36 inches will do most of the glove lacing restringing with no problem with a little left over for the next emergency.

The little repair packs in the sporting goods sections do not always have the heaviest leather. These repair kits will get you by but if I am going to take an hour or so to fix my baseball glove then I want to use a real good leather string.

I go to a local shoe repair shop and buy a long string of good heavy quality leather string lacing. The little bit of extra expense will come back to you in the long run with much longer lasting glove repair. 

The Secret Trick on How to Relace Baseball Mitts

Restringing and relace baseball glove looks very complicated. There is a trick to it though. To greatly simplify the job of relace baseball glove, before relacing make sure you leave the damaged leather lacing in place.

DO NOT remove all the leather lacing when the lacing breaks. You will use the established leather lacing as your pattern to fix your glove. Otherwise it will be difficult to recreate the old lacing and you may get more of hodge-podge lacing job instead of restoring the old glove to close to its original design. 

• Begin the process of relace baseball glove at one end of the piece of leather lacing. That will be at one end of the finger leather lacing ‘run’. Or it could be at the end of the ‘run’ at the top of the glove web or the pocket near the glove web. Untie the knot in the leather or just snip the knot completely off if the knot is really tight.
• Now pull the untied knot end through the first hole. Poke the lacing tool through the same hole that the leather lacing just was pulled out of.
• Thread the needle with the end of the leather lacing and pull the leather all the way through the hole until you get to the other end of the leather string. STOP just before you pull the entire leather strap string piece through the hole.
• Tie a knot in the end of the leather and pull the knot end right to the hole. You now have taken the first step to copycat the original glove lacing that was strung at the glove factory.
• Now you will continue to remove the old lacing with the new lacing one hole at a time just following the same path as the original glove lacing. Remove only one hole—then replace it; and repeat.
• At times the stuffing inside the glove will cause a little difficulty getting the lacing tool with the threaded needle leather through all the holes. You will have to tug, pull and nudge with a little elbow grease from time to time.
• Keep working the lacing fix it job and you will have a better than brand new glove in no time. Better yet for less than $15 and about an hour you have you old glove back ready for action for another season or two or three or more!.

Heavy Lifting Baseball Glove Repair

If you have to have some leather to sew take the glove to a local shoe repair shop. They have heavy-duty sewing machines for leather. 

Sometimes a good broken-in glove will get a new life with a little repair work by the shoe repair shop.

Walt Weiss, the former MLB shortstop and Colorado Rockies manager used his glove "named the 'CREATURE' over 10 years during his pro career and it was the shoe repair shop that kept that glove in the game that long.

Get an estimate for the repairs. If the job is less than $25 you should consider getting the glove sewn rather than buying a new glove. 

Baseball & Softball Glove Care Tips

Once your know how to break in a baseball glove you have to do some easy glove care follow-up.

First, when you store your glove in your equipment bag or wherever make sure you put something in the pocket to help keep the gloves shape. Put a softball, a couple of baseballs, or thick wadded up sock so the glove does not get smashed.

Second: avoid putting glove oil on the leather as this softens the leather too much and makes the cowhide easy to rip and tear prematurely.

Third: keep the glove in a plastic bag like a shoe bag so the leather does not dry out too fast after sweating from your hand.

Fourth add some saddle soap from time to time to keep the leather from scuffing and aging.

Fifth: a little Vaseline helps to keep the interior hand and finger areas from drying out due to the sodium in your perspiration. Check the lacing and the knots to make sure lacing is in good shape. If not you can be your own glove doctor and an expert relace baseball glove.

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Check out how to break in a baseball glove.
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