Proper care and maintenance help extend the life of your Rawlings Gold Series baseball glove for many seasons, but sooner or later you're going to face the problem of broken or brittle laces. Rawlings uses rawhide laces in its Gold Series gloves, and even the finest natural laces last only a few seasons before they start to show signs of wear. Replace broken laces as soon as you spot a problem. The laces provide important support for the fingers and webbing, and using a glove with broken laces can lead to even more expensive repairs.
Step 1
Apply glove oil or leather conditioner to the new laces. Rawlings Gold Series gloves generally have six different laced locations: heel lace, palm lace, web lace, finger and web top lace, thumb lace and pinky lace. You need a separate lace for each. Commercial replacement laces are 24 inches long, and either 1/4-inch or 3/16-inch wide. Gold Series gloves all use 1/4-inch laces.
Step 2
Trim one end of each lace at a 45-degree angle. Leave the other end on each lace square.
Step 3
Study the lacing patterns to see how the replacement laces will thread through the glove. Take digital photos of the laces to help you remember the lacing pattern.
Step 4
Start with the easiest sections to replace: the thumb, palm or pinky laces. Completely re-lace one section before proceeding to the next so you don't get confused by the different lacing patterns.
Step 5
Remove the old lace from one section of the glove, pulling out tough-to-reach and very tight sections with needle-nose pliers. If you need to use scissors to cut loose any lacing, be careful not to damage the glove. Note that some gloves in the Rawlings Gold Glove series have internal padding in the palm, so be careful not to shift the padding out of position when you remove the palm laces.
Step 6
Tie a simple overhand knot in the square end of the replacement lace. Push the angled end of the lace through the first hole in the lacing pattern, and then pull the lace all the way through until the knot stops at the opening.
Step 7
Thread the lace through the lacing pattern, using your digital photo as a reference. Pull the lace tight after threading it through each hole. Make sure the knot at the beginning of the lace remains pulled against the glove as tightly as possible. Push the lace through particularly thick parts of the glove, through tight lace holes and through areas where the palm is padded with a lacing needle.
Step 8
Complete the lacing pattern, and then tie off the lace with another overhand knot. Leave about 1/2 inch of lace beyond each knot. Cut off any excess with scissors.
Step 9
Repeat the lacing process for each section of the glove.
Tips and Warnings
- On some Rawlings Gold Series gloves, the thumb and pinky lacing patterns are very short. Finish these patterns by tying the two ends of the lace together in a single overhand knot. New leather laces stretch over time. Periodically check your glove's laces and pull them tighter when necessary. Check the knots on all laces after a couple of days. The knots may loosen when the leather conditioner you applied to the laces dries.
Things You'll Need
- Digital camera
- 6 rawhide laces, 1/4 inch by 24 inches
- Glove oil or leather conditioner
- Scissors
- Needle-nose pliers
- Lacing needle
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