Baseball guy, new to the forum.

[LemonBall]

Hi,

I'm thrilled to have found this forum and I look forward to learning from the vast body of knowledge represented here.

My specialty is hand stitched vintage style baseballs, but I'm also teaching myself the craft of baseball glove design and construction.

I expect that I will pop up periodically with specific question. I'd also love to hear from anyone that has expertise in making baseball gloves.

Thanks,

Paul

[Hedge]

Welcome aboard, Paul!

Now, that's one I hadn't thought about...baseball stitching. Neat!

Hey, I heard they don't make the covers out of horse hide anymore. Is that true?

[abn]

Paul, I don't know of anyone else here that's building baseball equipment... But who knows, maybe your post will prompt someone to speak up!

I enjoyed browsing the custom baseballs on your Etsy site. Please be sure to post some pics of your glove when you finish one.

Welcome! Alex

[LemonBall]

Thanks for your kind words,

I'll only post photos of projects that I'm proud of

Hedge,

They stopped using horsehide for baseballs back in the early '70's

[Rayban]

Paul...for the longest time I've been thinking of taking a baseball apart and carving some leather, and stitching it back together....using the white leather as a pattern for the "new one"..would I be on the right track?

[Regis]

Paul,

Welcome to the forum. You've got an interesting skill there.

[Beaverslayer]

Great to have you here Paul, like the rest have said, very interesting talent. Would love to see some pictures posted.

Good luck on the glove design and making, I once relaced one, and I'm not sure I want to do that again.

Ken

[LemonBall]

Paul...for the longest time I've been thinking of taking a baseball apart and carving some leather, and stitching it back together....using the white leather as a pattern for the "new one"..would I be on the right track?

That's a good place to start, but it's hard to get the new cover to fit tightly. There would be a bit of trial and error involved. For a traditional Major League baseball, the cover is damp when it is applied. It stretches considerably and then shrinks down as it dries forming neatly to the core. The problems with using the original cover as a pattern is that it doesn't lie flat or true.

My advice is to soak the original cover, Press it flat and let it dry. Then, scan it into your computer. Then, take the scanned image and reduce it by 2%. This would give you a slightly smaller pattern with the stitch holes in the right places. From there, you can expand or reduce the pattern to suit your needs.

I hope this helps,

Paul

[LBCOW]

Welcome

I too would love to see some of your work

sounds interesting

how did you get started in this?

[Misfits]

Show us! I'm a baseball fanatic. I know I would like to see your work.

Thanks,

John

[LemonBall]

At this point, I don't have any gloves to show, but you can see some of my vintage style baseballs by following this link:

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5430058

Edited April 9, 2008 by LemonBall

[Don101]

Hi Paul welcome to the forum, that sure is interesting stuff you are doing there, Don

[LemonBall]

Hi everyone,

After much trial, error and learning, I finally have a glove to show off.

I am the the Sr. Glove Craftsman at a small baseball glove company in NJ called Akadema Professional, Inc.

Most of the gloves we sell are made at a big Asian factory. I was hired to start up a U.S. glove factory.

While my leather skills are good, and I have a lot of baseball experience, I'm new to actually making gloves.

I'm really pleased with the early results and I expect full scale production in a couple of months.

Thanks for looking.

[esantoro]

Hi Paul,

Where are you finding good glove leather?

ed