Tanner's Oath Wood & Leather Salve for Baseball

Tony G. Verified Buyer

My dad told me not to waste my time on his old glove.

My dad told me not to waste my time on his old glove because it had been sitting forever. I cleaned it up and put this on it anyway. He picked it up the next day, started working the pocket with his hand, and asked if I had enough left to do another one.

4.8/5 | Based on 10 500+ Reviews

Tanner's Oath Wood & Leather Salve

Brings back a dried-out, stiff baseball glove, from Dad's old glove in the garage to your kid's gamer and the catcher's mitt, without soaking it in oil, leaving it in the sun, or sending it out.

Feeds dry, grey, stiff leather without soaking it. Goes on thin and stays where your cloth puts it.
Softens stiff fingers, a dead pocket and rawhide laces you can't untie. The same jar does the catcher's mitt, the bat bag and your boots.
No petroleum, no silicone, no solvents. Six plain ingredients.
Buffs dry in ten minutes. No greasy pocket, no bag in the sun, no waiting a week.
Keeps every crease, every scuff and the worn spot in the pocket. It's still his glove.

Tony G. Verified Buyer

My dad told me not to waste my time on his old glove.

Our guarantee

We offer a risk-free 30-day money-back guarantee that begins only when you receive the product!

If you're not happy you can return your order and we'll give you a full refund*.

*Refunds are processed in accordance with our return policy

Shipping Policy

Every order is packed by hand and sent out in batches.

Allow up to 2 days for packing and 7 to 13 days for delivery, based on your location.

Please contact our customer service team for assistance if you have any questions or concerns about your shipment.

What's Included

1x Tanner's Oath Wood & Leather Salve

Buy 2 or more and the Tanner's Oath Wood & Leather Brush comes free.

Disclaimer

Every glove is different. Age, leather type, and earlier oils and conditioners can all affect results.

Always test on a small, hidden area first, such as inside the wrist strap, and allow it to dry completely.

Tanner's Oath products are designed for absorbent leather and finished wood. Not suitable for suede, nubuck, untreated, or synthetic materials.

By purchasing, you acknowledge that Tanner's Oath is not liable for damage resulting from misuse, failure to test, or application on incompatible surfaces.

Watch it work

Dad's gloves, gamers and high school mitts brought back by the people who own them

Their words. Nothing soaked, nothing baked, every crease still where it was. Photos are illustrations.

Before

After

Left is my dad’s old glove the day I finally took it out of the box this spring. It had been sitting in there for probably twenty years. Leather had gone pale and chalky, the fingers were stiff, and the palm looked like it was just done. I didn’t know whether putting anything on it would help or just make a mess of it. I was about ready to put it back in the box and leave it alone. Glad I didn’t. That dark spot in the pocket was there when he was still using it, same with the worn patch down by the heel. I wasn’t trying to get rid of those. That’s Dad’s glove.

Rubbed a little into one side with an old T-shirt right there on the bench. Wasn’t about to cover the whole thing before I knew what it would do. Once I buffed that section out, the difference was obvious, so I finished the rest, let it sit overnight, wiped it down. Right side is the next morning. Didn’t dye anything, didn’t replace a lace. Every mark is still on it, it just looks like a glove somebody plays catch with again instead of one that’s spent twenty years in a box. The brown came back around the fingers, the palm didn’t look so dried out, and that worn patch on the heel is still right there. Same old web, same old pocket, it just looks like he’d have kept it.

Taking it out for a game of catch this weekend. Been a long time since a ball landed in that pocket.

★★★★★Paul N. - Michigan✓ Verified Buyer

Before

After

Right side is my old Rawlings as of Saturday morning. Left side is what it had looked like for the last few seasons. I’ve had that glove since high school, and lately I’d been thinking I might finally have to retire it. The leather had gone dull and pale, the pocket felt dry as hell, and it was getting stiff through the heel where it used to close easy. I didn’t know what to do with it. I’d looked into having it reconditioned and nearly talked myself into buying a new one instead. Couldn’t quite do it. That dark patch in the pocket and the scuff by the thumb have been there for years. I know how this glove closes without even thinking about it. I wasn’t ready to start over.

So it stayed in my bag. Every spring I’d pull it out, work a ball into the pocket, tell myself I needed to do something about the leather, then put it back.

Did this out on the picnic table on a Saturday with an old rag and a cup of coffee. Wiped it down first, then rubbed a little salve into the palm and fingers and let it sit while I had breakfast. Buffed it off and that’s the photo. No dye, no new laces. The scuff by the thumb is still there. The dark spot in the pocket is still there. The color came back and it loosened up without turning floppy. Same old web, same pocket, it just closed the way I remembered. My son picked it up and asked when I’d sent it out to get reconditioned.

Played catch with him that afternoon. Guess I’m getting another season out of my high school glove.

★★★★★Roger K. - Pennsylvania✓ Verified Buyer

Before

After

That’s my grandfather’s old glove. Pulled it out of storage and the leather had gone pale and stiff, especially through the palm and fingers. The heel looked so dried out I figured there wasn’t much left to work with. I’d been leaving it alone because I didn’t want to make it worse. Laid it on a towel on the kitchen table and worked a little of this in with my thumb. The leather started taking it in almost right away. Ten minutes later it looked completely different. The brown was back, and you could still see every crease in that old pocket. The worn patch down by the heel hasn’t gone anywhere either. It just looks like a glove somebody still uses. It’s back in my bag now. I’ve probably pulled it out five times since just to look at it.

★★★★★Todd A. - Indiana✓ Verified Buyer

Before

After

These two gloves had been buried in the bottom of my equipment bag for years. The bag stays in the car, which probably didn’t help. Both had gone stiff and chalky and I figured they were about done. I could barely close either one around a ball. Worked a little of this into both, let it sit, then wiped them down. That’s them on the right, same spot in the trunk. The leather loosened up, the color came back, and that scuff on the black glove is still there. They still look broken-in and beat up, just don’t feel dried out anymore. Both are back in the rotation for playing catch with my boys.

★★★★★Terry S. - Missouri✓ Verified Buyer

Before

After

This was my grandfather’s glove from the ’50s and I wasn’t trying to make it look new. It was his. But the leather had gone dull and stiff from sitting all those years, the palm especially, and I wasn’t sure how much could be done with it. Wiped it down, rubbed a little of this in by hand, let it sit overnight. Right photo is the next morning. The brown came back, the leather feels better, and every crease and worn spot is still there, which is what I wanted. Not new. His. That dark mark on the thumb and the worn spot on the finger haven’t gone anywhere. I’m glad they didn’t.

★★★★★Gary F. - Wisconsin✓ Verified Buyer

The glove as found on a garage shelf: grey, dusty, stiff

Bring Dad's Glove Back Without Soaking It in Oil

Leather stiff as cardboard. A pocket gone grey and dusty. Laces so stiff you can't untie them. Sound familiar?

Everyone at the field has the same two answers: oil it and bag it, or retire it and buy a new one. There's a third one, and it's simpler than both. Clean the leather. Feed it. Seal it thin.

Tanner's Oath™ is that third answer, and it is not a soak. Nothing gets drenched, baked, steamed, or pounded. The leather stays the leather, and the creases, the scuffs and the worn spot in the pocket stay exactly where they've always been.

Wipe it on, wait ten minutes, buff it off. Not a week in a zip-lock bag. Back on your hand, or back on the shelf, the same evening.

Feed the leather. Keep the history.

A glove on a truck tailgate, taped down the middle: treated on one side, dried out on the other

A dried-out glove isn't worn out. It's missing the oils that sweat, dirt and years in a hot garage pulled out of it. Thin glove oil feeds it but soaks right through to the padding. The cheap conditioner stays on top but is gone in a few days. Neither one does both.

Tanner's Oath™ does.

First, cold-pressed jojoba, shea, and hemp seed oil work into the leather and put back what dried out. That's why the color returns instead of getting painted on.

Then, beeswax and carnauba set a thin layer on top that buffs dry to the touch.

Thin glove oil

Easy to over-apply. It soaks right through the leather, and that's how a glove ends up heavy with soggy padding.

Petroleum jelly

The old forum trick. It works in a pinch, and it's easy to put half a jar into a glove before you notice.

Tanner's Oath

Wipes on thin, buffs dry in ten minutes. No bag, no sun, no oven. Do it again before every season for as long as you own the glove.

One jar. The glove, the gear, and the years in between.

An old fielder's glove on the infield grass

Fielder's gloves

A catcher's mitt on the dirt beside home plate

Catcher's mitts

Close-up of a glove's woven web and rawhide laces

Laces and webbing

A leather bat bag on a mudroom bench with two wood bats in it

Bat bags

Leather work boots and a coiled leather belt by the door

Boots and belts

An old wood bat on a shelf with two old baseballs

Old wood bats

Dry, grey, stiff gloves and mitts
A dull, dusty pocket and palm
Gloves put away dirty and wet (wipe first)
Stiff rawhide laces
Leather bat bags, belts, work boots
Old wood bats that live on the shelf: light coat on the wood

Leather baseball and softball gloves of any age, from this season's gamer to a glove from the '50s.

Not for

Torn leather or a blown-out web

Broken laces

Synthetic or vinyl gloves

Game bats

If it needs a relace, it needs a relace. This is for everything else.

What's in the jar, and what isn't

Jojoba oilShea butterHemp seed oilBeeswaxCarnauba waxVitamin EThat's the list.

No petroleum distillates

So it's plant oils, butter and wax going into a glove your kid wears all summer.

No silicone

So nothing slick is left sitting in the pocket.

No solvents, no heavy scent

So you can do it at the kitchen table.

It goes on clear and deepens the color the way a wet rag does, then settles as it buffs. On a tan or blonde glove, test a small spot inside the wrist strap first.

The jar beside its six ingredients and an old glove

Glove, then laces

Wiping the dust and dirt off a dried-out glove with a damp cloth

Wipe it down

A barely damp cloth takes off the infield dirt, the dust and the old oil. Let it dry.

Rubbing a thin coat into the pocket with the fingertips, the open jar beside the glove

Thin coat, pocket first

A fingertip's worth at a time. Pocket and palm, then the fingers and the back.

The coated glove resting on a towel with the open jar beside it

Wait ten minutes

Let it go into the leather. Do the laces while you wait.

Buffing the glove dry with a clean cloth, a baseball waiting beside it

Buff dry

A clean cloth, until nothing comes off on your hand. Then put a ball in the pocket.

The heel lacing of a conditioned glove, a ball resting against it

The laces

Run a little along the rawhide with your fingers and work it into the knots. Wipe off what's left and let the glove sit overnight. Out of the bag. A glove zipped away dirty and wet is how it got this stiff in the first place.

The only thing you can't undo is too much oil

Glove oil that left it heavy. Conditioner that was gone by the weekend. A bottle that says "use sparingly" and never says how much that is. A new glove that costs $250 and a season to break in. You've heard all of it at the field.

This goes on thin and the extra wipes back off, so there's nothing to undo. And if the glove doesn't come back, you get the money back within 30 days. Full refund.

30 days. Full refund.

Send a photo of the glove. We refund the jar. That's the whole policy.

Questions from the dugout

Will it darken my glove?

It deepens the color while it's on, the way a wet rag does, then settles as it buffs. Most dried-out gloves end up a shade richer than they were, closer to the color they had before they went grey. There's no dye in it. On a tan or blonde glove, test a small spot inside the wrist strap and look at it dry before you do the rest.

Will it make my glove heavy?

A glove gets heavy when thin oil soaks through to the padding. This is a wax salve. It goes on thin, stays where your cloth puts it, and you buff off what's left. Use a fingertip's worth at a time, not a spoonful.

Will it leave the pocket greasy, or clog the leather with wax?

Wipe it on thin, wait ten minutes, buff until nothing comes off on your hand. What's left is a light, dry wax finish on top of fed leather. If you can see it sitting on the surface, you've used too much: wipe it back.

Is a wood and leather salve really made for a glove?

A glove is thick steerhide or cowhide, the same kind of leather as a saddle or a good boot. When it dries out it needs the same thing: oil back in, wax over the top, and not too much of either. Read the list. Six ingredients, and none of them is a solvent or a petroleum product.

Can I use it to break in a new glove?

It softens and feeds new leather, so a thin coat in the pocket and along the hinge helps while you play catch with it. It won't do the catching for you. Shaping a pocket still takes a ball and time.

My glove was put away dirty and wet. Will it fix that?

Clean first, then feed. Wipe the dirt off with a damp cloth and let the glove dry at room temperature, away from a heater. The salve feeds leather; it doesn't clean it. Once the glove is clean and dry, yes.

Does it work on synthetic or vinyl gloves?

No. Plastic has nothing to feed. A lot of first gloves for small kids are synthetic, so check the tag. Save the jar for the leather one.

What about the laces?

Dry, stiff rawhide laces, yes. Run a little along them with your fingers and work the knots. A lace that has snapped needs replacing. Salve can't fix that.

Does it fix cracks or tears?

No. Dry surface cracking usually looks better once the leather is fed, but the cracks are still there. A tear or a blown-out web needs a glove repair shop.

How is this different from glove oil, petroleum jelly, or a glove cream?

Thin oils are easy to overdo and soak through to the padding. Petroleum jelly is petroleum. Some conditioners look good for a day and are gone by the weekend. This is plant oils to feed the leather with beeswax and carnauba on top to hold it there, and it buffs dry in ten minutes.

Why pay this when glove oil is five dollars?

Because the five-dollar bottle is still in the bat bag, half full, and the glove is still stiff. A new one like it is $250 and a season of breaking in. One jar does every glove in the house, the bat bag and your boots, and if it doesn't bring them back, you get the money back.

Can I use it on a bat?

Not on a game bat. A finished maple or ash bat doesn't need it, and you don't want anything slick on the handle. On an old wood bat that lives on the shelf, yes: a thin coat on dry wood, buffed off.

How often do I apply it, and how much does one glove take?

Once when it comes out of the bag in spring, once before it goes away for the winter. More if it lives in a hot trunk. A fingertip does a pocket, so one jar goes a long way.