I’ve heard that people will a glove in the oven to help soften it. Let’s take a look at what happens to the leather.

Glove leather has about 25% moisture content when new. That moisture content is what determines the suppleness and pliability of the leather. Warming the leather in an oven, will cause a rapid acceleration of that moisture. The speed at which it evaporates depends on how hot the oven gets and for how long the glove is exposed to heat. Also, consider that an oven is a very dry place also accelerating evaporation. So, it’s not a very good idea.

The concept of heating a glove does have merit. However, too much heat is not a good thing. What does work is to apply the proper glove oil or break-in product before the glove is put into a mildly warm oven like on a proofing setting which is usually about 120 degrees fahrenheit, if your oven has that setting. But even then it can be a bit too hot.

What happens then is the pores of the leather open a bit due to the heat, and the conditioning oil or break-in product reduces in viscosity so the leather will absorb the proper moisturizing material more readily.

The trick is the temperature. Most ovens don’t have a low enough setting. So even on its lowest setting it will be too hot for the glove.

You’re much better off with a mild warming, like the small ice chest with the warmed rice bags discussed in the Great Break-in Process for a New Glove blog post.

Of course it matters what you apply to the glove as well. The quality and type of the material you use will have a impact on effectiveness. Read through other blog posts here to find what to avoid and what really works.

The quality Advanced Leather Solutions puts into the it manufacture of the Mitt-Spit product line of baseball care products is an example of what should be used on a baseball glove to improve the leather for the long term life of the glove. Whereas the