100 year old Pigskin Restored

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  • kjjavic
    Senior Member
    • Dec 2005
    • 167

    100 year old Pigskin Restored

    Hello guys,
    I shared this football as a pickup about a year and a half ago. I picked it up at an estate auction mixed in a box of junk. From the same estate auction, I also acquired about 5 team photos, and a bunch of other ephemera from a school called St. Marks, which is a college prep school in Southboro Mass. In addition, I won a 1907 Yale team photo and a Saint Marks football sweater in amazing condition.

    The football was my favorite pickup, and is a Spalding J5 melon ball, but was in pretty poor condition, with the bladder in pieces, and the ball sucked in on itself. The ball has the year 07 painted on 1 side, and on the other the score of a game between St Marks and Milton Academy, and the date October 14, 1907.

    Recently I saught the advice of someone who restores vintage sports items, and decided to have him restore it for me. And I must say, I am thrilled with the results. He did fantastic work and updated me every couple of days with the progress he made including photos showing the process.

    I love the ball even more now, and it displays so much better, and I love the old melon shape.

    I highly recommend the restorer and you can see some of his other work here:


    Below are some before and afters.






  • slidekellyslide
    Senior Member
    • Aug 2005
    • 458

    #2
    Re: 100 year old Pigskin Restored

    That looks great Keith. Can you take us through the steps to how it was restored?

    Comment

    • MGHProductions
      Senior Member
      • Oct 2005
      • 266

      #3
      Re: 100 year old Pigskin Restored

      Thats an awesome restore job!! Ball looks awesome!!

      Comment

      • kjjavic
        Senior Member
        • Dec 2005
        • 167

        #4
        Re: 100 year old Pigskin Restored

        First, he removed the bladder which was falling apart. Then I believe he cleaned the leather with a leather cleaner called Lexol. He then filled the ball with a lightweight filler to give it its shape, relaced it, and used some sort of leather polish to finish off the job. I am probably skipping steps, but I think thats the jist of it.

        Comment

        • HiNeighbor
          Member
          • Nov 2005
          • 60

          #5
          Re: 100 year old Pigskin Restored

          What a beautiful restoration.

          Very nice job.

          Greg

          Comment

          • vintagesportscollector
            Senior Member
            • Nov 2005
            • 229

            #6
            Re: 100 year old Pigskin Restored

            Sweet ball Keith- I want to get myself one like that!!

            -Joe

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