I restored a 1920's Leedy Pedal and Beater.

See pic of the inner wrappings.

Lambs wool came from Joan fabrics.

Baseball came from ?

I think I stitched with dental floss.

I don't usually replace the felt on old bass drum beaters but I do often clean the really old hard felt ones with a Clorox pen used for spot removal. I have also poured straight Clorox in a metal shot glass and used paper towels to clean particularly gray or discolored beaters. You have to let it dry for a whole day and may have to repeat for the worse cases. If nothing else, it makes the moths mad... Here is one (Wurlitzer?) that was pretty bad and cleaned up fairly well. This was only one treatment.

Thanks, any ideas on removing and reinstalling the metal cup on top of the beater? The felt beater itself is disintegrating and in really bad shape but I like the metal cup on top because it says Ludwig & Ludwig Chicago on the top.

I don't think you can get the metal cup off (and back on) very easily without a risk of messing up its shape. I have not done it, but I would think it would be better to cut the beater portion off of the metal rod with the cup in place and put a replacement felt disk back on via a slit to the center of the new felt beater ball. Then you can cover it like Green_Glass did with either a single seam in the middle of one side or a seam at both top and bottom. Is your felt in such bad shape that it won't make the sound that you want? It looks to me like a beater from a very early Ludwig Junior pedal and I personally would leave it just as it is unless it is really not functional and you want it to be more playable. You also can consider just covering the felt portion as it is with a piece of white felt and sew it in place. You can even double the thickness of the felt if you want a more mellow sound. Good luck!

The end of the shaft is turned down to provide a step. The hole in the washer is the same size as the step. The felt was slid on and then the washer was then placed over the step and then the part of the shaft that stuck out was peened over to hold the washer in place. If you want to replace the felt in once piece the only real way would be to reverse what they did when they made it. Grind off the peened over part so you can slide the washer off. They you can put the felt over the shaft. You may have to grind down the shaft to lengthen or recreate the step down in the shaft. Put the washer back on and peen the end of the shaft back over the washer. If that doesn't make sense I could put together a quick drawing.

Thanks again for the suggestions. It is from a Ludwig junior pedal. Thin Shell, I was thinking about your suggestion and I may be able to grind off the top of the shaft where it was peened. I also have a peening tool from a repair I did on a cow bell bracket.

He's correct. This is the solution. But I think that you can depress the felt ball enough to re-peen the shaft, especially with a new felt beater that hasn't hardened and crumbled like mine.

I ground the peen off with a Dremel Tool. I think I’ll try the bleach on the felt while I figure out where to get a new one. I’ll use some evapo-rust on the metal and see how it comes out.

So you have a step down in diameter all the way down to the bottom washer so all you will have to do will be press down the washer over the old felt and peen it down.

Finding the felt may be a challenge. You may have to buy another beater to scavenge the felt ball from. DW makes a beater that is shorter than most so it may work as a replacement provided the diameter is large enough.

DW DWSM103 Medium Felt Bass Drum Beater

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/DWSM103--dw-dwsm103-medium-felt-bass-drum-beater?mrkgadid=984185277&mrkgcl=28&mrkgen=gdsa&mrkgbflag=0&mrkgcat=generic&&acctid=21700000001645388&dskeywordid=39700048800210508&lid=39700048800210508&ds_s_kwgid=58700005371980883&device=c&network=g&matchtype=b&locationid=9008686&creative=452849193011&targetid=dsa-824852042819&campaignid=6730319002&gclsrc=aw.ds&&mrkgcl=28&mrkgadid=984185277&rkg_id=0&campaigntype=dsa&campaign=aaDSA&adgroup=984185277:DSA%20-%20Product&placement=google&adpos=&creative=452849193011&device=c&matchtype=b&network=g&gclid=Cj0KCQjws536BRDTARIsANeUZ5-vUgKszBbHL8dioeJbrNkwT8Kz8zDx_x8geWTML_Ao8eQmQ16p6AsaAvnZEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds