beachape

No responses yet. But I'm guessing that I need heavy vegetable tanned tooling leather. I'm only going to need a small quantity, so I was thinking about ordering some scraps from here. Does this sound about right? Any better deals for heavy leather that would be appropriate? http://cgi.ebay.com/SCRAP-LEATHER-HEAVY-VEG-Vegetable-Tan-Large-Pcs-5-SF-/260365039281?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3c9ef736b1#ht_1142wt_881

I did some more searching at it seems that you also need to finish with "burnishing wax." Still not sure what the first finishing liquid he uses is...probably an edge dressing. Any advise appreciated, especially suggestions where to buy appropriate leather for this.

Hello, I took a pair of men's Allen Edmonds dress shoes that used to have a stacked heel ( leather, wood, and rubber top lift) to get repaired. They ended up getting repaired with a full rubber heel which I don't enjoy very much. I am trying to DIY remove the rubber heel and build a leather heel base and put on a toplift. I've already got the materials to put on a rubber toplift. I have a number of questions though. 1) Any tricks to prying off an old heel (full rubber with nails)? 2) Would a leather heel base be less noisy than a wooden one? 3) Where can I get leather suitable for building a heel base? 4) I'm assuming that the process for building would be to remove old heel, sand down the area on the sole where the heel is applied, cut out two layers of leather in the shape of the heel, and apply them with cement. Sand, buff, and apply edge dressing. Then apply toplift. Is this correct or totally off? Thanks all! Update: This Youtube video on shoe making which shows some steps. Unfortunately I couldn't find any instructions with the video. . It shows a series of steps of adding layer of leather, triming/sanding them then adding nails. He does a bunch of steps to finish the heels, which looks like some sort of edge dressing, and some wax. If anyone knows what those are that would be helpful. Thanks

Thanks for all your help. I really wish there was more info out there for shoe repair. It seems a belt sander is the way to go.

Sorry, It seems I wasn't clear. Essentially what I'm doing it using a knife to cut rubber. What I want to do is get a smooth finish on the rubber as opposed to the scraped/cut look of the rubber as it currently stands. I've been trying to use sand paper by hand to get a smooth finished edge...but it isn't working. It looks pretty rough even with the 160 grit. Even then it doesn't really work well at sanding down the rubber. I was wondering if anyone has experience trying to sand down a hard rubber, and what tools they used to get a smooth edge.

Hello, I realize this is a bit of a stretch from leather-work, but I bet you folks may have some good suggestions. Can't seem to find any shoe repair forums that provide useful DIY information. I'm trying to replace top-lifts (the top rubber layer of the heel) on a pair of men's dress shoes. This just means peeling off the old layer, sanding down the wool part of the heel putting on some contact cement and attaching a new rubber layer. Then you trim off the excess rubber. The part I need help with is the final sanding or "finishing" of the edges of the rubber. After trimming with a knife, it doesn't look so great. I've tried 100 and 150 grit sandpaper...but it doesn't really do much. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to smooth out or put a good finished edge on this hard rubber? I was thinking maybe getting a dremel sanding/polishing bit and working with my drill. Not sure if this would work. Thanks!