How To Build A Leather Heel Base

[beachape]

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 Edited December 5, 2010 by beachape

[beachape]

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.

[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

[RobDude30]

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/...1#ht_1142wt_881

I know next to nothing first hand about shoe making, but there is a very tough leather that, I believe, has been compressed and is called sole bends or something similar. Maybe a search on those terms will help you out.

[celticleather]

Ordinary veg-tan leather will probably be too soft for building heel blocks. You need bend leather . . . the type that is used for shoe soles - about 15-16oz. This has been very heavily rolled and compacted and has a wood-like density. The layers of leather should be cut oversize, fastened together with strong adhesive and nails, and then ground down to size on a belt sander.

The top surface of the heel block then needs to be dished to fit onto the shoe upper . . . a flat surface won't mate properly with the underside of the upper.