digups

Ah yes those are the pointy ones - my bad.

has anyone had any experience with removing the black paint from the sides of the crepe soles on desert boots?

Just stumbled across this single pair on ebay.

First time I've seen them like this, but apparently they are (have been?) around.

Bumped your supermarket thread Dunkin.

Why you want to sell the browns is beyond me. Have two pairs myself and I would have tripled if these were my size.

Nice selection sir.

Bippity... wearing the browns as we speak, got the tans as well.

Would have tripled up on both of them if they were my size.

Don't hesitate.

*Blatant selling post edited*

Great thread people.

About the packaging of the Russells: I wouldn't mind that box either.

On the contrary: I tend to like it better than yet another exercise in expensive branding. We are constantly being bombarded with marketing and packaging bogus that distracts from the products themselves. Not here. To me, that plain box says "no bells and whistles, these boots speak for themselves".

Stripped the toes of these dark brown leather Desert Boots.

The glossy coating on the otherwise decent leather just didn't work for me.

I was looking for an oiled nubuck finish, so I attacked the toes with magic sponges and isopropyl alcohol to get the topcoat off. After stripping and drying I treated them with leather oil. That's all.

They went a nice dull chocolate brown. It turned out slightly patchy but not in a bad way.

I will eventually strip and oil the whole shoe, just thought I'd share this stage.

^ Probably the same shoes.

unfortunately none of them are padmore and barnes.

cant win them all...

To my knowledge P&B never produced any Desert Boots.

The vintage Dessies I've seen were all made in England, not the Republic of Ireland.

Loving those Chestnuts.

Found this thread about plantation crepe on a shoemaker's forum.

Interesting read.

___________________________________________________________________

I have come to appreciate genuine plantation crepe, after understanding it better. Paul,I too put crepe repairs off till it was unbearable. But I had a slew of clients with Wallabees in the 70’s and 80’s, so had to solve the riddle of removing material, and bonding the geniuine crepe.

Removing is easy, and you are right, Paul. Just dip your sharp long knife in water frequently while cutting. Lift the cut material from the uncut as you go. It is not quite like "cutting butter", but manageable.

There are a few secrets to bonding I discovered, but all so simple it is hard to believe. The first clue is rubber cement - the old type that was made with plantation crepe trimmings thrown into a bucket of solvent, naptha or the like, in many shops. (Rubber cement sticks to itself!)

Try this: take two pieces of genuine crepe and sand one surface of each piece then immediately hammer (or press) the sanded surfaces together before they cool. You will not be able to seperate them after hamering! No cement or chemicals needed when bonding crepe to crepe! The bond is incredibly strong if you join two the virgin crepe surfaces while still warm from sanding. There is a chemical method of bonding crepe to crepe, but results of the above method are so good, I stopped experimenting with chemicals.

___________________________________________________________________

From The Crispin Colloquy

http://www.thehcc.org/discus/messages/4/6758.html

http://www.thehcc.org/cgi-bin/discus/discus.cgi

the second guy from the left, chubby, leaning against the door...

anyone have an idea of what kind/who makes that trench coat?

Aquascutum makes a similar jacket called Oldenburgh, only seen it in navy though.

http://www.aquascutum.com/product_info.php/cPath/1_190_193/products_id/879

no idea if you can clean these but if anyone wants to take a shot, let me know.

- 1. Clean them with Saddle Soap and Water. Air dry. Go to sleep or practice patience.

- 2. Brush them with sparse amounts of Nutbrown-ish Shoe Cream. Allow the stuff to sink in.

- 3. Polish them with an Old T-shirt and Clear Hard Wax.

Done.

*Edit*

Stuff them with shoe trees all the while.

Those might be of some vintage, but I don't think they're Irish.

*Edit*

Not entirely sure though. Anyone have an Irish pair with an insole print like this?

^ They are great winter shoes, but when it gets really tough with heavy downpour or snow I'd wear a heavy boot instead.

By the way.

I love cheap Buy it Nows.

Maybe they are only putting the bigger sizes on sale because those are harder to shift.

Looks like it (and I hope so)

Those are the same ones that are on the uk uniqlo website. And they have lots in stock. In all the colours.

No they don't.

http://www.uniqlo.co.uk/catalogue/men/trousers/79089-brown-vintage-flat-front-chinos

Not anymore.

^

It's rare to see them well listed like that, with all the "right" keywords.

Seeing that I almost passed... but I bid on the Weavers anyway in the end. Was akward to see them pass the $100 mark. I'm not used to those kind of prices.

Let's delete this thread shall we.

Fantastic weaverage gents.

Dope.

Liking the ribbed crepe on those dark plaintoes, first time I've seen that.

Weaver slip-ons don't look good with shorts (not my pic).

On the other hand I never saw Weaver slip-ons before.

it's actually totally normal on irish wallabees for the edges of the soles to pull away from the upper...pretty much all of mine have done that. it's not a problem tho because the top part of the crepe sole, close to the edge, is actually stitched to the upper.

Werd, some of mine have that as well.

They won't come apart any further because of the moccasin stitching, which is the main bond between (mid)sole and uppers.

This abstracted chap actually shows that moccasin stitching...

^ heh........

i've never had my soles crack, but that's a bummer. if I were you i'd try to flex the crack open slightly, squeeze some shoe goo in there, and then devise a way to keep the crack closed (maybe just use a shoe horn) while the shoe goo dries

Tried exactly that... kept the crack closed with shoe tree inside and a tie wrap along the midsole.

After drying, they held up for one day.

The problem occurs on dried crepe, under the ball of the foot where most of the flexing happens.

The same flexing happens after gooeing... causing them to crack again.

Haven't found a glue that can cope with that, even my cobbler said it was unrepairable (except for a whole new expensive sole unit).

To prevent cracking, every new pair gets baked in the oven at the lowest temperature, wrapped in aluminum foil.

Really happy with this method btw.

^

^ Washed them with saddle soap and water and a microfiber cloth.

Let them dry and then brushed on a slightly darker shoe cream that went well with the cognac uppers.

Then took an old cotton t-shirt and some hard clear wax and polished them (this process takes most of the coloured cream off again).

Finally lightly polished them again with a few drops of white spirit (turpentine) on the same cloth, this gives a nice sheen (not a glossy one).

Yeah I have two pairs that cracked accross the outsole. Tried rubber cement but that only holds for a day or so.

*Edit* still wear them hard though, in dry weather. Rocking my cracked and beat up brown suedes as we speak.

^ I'm well pleased mate.

The leather quality is insane, the kind that develops the most amazing patina.

I like treating my leather shoes with creams and waxes and such, and I love working with these. These just got their second polish and they look better than a new pair now.

Pretty stoked.

Anyone else do maintenance to their Clarks?