new_look

Few questions for you expert shoe repairers

Ive just recently bought a nice pair of blocks, but as they are, theyre quite noisy. Can the repair shops put a rubber sole on the heel to make them quiet, or any ideas DIY??

Also im wanting to stretch a pair of stiletto boots. They have a point toe, and the standard 'Firefox' stretchers wont fit anywhere near into the shoe properly. The material is the sort of fake leather, not sure of the name.

thx
Daz

Dr. Shoe

I assume that you have hard plastic tips.

Remove them and replace with pads fashioned from rubber matting?

Dr. Shoe

It is awkward to stretch "pony hair" without ripping it. Try stuffing the toe with damp paper and then holding it over steam. Keep repeating the process being careful not to let it get too much out of shape. You could spray some leather stretcher inside before you start.

All shoes have stiff plastic forming the shape of the toe-box and the kind of plastic used is a thermal plastic which softens when heat is applied which is how the original shape is formed in the factory.

Firefox

Rubbing alcohol is as good as stretching spray, in fact gin or vodka is effective too and much cheaper than the spray considering you can get a 70cl bottle for £5.00 from Tesco.

If you find the difference between your foot size as on the stretcher shape and the pair in boots in question is too big, so you cant get the stretcher in initially, you may have to make an intermediate toe piece which is 4-6mm smaller all round. Then you force the toe out to this shape which will then allow you to swap over to the full size toe piece on the stretcher. Swaping over the different size toe pieces is easily done with the three screws on my standard stretcher version.

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Ionic

It's good we've got the modification forum active again:

What is rubbing alcohol please and where do you get it?

I do have a drop of 60% by vol. Ouzo left over from a trip to Rhodes - sounds a better use than actually trying to drink it!! If you get a scent of aniseed from the next passer by, you will know who it is!! :rofl:
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FF, thanks for explaining how your stretchers can be made into a modular system ~ and that you don't need to make an entire second unit.
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Doc, would your damp paper and gentle steaming method work on the toe box of artificial leather shoes/boots which are tricky as FF has explained elsewhere.

/I

Firefox

I think rubbing alcohol is sold for medical/cleaning uses, about 50% strength. I don't know where to get it though. Ouzo is not recommended. It's not only the smell, but some of those spirits like that can evapourate leaving a sticky sugar residue. If you are not sure, then leave half a small shot glass hanging around and see what happens when it evapourates. If it leaves crystals or a sticky residue, you know not to use it.

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hoverfly

Rubbing alcohol is a form of fast evaporating wood (if I remember corectly), alcohol that it's evaporation rate depends on the percentage of water that comes with it. The more water in it the slower it evaporates, 50% to 95 % alcohol the rest water. This type is commonly used for sterilizing/cleaning instruments and on the skin (topical, it's called, I think) for instance, like injections. It's also recommended to be applied on non broken skin because it stings like no tomorrow if applied on an open wound. It also used to relive inching from insect bites, poison ivy, ect and it can be used to cool the body down. I my self use to thin out epoxy glue when needed. Oh yeah one more thing, it's made so you can't drink it. :drinking:

You should be able to get it from your local grocery, and/or drug store. If you want to get a large amount like a gallon jug, talk to a pharmacist.

I found that using water for shoes that require a lot of stretching works the best. Just soak the shoe/boot in hot tap water for a few minutes. Stretch them, and let them air dry. This can take as much as 48 hours to completely dry if you intend to wear them. You don't have to let them dry completely if you still need to stretch them again.

However, rubbing alcohol works, but in my opinion it is most effective in light to mild stretching. It takes a lot of rubbing alcohol for heavy stretching and at that point I see it as not worth the money.

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Dr. Shoe

Actually, water can have a shrinking effect on leather. I only use the damp newspaper because (in theory) the moisture turns to steam and assists the reshaping process of the toe box.

It should work on PU shoes especially well because the PU itself is more stretchy than leather normally is but can easily tear and will have the same thermo-plastic material.

hoverfly

This is true, if you remove the width stretcher before letting the whole shoe/boot dry off completely it will shrink back allot, so just leave the stretcher in until it completly dries. But if you intend to do width stretching in multiple steps you don't have to wait for the leather to dry completely since you are going to get it wet again.

But after some time the leather will shrink a little bit, so if you are a little over size then it will shrink enough where you won't have to do it again. So don't panic if the shoe/boot is a bit to lose on fit. But if it tightens up to much on your foot then you will have to stretch them again but not as if you were starting from scratch. In this case rubbing alcohol might work.

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new_look

so i should stuff the shoe with damp paper, would this be enough to put the pressure on the shoe to stretch it. I dont seem to have had much luck constructing the wooden stretchers, my craftsmanship is a bit poor. Saying that you dont really get much practice working in a bank :d