new_look

yes times have changed. only a month ago i was here questioning how to make my block heels quiet. But after the london meet, i realised that quiet heels take away some of the fun.

My stilettos have plastic heels which i usually replace. When the plastic wers away the metal rod throuogh the middle comes into contact with the ground and makes the very nise metal on concrete sound that i want, but i know that leaving it like this will damage it eventaully. Can you have the usual plastic tip replaced with something metal, or any homemade ideas?

daz

Ionic

Firefox is your man for this one!!

good to see you in the mods forum again, Daz.

/I

Skirted-UK

If you can't get the proper steel heel tips I suggest that you use round head self-tapping stainless steel screws if the heel tips are small.
Some years ago when heel tips were wider I made some 1" wide steel heel tips out of 1/4" steel flat rod. I glued and screwed them on with self-tapping screws, it was a lot of work making them but they outlasted the shoes.

Dr. Shoe

Any traditional style shoe repairer will replace the plastic "top piece" with a metal one. One note, those boots I was wearing the other weekend have plastic tips and I once had Achilles try and replace them with metal tips but they the heels were in danger of breaking so we had to leave them as they are. Later I may get the entire heels replaced.

new_look

Mm back in the mods forum indeed. i like to get around :d

anyway...
i remember my mum used to have metal heels on her old court shoes. she used to go to this old cobbler but hes shut now.

by traditional do you mean the normal shoe repair shops wont do this?

would walking on the metal rod of the heel damage it??

daz

chris100575

Eventually, yes. My ex g/f had a pair of boots that she continued to wear after the plastic heel tips came off, and it wrecked the heels. The plastic surrounding the steel core wore away, and the leather began to peel where it was hitting the ground at the back of the heel and not being protected by the tip. She did manage to get them repaired, but it was at the expense of 1/2" as the bottom damaged section had to be removed.

My mum always used to have metal tips fitted when she had her shoes re-heeled and she just used to go to the local shoe repair place, so hopefully they're fairly easy to find. The plastic tips on my boots are showing signs of wear, and I plan to have metal tips fitted when they need replacing.

Ionic

Hi Caz, in my 'museum department', the handful of '80s stilettos mostly have metal tips but these alone don't solve all problems. I have one modest Faith 3.5" stiletto in a bright colour (one of the very few notional size8s I found in that period, a touch small still) where the metal tip has actually begun to drive itself through into plastic moulding of the right heel proper.

And this didn't happen from walking outdoors at all either! I had access to a small factory at weekends and I expect this damage was caused by very limited walking about on the concrete floor there.
_

As for making your block heels noiser, I've been working on that for you too! :P
Collecting some eBay trophy boots from the heel bar (opposite the fancy French cheese shop that Jamie Oliver visited in one of his early programmes and the real reason for going 'up the hill' - gggggg) they had a rack with lots of shoe care stuff, laces, insoles, dyes, polish and for you a whole range of metal tips for toes and heels of different shapes and sizes for men and women.

They go under the brand name of Blakey's shoe protectors and are made near you in Armley, Leeds. You tap them in yourself with a small hammer and will be really noisey on your block heels; they'll also save you £6 in the heel bar too, the outrageous price in London!

On Saturday night, I went out to the Indian take-away in some 3.5" Gaucho style Brazilian boots, my current maximum for comfort. They made quite a clack amongst all the people going out for the evening, it was quite busy. I was glad it was dark and plenty of traffic about. My return journey had another couple walking in pace with me (she in her moderate 3.5" evening shoes) and I'm virtually certain she spotted me before I gained distance on them. I also flashed them a bit waiting in the take-away but no-one noticed me there.
I rather enjoyed it all nevertheless. I've not braved the daylight in these yet.

/I

[P.S. visit Leatherworks and the posh French cheese shop on same trip!!! Same pricing policy too.... :( ]

gauze

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lorriette

Larger branches of Woolworths used to sell packs of replacement tips, complete with two different pins in about six fittings ie. 1/4,3/8 etc.maked as A,B etc., and with a shaded heel profile on the packet that you could use to pick the required pack[2 pair]. My local branch was refubished a couple of years back and don't seem to stock them now. Pity, I could do with some more A size!

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feel the mood

hart88

we have a previous topic discussions on this heels question

You who have said you want noisier heels, and you say you have found them? WHERE?
in my 36 years of business, I have maybe seen 1 or two people who have had high heels with metal tips...

Most of the stiletto heels come with a pin lift or Dowel pin lift or Peg lift.
(different names I have heard.) there are different widths of the steel pin, and many sizes of rubber molded onto the pin. See Illustration below.

A lot of the stiletto heels have a steel metal tube that is in the core of the heel and is usually the length of the heel block.

The heels with the metal tube usually have a pin lift (a molded rubber compound that is molded onto a metal pin...) Some are hard plastic, some are a nylon rubber... They have to be somewhat hard, other wise you will ruin the heel immediately.

Some heels have a long dowel pin heel that is as long as the heel is tall. (from one inch to 4 inches) The reason for that is for strength. Those used to be easier to repair if you wore them down too far, all we have to do is pinch off some of the plastic and pull the metal spike out and level the plastic heel, fix some of the damage to the heel cover, and drive a new spike into the heel and trim to fit.

The shorter pins are different now, because some of the tubes are Aluminum, not steel. (to make them cheaper? or less weight?) To get around the difference in the aluminum not being as strong, they now insert a metal pin into the aluminum tube along with the pin lift. (most pin lifts are about a half inch long) So When you wear the lift off, and the metal stem (pin) is now worn into the tube, we pull out the heel pin, and level heel block.(lower) NOW, since there is that metal rod inside of the metal tube,We have less space to fit the pin lift... If you wear the heel too long, and we have to level the heel, There is Less Space to insert the new pin lift.... (unless we can pull the tube out, remove the metal rod, and reinsert the tube) Sometimes when we do this, the heel is shorter, and if there is a shape to the heel,(cone, bell bottom, etc) we are putting on a different size rubber heel. Then we trim the rubber heel to fit the heel block...

Getting back to the steel heels.....How many sizes of plastic,(wood,etc) are there? To have metal heels made for each size would be expensive. We definately couldn't trim them to fit!

IMAGINE IF WE HAVE TO HAVE STEEL HEELS IN ALL THESE SIZES? they would be expensive (to have all the different pin sizes, and all the heel sizes!)

The only advantage in my mind is that steel is a neutral color and we don't have the decision whether or not to use a black or brown heel tip

http://hartlandshoes.us/DowelsExample.jpg
Picture of many kinds of spike (pin, peg, dowel-pin) heels.

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Gene H.
Hartlandshoes
Saint Paul Minnesota
651-646-4326