Ionic

I have obtained a width stretcher from a Clarke's Factory outlet for 15GBPs. The large ladies one was out of stock first time around so they are getting to know me there. It seems there are two or three ladies sizes and at least one mens. The toe angle on mine is optimised for roughly a two inch heel so it will only be so much use on a 3 inch pair.

It comes with three plug-in bunion/pressure point inserts in different sizes to work on particular problems.

The Clarkes spray can of stretching alcohol is slightly better value than Barratts which doesn't say much. I used the alcohol to wet the lining and overcome the surface tension and then squirted some de-ionised water in several times to slowly get them well softened. Our water is so hard around here I noticed the tide mark of salt crystals on my first experiment.

The stretcher is sitting inside the left boot now so further reports may be necessary. I put a small poly bag around the toe and then put the whole thing in carrier bag to stop it drying out to quickly and allowing an occasional twist of the screw.
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Oh, and Hoverfly... ...when does part 2 begin??? :sleeping:

/I

hoverfly

We discussed part two a bit, stretching non leather materials in this topic. futher down the thread. Maby I will cover it a bit more over this winter.

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Ionic

There is of course an alternative to stretching...

According to one eBay seller this week selling her size 8s, "I lost loads of weight recently and I'm now a 6"!!
Don't quite know how she managed that....
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Also on the one hand Firefox talks on his web pages about how a leather shoe can be extended a whole size or even up to two sizes but in discussions along with Dr. Shoe over the weekend said how difficult is was to do any length increase because that is how the materials are contructed. Can you develop the argument?
Of course some toe caps are reinforced and multilayered and clearly won't move much.
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& P.S. this message is bye bye to those horrid 2.5" kitten heels, good riddance to them.... :D

/I

hoverfly

I have to agree with the Doc, :o the stretching length wise is next to the impossible. Most shoes have a plastic or rubber sole with not much give before causing damage. Leather soles are mostly found in the high end of the shoe market like Kenth Cole. But for the price you will pay for these shoes, you are better off making sure the fit for length is first as we know the width is much easer to stretch. Also your toes are more sensitive to abrasion from the seams of the material connected to the base of the sole than the sides of you foot. It's not worth it if you are interested in daily wear. From the number of shoes I have stretched the only problems I have is unperfected stretching technique :x not from any kind of rubbing from the sole.

My side of the foot sometimes will feel the edge of the sole or even the ground after you have stretch them on some shoes but it's not very noticeable as I try to select sizes close to my ideal size. As a fact I only go down one size to a 11 F U.S. if the my ideal size is a 12 F U.S. for rounded or square toe box. I don't bother to try a size U.S. 10 F since I can find all most any thing I want in an 11 F U.S. Saves me the hassle of additional heavy stretching. But for example Kenth Cole runs a size small. I have a pair of size 12 boots, length is fine, streching for width has been a major :x pain in the ass . :rofl:

Most likely you might get a little more length for the toes if you just stretch the area around the toe box. In this case this technique is better used if you foot needs a little more room if it's slipped forward a bit after some time breaking in the shoe. But I would not recommend doing this if you try a pair on at the store and you toes hit the front for in the first time you try them on. In my opinion, make sure when fitting on a new pair, make sure you have at least a 1/4" between you toes and the front of the shoe/boot when applicable like on rounded and square toe boxes.

With the exception of safety shoes with a steel or plastic toe box, leather shoes toe boxes can be stretched. This applies to womens shoes only. In my experience I have found out that toe boxes are formed by four ways. First one is just using a stiffer piece of leather that seams not to be easily stretchable… but stretchable. The second was just using the outer layer, with a coating of glue applied to the back . The third one is a sepret piece of material that was either made out of some kind of coarsely woven piece of material coated in glue and/or thermo plastic . This piece is placed between the interlayer and outer layer of the shoe to give the toe box shape. These three looked like and acted like they were formed to the desired shape by using heat (maybe steam) and a press. Only the last two you will have to apply heat to if you want to stretch them.

Now you noticed that I only mentioned three of four. The fourth one is off the leather subject a bit and it’s on manmade materials more communally known as (pleather, kid skin…. ect) It’s simple, when pressure form a press and heat is applied to the material it gets soft and pliable. After it’s allowed to cool, the material will hold it’s own shape with out any additional support. Nuff said :drinking:

So if you use a heat gun with adjustable heat settings you your self can stretch out a toe box. Insert what ever stretching device or mold you will use and apply the necessary pressure to form the material before it’s under heat. Just make sure you don’t cook it to a crisp. :o If you start to smell something burning or smell fumes you are to hot. Move to another area or remove the heat completely and make adjustments to lower the temperature if necessary. After it cools enough the glue/pleather gives the toe box it's desired shape with out any other support so it can be removed. But for what ever reasoned you stretch out the toe box just make sure you let it completely cool before you remove what ever device you use to stretch it out. But don’t use something to speed up the cooling process like alcohol, water or use a fan. This can make the material brittle and lose it’s flexibility, let it cool down slowly. (:drinking: Have a drink on me...)

On leather, if you want to before you remove the stretcher or mold, you can apply a stretching fluid, water or alcohol to cause it to “relax” :sleeping: over it’s new shape. Remove the stretcher or mold after the leather has dried completely. Do this only after it has cooled down completely.

I hope this helps
Good night :sleeping:

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Hello, my name is Hoverfly. I am a high heel addict…. Weeeeeeeeeee!!!

Dr. Shoe

Dress sizes perhaps? I know some people write a "basic" sells pitch and add details pertinent to the item itself perhaps she forgot she was talking about shoes!

Firefox

It is much harder to extend the length than do the width because of the grain in the leather. You can get the width up 2 sizes but the length 1/2 sie to one size maybe. I think PU is more uni-directional, but I never really bother trying to stretch that.

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hoverfly

I don't think you could get use to having your toes hanging over the fornt edge of the shoe. Might even look funny.

__________________
Hello, my name is Hoverfly. I am a high heel addict…. Weeeeeeeeeee!!!

Ionic

For length stretching I am really only talking about pushing out one spot by 5mm or so to make room for a longer big toe, especially helpful in round toe styles.
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Otherwise a misjudgement of a shop purchase or undersizing of a mail order purchase is the typical situation where a half size adjustment is likely to be helpful.

I wouldn't want to get involved in the extreme modifications that some attempt.

/I

Ionic

News from the stretching front:

Well I went to the pharmacy/[drugstore] and got a 250ml bottle of rubbing alcohol. They didn't think I was from Mars and pointed me to the shelf, shouldn't have bothered to mutter aboout what it was for. Certainly much cheaper than a spray tin from a shoe shop. Nevertheless the spray is handy for starting off a session, it 'wets' the leather surface and breaks down any initial surface tension.

The pair of low heel black boots that seem to have become my 'experiemental and learning' victims have needed quite a bit of width stretching. I've used a mix of alcohol and de-ionised water to be more economical, it does take quite some time to wet the boot through and through.

I also ordered a two-way Dasco stretcher from Shoe-shop.com
http://www.shoe-shop.com/ ~ Go to the accessories dept. (ladies).
This is a plastic unit whereas the Clarke's plain width only stretcher is wooden. It took ages to come and I was keeping the right boot damp while I was waiting - good thing there was plenty of alcohol in the mix and not only water, might have begun to go moldy otherwise. However, the stretcher screw shaft got a bit rusty so best spray that with silicone / WD40 first!

The screw thread on the Dasco length bit seems to max out before a size 8 which is a bit pointless so the modifier had to be modified!! The damn thing is assembled with near tamper-proof nuts and bolts to insert a stack of washers so I improvised with splitting a copper plumbing fitting lengthwise and crimping it around the threaded shaft making a nice one inch spacer. This is not a permanent solution so I need to see if the mechanics across the alley have a miniature socket set to get those bolts off.

In use it can be quite powerful because it pushes equally at the back of the ankle/heel of the boot as at the toe and you can strain the structure of the whole thing. They are dried out now having had a couple of short walks with poly bags over my feet to get them to mould a bit more around a foot.

Result is they are a lot better, though rather pushed and pulled about. They are never going to be very wonderful since the vamp over the top of the foot is not taking much of the strain. It might be possible to try a 1/4" heel cushion or other types of insole for futher fine tuning {see insole thread for discussions about them}
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I also had a quick go at a pair of slip on loafers today that only needed a tiny tweak as the big toe presses a little bit. Adjustment on this type of shoe is very finely balanced because my heel is now lifting out of the back slightly after treatment. Still early days with these, when dry they might prove to need another treatment.

/I