Vintage Dress shoe appreciation, tips, maintenance and advice

[sam67]

Is this a glued sole? If so, that means not re-soleable correct?

 

[eTrojan]

On a serious note: while I’ve done a fair amount of restoration work over the years, but I’ve not dealt with buckskin (which the Empires in question are tan calf and white buckskin). Given the timeframe these were made, these are likely legit buckskin, not nubuck or the like.

Besides being a tad dingy in the photos, what are the maintenance options and procedures for 70 year old buckskin?

Calling @davidVC , if you’re around, along with anyone else with advice.

When my Empires arrived, the buckskin had so much white shoe polish embedded, that they seemed to be calf. As always, I started with saddle soap to take the top layer of grime and polish off to see what I was looking at.

Four rounds of saddle soap later, trying to get the white polish to stop bleeding, I finally saw that it was off-white buckskin. In for a penny; in for a pound. So I kept at it, with a soft toothbrush to get all the embedded polish out. Once it was clean, I let it dry thoroughly. It was stiff but came back to life with a standard suede brush.

I carefully conditioned all the English tan leather with Bick 4 and then left them in the closet for 4 years waiting to have them repaired by Steve @ Bedo's.

I would defer to experts who might have a different approach. I bumbled into it and came out OK on the other side.

 

[sam67]

When my Empires arrived, the buckskin had so much white shoe polish embedded, that they seemed to be calf. As always, I started with saddle soap to take the top layer of grime and polish off to see what I was looking at.

Four rounds of saddle soap later, trying to get the white polish to stop bleeding, I finally saw that it was off-white buckskin. In for a penny; in for a pound. So I kept at it, with a soft toothbrush to get all the embedded polish out. Once it was clean, I let it dry thoroughly. It was stiff but came back to life with a standard suede brush.

I carefully conditioned all the English tan leather with Bick 4 and then left them in the closet for 4 years waiting to have them repaired by Steve @ Bedo's.

I would defer to experts who might have a different approach. I bumbled into it and came out OK on the other side.

I did same with my Nunn Bush except used Saphir

 

[WoolyLamb]

Can anyone clarify what size this is for me on Hanover LB Sheppard?

 

[sam67]

Can anyone clarify what size this is for me on Hanover LB Sheppard?
View attachment 2187545

10.5C Heel is an A width

 

[actionjbone]

10.5C Heel is an A width

He means "10.5C; Heel is an A width"

Punctuation is important!

 

[WoolyLamb]

That is what I thought. The listing has it as an R instead of A which I can understand why they would see it and confuse it with R.

Thank you

 

[sam67]

That is what I thought. The listing has it as an R instead of A which I can understand why they would see it and confuse it with R.

Thank you

That's a fairly frequent mistake in listings.

 

[mormonopoly]

Is this a glued sole? If so, that means not re-soleable correct?

Those appear to be cemented. Theoretically you can resole them, but in my opinion it’s not worth it.

 

[wasmisterfu]

When my Empires arrived, the buckskin had so much white shoe polish embedded, that they seemed to be calf. As always, I started with saddle soap to take the top layer of grime and polish off to see what I was looking at.

Four rounds of saddle soap later, trying to get the white polish to stop bleeding, I finally saw that it was off-white buckskin. In for a penny; in for a pound. So I kept at it, with a soft toothbrush to get all the embedded polish out. Once it was clean, I let it dry thoroughly. It was stiff but came back to life with a standard suede brush.

I carefully conditioned all the English tan leather with Bick 4 and then left them in the closet for 4 years waiting to have them repaired by Steve @ Bedo's.

I would defer to experts who might have a different approach. I bumbled into it and came out OK on the other side.

Thank you sir. This was very informative.

 

[wasmisterfu]

Those appear to be cemented. Theoretically you can resole them, but in my opinion it’s not worth it.

I must strongly concur with this assessment. The problem is most cemented construction doesn’t just include the sole, it includes the faux welt, etc.. There’s also the bizarre hybrid examples where there’s actually a full welt, but they’d skip the outsole stitch and just use cement instead. None of these approaches are particularly good in comparison to regular old GYW (or even Blake or Blake+Rapid) construction.

Better to skip such examples for more serviceable construction.

 

[wasmisterfu]

He means "10.5C; Heel is an A width"

Punctuation is important!

For more information, a quick search on “combo last” or “combination last” will explain the c / a or d / b thing. Today, all lasts are generally combination lasts, which is why AE, Alden, etc., don’t use that enumeration.

 

[friendlygoz]

93602s today…

 

[wasmisterfu]

93602s today… View attachment 2187721 View attachment 2187723

What’s approximate dating of that pair? Those have some awesomely kickass mongo gunboat soles going on. You could probably walk across an active lava field in those things.

 

[SapatoShoe]

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