Originally Posted by
Hoo-man 
Everything is wrong with gemming, it has no place on a highend shoe. E.G etc use high end leathers and finishes, but it is still not a true highend shoe, it is only an immitation of a highend shoe.
Some info about gemming
* Gemming failure can occur in as little as a few years as l have witnessed by seeing various people's shoes online.
* l spoke with a quality shoemaker who repairs and makes hundreds of shoes each year and he said "gemming failure is common place". l didn't even have to prompt him, he came straight out with the information.
* l spoke with a leading cobbler and when l asked about gemming failure, he said "it happens all the time".
* DW (a member here who is expert in shoemaking and repairs) reports exactly the same thing as l have.
* Gemming tape used to be available because it was well known that gemming failure does occur regularly.
This tells me there is something to the issue, it is obviously occuring regularly.
Why don't more people report gemming failure?
Cobblers, shoemakers and the public don't report it because they don't know any better. There are excellent ways to test whether a cobbler knoiws his work or is just another hack. This is what you ask:
* Show him a gemmed shoe and ask if he has ever seen gemming failure. lt is most likely that he will say he has never seen it. This will tell you something very very important, it tells you that it is almost a certainty that he hasn't stripped back the shoe properly by removing the cork to check for gemming failure. I know this because all quality repairers in my city have reported it occuring, but the cobblers who never strip back the cork (most of them) never report it occuring.
Igents have no clue if their shoes are suffering from gemmed failure either. Here is some proof:
http://www.styleforum.net/t/329256/are-these-allen-edmonds-worth-repairing
No-one except Son Of Saphir and myself picked it up. The gemming failure is as clear as the nose on your face. See, most people don't know any different, so how can they report it???
What's the problem with gemming failure?
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