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May I ask how this is accomplished as an DIY project?

I have a pair of black LWB that I hardly wear, and I would like to do the same thing to make it more 'casual' looking.

looking good Pastor - a lot of nitpickers will probably say the balance is off because the welt is still dark, but I think the natural finish gives it a nice contrast now. And if they were just sitting around not getting worn, sometimes a good facelift will help you rediscover the shoe and put it back in your rotation. Well done!

sup sup, yea still in richmond in graduate school now. i have three pairs of aldens! and have always had a few in my collection. right now it's epaulet x alden natural chromexcel brixton NST boot, no 8 captoe and some suede flexwelt chukkas

Wow that looks awesome. Did you treat the exposed wood or anything? I may have to do this.

I first sanded off the black with a 140 grade sandpaper. This took about an hour to do and caused at least one blister on my thumb. After this was finished I re-sanded again with a fine grain 220 sandpaper and this made the leather really smooth. I then took some Meletonian medium brown shoe cream and rubbed it into the exposed leather. I did this twice and then buffed with a brush. After this I took some darker brown cream and did the same thing (just the medium brown gave the edge a orange color but adding the darker brown gave it almost an antique look). I made sure the cream had dried and then I applied two coats of a satin finish polyurethane that I got from Lowes. It took about 2 hours total time.

I've wanted to do this for a while and knowing the welt would be dark kept me from starting. I finally decided that I could live with the darker welt since the leather uppers (#8) were so dark already. I'm guess that there will be very few people that will even notice (unless I go to a SF convention).

See above.

Terrific...Thanks. Much appreciated.

Thanks for the suggestions. I have seen these. Not a fan of the color on the J.Crews. Love the Roy boot but Context is out in my size and besides I don't really like the crepe soles either.

Does anyone know where I can find the Pitt boots online? Leather Soul is sold out and I'm guessing these are made exclusively for them. Other suggestions on a plain toe or cap toe boot are welcome. I'm new to Alden and am eager to buy my first pair.

Looks good Pastor.

NAMOR put up a DIY a while ago too http://lastedleather.com/Edgetrim/Changingedgetrim.html

AoC has a couple of sizes of their #8 plain toe boot with commando sole on the trubalance last:

http://www.alden-of-carmel.com/index.cfm/Shoes-Shell_Cordovan_High_Lace_Boot_160.htm

The color on the J.Crew boot gets better with age. I actually owned it for a few days, but ended up returning it. Just wasn't for me. I don't think the Trubalance last is a great last for a plain-toed boot. I bought it along with the cap-toed boot that they also sell (the color #8 one), and I thought that was much sleeker. When a boot on the Barrie last is considered sleeker than something, that something is not so sleek! I think the last works very well for the Indy boot, but for plain toe I'd rather have a different one. 

 

I'm with you on the crepe sole for the Roy boot. If it had anything else, it'd be a much more attractive option for me.

 

As a suggestion for cap-toed boots:

I love mine; it's a great looking boot that only gets better with age. Works great with dark wash or raw jeans, too.

Exposed wood - must be Dutch Aldens from Frans Boone.

Thank you.
Amen to that!

To be fair, Alden marketing language frequently refers to "oak bark soles" without explaining that it's a leather tanning process. I can understand why some might think the soles are actually oak wood or bark material.

Props to Pastor for having the balls to take sandpaper to his gunboats. That change looks revitalizing - enjoy them!

I'm not trying to proove anything but this is what I got from Horween directly, nothing to do with better shell quality for light colors etc -


We produce the colors based on production amounts from the larger shoe customers. The special colors are run periodically when they place orders for these colors which for some is only a couple times a year. Thus the limited availability on certain colors.