Antiquing Adelaides With Photos

[Francisco D'Anconia]

Inspired by Rider's most famous thread on shoe antiquing, I started out a new project a couple of months ago. I started with these £99.00 adelaide semi-brougues from CT. I've done a few of these antiquing projects before and they've turned out pretty well, but I'm still not going to try this with shoes that I'm going to miss if I totally screw the job up. Here are the original shoes as they arrived from CT...

I started by taping the soles off using blue painters tape. I like 2" wide tape; it covers more with each strip and reduces work and gaps where dye can seep through... First I applied the strips of tape. Here I show all the strips applied. This is to show what it looks like when all applied but before trimming the excess off....

But it's easier to apply tape strip by strip and trim the excess off strip by strip...

All taped-up and ready for stripping....

Stripping with Anglus Deglazer. I like applying with a toothbrush to get into the nooks and crannies...

The shoes stripped down...

After applying coats of Fiebing's light brown dye. Following Rider's suggestions, I applied as follows:

1. Wrap finger in an old t-shirt.
2. Dip wrapped finder in the dye.
3. Blot the wrapped finder on newspaper to remove excess dye.
4. Smear the dye on a small area of the shoe's surface, about 1 to 1.5 square inches.
5. Rapidly wipe the application areas with a clean old t-shirt. This removes excess and smears the dye to create a mottled/antiqued effect.

The shoes after applying several layers of dye...

After dyeing, I applied:

1. Neutral shoe cream, then brushed-off.
2. Green shoe cream, then brushed-off.
3. Tan past wax polish, then brushed-off and buffed.....

The finished shoes with tape removed from the soles and newspaper from the insides, then restored the laces and shoe trees....

 

[greekgeek]

Good work overall but the cheapness of the leather is still appearent.

 

[onix]

Good work if you like the antiquing effect and thanks for sharing. I personally would not purposely strip a whole new pair of shoes to antique it. Also, the leather doesn't seem right...

 

[teddieriley]

Originally Posted by greekgeek

Good work overall but the cheapness of the leather is still appearent.

+1. I'm not sure if the leather took the die in very well. But good effort, for sure.

 

[forex]

I think the shoes looked much better prior to antiquing.

 

[gdl203]

Originally Posted by greekgeek

Good work overall but the cheapness of the leather is still appearent.

This sums it up well.

Thanks for sharing the technique

 

[Michael Ay329]

So inspirational that the unwashed masses might try it too

 

[the.chikor]

I think it looks much better-awesome job!

 

[lasbar]

Congrats ..They look so much better now even if the quality or non-quality of the leather is still showing..
Some guys are now doing antiquing as a business..It only shows the popularity of antiquing despite the excess sometimes on display...

 

[Wes Bourne]

Originally Posted by Francisco D'Anconia

Not bad at all, but perhaps it would've been better to dye/antique these prior to wearing them. It appears that some of the creases stayed lighter (more visible in the other pics)...

 

[RIDER]

I think they turned out well. Only suggestion, since you've gotten into this, is to wipe/soak with turpentine before deglazing - smooths out the wrinkles over the vamp from creasing. Also, don't take so much off....I generally want to enhance the finish, not totally change it. Oh, and I use brushes, not my fingers in dye - don't think dye is too healthy for the skin!

Good job!

Ron

 

[MBreinin]

I like them both ways, but I think I actually prefer the original finish.

Mike

 

[talldesk]

Originally Posted by MBreinin

...but I think I actually prefer the original finish.

Just wait till he shines them up.

Nice shoes FD'A, they remind me of my AE Sanford.

 

[IchDien]

Very good attempt. How long did you leave the shoes covered in their creams?

 

[fox81]

CT use loake for their shoes dont they?

They have a fairly cheapish double monk which, while pretty ugly, might look nice with a bit of antiquing. tempting. They also came up pretty dark considering you used a light brown dye.