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Putting steel toe tip on shoe sole

Ich_Dien

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Will a good cobbler be able to do this? For some reason, the toe tip area on the soles of my shoes always seems to go far rapidly than the rest of the sole. It's probably all the cobbled streets in London.

Should i take the shoes back to their respective makers to do it (EG, C&J, &c.), or could a good cobbler be trusted?
 

gnatty8

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A competent cobbler should be able to do this for you. Keep in mind that the steel taps may make your shoes quite loud on hard surfaces, so you may want to consider plastic taps.
 

Ich_Dien

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I suppose this brings me straight back to a question that never gets a good definite answer. Does anybody know a brilliant cobbler in London, who appreciates working on good quality shoes?
 

Morgan

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I discovered another hazard of metal toe taps on Saturday night. While walking behind my girlfriend, I accidentally kicked the heel of her shoe. The front edge of my toe tap pierced the patent leather stretched over her heel and peeled it up a bit. The result was a very unsightly bit of damage to a very beautiful pair of Louboutins.
eek.gif
 

Michael Ay329

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Morgan...unless you were looking at the quality of your GF's "rear" posture, women should walk 5 paces behind a man...and this incident should not happen again
tinfoil.gif
 

Wes Bourne

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I would think you could find a competent cobbler in London who'll install metal toe taps for you. Hey, if you're lucky, you might even find one who'll put on those flush mounted ones (search the forum, there are a couple of threads on metal taps). Otherwise, you can always do what I did: check ebay for an antique cobbler's last, buy some metal taps and install them yourself:

100_2756.jpg

100_2758.jpg

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Btw, metal toe taps are not as noisy as some have claimed them to be. They're great at preventing premature wearing down of the toe areas. Pics are of a PRL Benton I picked up during the last GVH frenzy. Installed taps just in time for my office Christmas party a couple of weeks ago...

I had ordered a bunch of taps off ebay a while ago and had a hard time hammering them in for lack of having something to hold the shoes steady. That's when I decided to look for a cobbler's last. Whole process is now pretty easy: I just align a tap on the sole, use a thumb tack to mark the 3 holes, then hammer the tacks provided in place. Finish off by hammering on the tacks with a screw to really get them to sit deep in the holes.

Here's a link to one of the seller's auctions for similar taps:
http://cgi.ebay.com/metal-heel-toe-p...742.m153.l1262
If you order from him, ask for 1 1/4'' taps since they are available in a variety of sizes. Also specify that they're to be installed on the toes of dress shoes so he'll include the appropriate tacks instead of nails. One last thing if you're going to do this yourself: check length of tack against thickness of sole to make sure you don't go all the way through the soles! You might have to trim some tacks to shorten them a bit.
 

mr monty

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Originally Posted by Morgan
I discovered another hazard of metal toe taps on Saturday night. While walking behind my girlfriend, I accidentally kicked the heel of her shoe. The front edge of my toe tap pierced the patent leather stretched over her heel and peeled it up a bit. The result was a very unsightly bit of damage to a very beautiful pair of Louboutins.
eek.gif


Paint the heels red and start walking along side her and not behind her.
 

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