Question about channeled soles and glue

[Morgan]

About a week ago I made this post about a pair of new old stock EGs that I'd bought and which had some minor separation around the edge of the sole.

http://www.styleforum.net/showpost.p...postcount=7446

In answer to my question, bengal-stripe posted this helpful primer on the channeled sole.

http://www.styleforum.net/showpost.p...postcount=7457

I took the shoes to a cobbler today and asked about re-gluing the edges, but he insisted that he would have to remove the entire bottom layer of the sole, clean it off, and re-glue it. He warned me that the entire sole would crack if I did not do this. When I asked why this would happen to a stitched sole, he got mad, told me that he was a shoe maker, and told me to take my business elsewhere. I was not being confrontational, just asking for greater clarity about the construction of my shoes. All I was trying to determine was whether a channeled sole was both stitched and glued, or whether it was just glued around the edges. At any rate, I am back here asking for more information about these shoes. Will the soles crack and fall apart if I start walking around in them? Or is this a minor cosmetic issue? Is there glue through the whole sole, or just around the channeled edge?

 

[Tarmac]

its is completely possible that a local cobbler has never seen a channelled sole in his life. He probably thinks it is a separate layer of leather which is glued on the sole.

just go to someone else.

 

[Pundit]

+1

I would have loved to seen his expression when he started "peeling" back the sole and confronted stitches.

 

[grimslade]

The entire sole is cemented to the midsole and welt and then stitched down before the channel is cemented closed. The guy has no idea what he's talking about. If the separation bothers you, just apply a little superglue to the bit that has separated and stick it back down. The channel cover will wear away as you wear the shoes anyway. Do not, under any circumstances, let a hack like that tear out all the stitching and reglue the sole.

 

[HORNS]

Do you have Yelp in your area? I would set up an account just to negatively review this guy, because he's "dangerous" to shoes. Geez.

Like Grimslade said, you should glue the skived edge back down, but I'd use contact cement since it's more flexible - but hell, whatever works . . . works.

 

[Fishball]

Don't use that cobbler, he don't know anything about high end shoe. He will destory your shoe.