Vintage Dress shoe appreciation, tips, maintenance and advice

[mreams99]



Belmont split toe shark shoes by Allen Edmonds. Have not worn them for a month or so and they needed some time out of the shoe bag.

My Belmonts are at the shop getting a topy applied.

 

[meister]



Belmont split toe shark shoes by Allen Edmonds. Have not worn them for a month or so and they needed some time out of the shoe bag.

 

[smfdoc]

I hear there is an election today. Be sure to vote for the candidate of your choice, unless it disagrees with my choice. In that case stay home and polish shoes.

The maiden voyage of the vintage Florsheims I put through rehab over the weekend.

 

[MattRiv]

I hear there is an election today. Be sure to vote for the candidate of your choice, unless it disagrees with my choice. In that case stay home and polish shoes.

The maiden voyage of the vintage Florsheims I put through rehab over the weekend.

Congrats! I know you have been looking for a pair of these for a long time. I love my pair. Enjoy!

 

[Smith Premier]

There is currently a pair very similar to this on sale on ebay. Not cheap, but new without box, size 7,5C. I´m a D

That´s a wonderful pair of shoes you have there, and such a beautiful colour!

 

[smfdoc]

Quote:
There is currently a pair very similar to this on sale on ebay. Not cheap, but new without box, size 7,5C. I´m a D

That´s a wonderful pair of shoes you have there, and such a beautiful colour!

If they allow returns, you may actually want to try the 7.5C. I have found Florsheims to be roomy and the C may well work for you. And thanks for the kind words for the shoes! I really like them. I checked them out on Ebay and he has them listed in the B or C category. Ask to see a photo of the label inside the shoe to see if it is a B or a C. If a C, he does allow returns in 14 days. I think the price is pretty good. Buying a new pair of Allen Edmonds MacNeils would be $385.

 

[Smith Premier]

If they allow returns, you may actually want to try the 7.5C. I have found Florsheims to be roomy and the C may well work for you. And thanks for the kind words for the shoes! I really like them. I checked them out on Ebay and he has them listed in the B or C category. Ask to see a photo of the label inside the shoe to see if it is a B or a C. If a C, he does allow returns in 14 days. I think the price is pretty good. Buying a new pair of Allen Edmonds MacNeils would be $385.

I have in fact tried the 7.5C! One ebay seller had mistakenly listed a pair of shoes as D width, and I bought them. Upon receiving the shoes I didn´t check the size, but soon realized them being a bad fit for me and only then I took a look at the actual markings. That particular pair was the predecessor to my current Florsheims, which are D and a good fit. There is also a pair of practically unused Crown Aristocrafts on ebay with 8C as the size, but my size is 8D in JM´s. At first I thought about giving them a try, and probably would have, but then noticed that the seller ships only within USA. Anyway, shoes have to fit comfortably so better stick with the proven sizes.

 

[patrick_b]

Couple of old shoe/cobbler hammers. They are often easily identifiable by the lack of the split claw like most carpenter hammers.

Top hammer made by USM Corp. (formerly USMC) in their massive Beverly, MA factory known locally as "The Shoe". The logo dates it to the 60's or 70's. The original United Shoe Machinery Corp. formed in 1899 after a merger of the largest shoe machine manufacturers of the time including Goodyear Shoe Machinery Company, Consolidated McKay Lasting Machine Company and McKay Shoe Machinery Company. Over the next 20 years USMC acquired dozens of companies that made similar, shoe related tools and equipment. The US Govt. filed anti-trust suits twice before eventually succeeding on their third attempt in the 40's. In 1968, United Shoe Machinery Corp. became USM Corp. after diversifying into many non-shoe related industries.

The bottom hammer is an old one. Hard to capture in the image but it's a C. Hammond shoe hammer model No. 323, Size 0. Its maker, C. Hammond of Philadelphia, PA used that stamp from 1869 to the early 1900's (teens). It changed its maker's mark to C. Hammond & Son after 1914 until its demise in the 20's. During that period, they were stamped and made in Ogontz, PA. C. Hammond made edged tools and hammers and its hatchets are very collectible. Per my earlier post, I found a scanned version of Hammond's catalog from 1910.

 

[smfdoc]

Quote:
I totally agree about size issues. Shoes that do not with well simply do not get worn in the long run and that makes them a bad deal no matter the price.

 

[smfdoc]

Hanover long wings today. I also just found a NOS Hanover brush. Clearly, this should be superior to all other brushes for this pair of long wings and completely justifies me getting yet another brush. Wives just don't get this line of reasoning but it makes perfect sense to me.

 

[smfdoc]

Hanover shell long wings, especially in my size, do not come along very often, so I grabbed these off Ebay. Better pictures and discussion when they arrive.

 

[smfdoc]

Well today was experiment day for the Florsheim 97725 that I received several weeks ago. Originally, i stripped, conditioned, polished and waxed. The result was just fine, but it seemed awfully "brown."



Not one to leave well enough alone, I decided to use some black AE shoe cream and darken the brogue lines. Paint on the cream and wipe it down before it totally dries. The upper brogue line around the throat is not as dark in person as it appears here. In general, I like the effect and I will leave it to see if grows on my further. If not, I can always dial it back.

 

[patrick_b]

Found in an antique shop. Florsheim shoe horn actually made of some sort of bone.

 

[smfdoc]

Found in an antique shop. Florsheim shoe horn actually made of some sort of bone.

Very cool. I would not mind finding one myself. I'm not sure that it is bone. Perhaps it is made of some type of horn, and thus the original name of "shoe horn." Wikipedia says, "Originally, shoehorns were made from animal horn or hooves, and some made from bulls' hooves are still available for purchase."

 

[patrick_b]



Very cool. I would not mind finding one myself. I'm not sure that it is bone. Perhaps it is made of some type of horn, and thus the original name of "shoe horn." Wikipedia says, "Originally, shoehorns were made from animal horn or hooves, and some made from bulls' hooves are still available for purchase."

Good point. Certainly could be horn.