Vintage Dress shoe appreciation, tips, maintenance and advice

[friendlygoz]

I found these Stetson shoes through David's Watch List in June. They were a $25 BIN purchase and were listed as "baby alligator". Sure appears to be real reptile "something", but I don't see any labeling on the shoe to indicate. The insole is printed with the retailer's name in script, "Las Vegas" <illegible>. Under that, in block characters is "Las Vegas" <illegible>. A cloth Stetson diamond label can be seen in the first photo. They fit me well and are in good condition.

Here's what I've done:
- disinfected interior with 91% isopropyl alcohol and 10 Seconds spray, then hydrated the interior with Bick 4.
- wiped the exterior with a damp rag, then applied 2 rounds of Saphir Reptan.
- the heel top lifts were very worn, so I had my local cobbler replace them.

I remembered Justin Wilson's Alligator With No Shoes story while working on these.
Good day!

View attachment 1207517 View attachment 1207518

those are fantastic! i've used Bick4 on reptile, and it works great. perhaps i'll try reptan; it's a great name and reminds me of the 80s show, V.

 

[friendlygoz]

I can tell you the Kiwi stuff doesn’t dry the shoe out at all; in my experience it’s actually excellent at hydrating the leather. I know Kiwi is viewed as drug-store grade shoe-care products, but their saddle soap is excellent stuff.

Great. Maybe I'll give it a try.

 

[Numbernine]

Appreciate the timely tip. I've been debating what I want to do with the edges on a pair of AEs that I am working on now. They're going to be a midnight navy. Black is the easy answer but I might go with something like your approach described below. They'll look like this?

Vintage Dress shoe appreciation, tips, maintenance and advice

Just surfing around. Here's a pair of Kieth Highlander shells I re-furbished a few years ago . They never fit quite right so I gave them away to someone here . Don't remember who.

www.styleforum.net

They can but you have to sand every bit of black off then hit it with some acetone before you burnish otherwise it looks like the sole edge here. An important point about burnishing(There is tons of stuff about the process on youtube by guys who make holsters and
such)When you are rubbing the edge you are creating heat ,the more you make the better you'll know you have it right when the cloth makes a squeaking noise against the leather . Thats what you want.

Take a little more time with the fine sanding will eliminate those scratches and dings and get it smooth as glass. I'm lazy so I've convinced mysely I like this better

 

[stook1]

Ok guys, it's my daily dose of question insanity.... So I mentioned yesterday that I was doing my 2nd dye job and turning some AEs navy blue. [note: veering off topic] All this navy dye got me thinking about my blue shell wallet. It is, I believe, oceano colored comipel cordovan, which seems to have an unfortunate propensity to show a bit brownish. Any of you guys ever take a crack at using dye on cordovan? I'm thinking about dying it navy but I am not too sure how well it will work.

Is it very difficult to dye shell due to the oil/fat content? I know Carmina hand dyes their cordovan in order to make their brolive shell (and more recently purple).

Anyone ever try? I don't want to destroy the wallet since it's seemingly indestructible, if you know what I mean.

 

[Numbernine]

You ever notice when you finally throw something out you find a use for it within the next year? Well there were those cordovan scraps from those shoes I cut up for science.

 

[wasmisterfu]

So over in the AE thread, @munchau brought up stripping his CG polished cobbler MacNeil’s. Which reminded me that I really needed to put some effort in to my own de-corrected grain McAllister’s from last years competition. I’ve worn them a lot and they needed some attention. After cleaning and conditioning, I decided to further darken them to more closely resemble their factory color.

They’re holding up pretty well, all things considered.

Spoiler: All things meaning this:

 

[wasmisterfu]

You ever notice when you finally throw something out you find a use for it within the next year? Well there were those cordovan scraps from those shoes I cut up for science.

Every. Single. Time.

 

[wasmisterfu]

I found these Stetson shoes through David's Watch List in June. They were a $25 BIN purchase and were listed as "baby alligator". Sure appears to be real reptile "something", but I don't see any labeling on the shoe to indicate. The insole is printed with the retailer's name in script, "Las Vegas" <illegible>. Under that, in block characters is "Las Vegas" <illegible>. A cloth Stetson diamond label can be seen in the first photo. They fit me well and are in good condition.

Here's what I've done:
- disinfected interior with 91% isopropyl alcohol and 10 Seconds spray, then hydrated the interior with Bick 4.
- wiped the exterior with a damp rag, then applied 2 rounds of Saphir Reptan.
- the heel top lifts were very worn, so I had my local cobbler replace them.

I remembered Justin Wilson's Alligator With No Shoes story while working on these.
Good day!

View attachment 1207517 View attachment 1207518

Those are badass.

 

[mormonopoly]

OK, here is a question for the Florsheim cognoscenti...It is very rare for us treasure hunters in Ottawa to find anything Florsheim, except for latter Indian stuff. I have only found one, ever, a McHale wingtip. So, I have never had to dig into the whole Florsheim dating rules. However, I just found a pair, also Canadian made, and wanted to date them. I am guessing they are 70's or 80's, but when I read @davidVC's blog it suggested an "F" prefix is pre-1956 (a good year in jazz, btw) (I had a difficult time not reading lots of other interesting stuff there, which was "nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do", also btw). No way are these that old. Were the McHale units coded differently?

View attachment 1207525

These are McHales, so they have McHale codes instead of Florsheim. The normal rules for Florsheim codes do not apply here.

 

[stook1]

Happens to me all the time... Kinda wish I had some shell scraps around. I am going to ping a guy on Reddit that I suspect may be able to provide some input on this topic. If not, I may just wing it and give it a shot. Just not sure if it will need to be stripped.

You ever notice when you finally throw something out you find a use for it within the next year? Well there were those cordovan scraps from those shoes I cut up for science.

 

[Raimar]

Ok guys, it's my daily dose of question insanity.... So I mentioned yesterday that I was doing my 2nd dye job and turning some AEs navy blue. [note: veering off topic] All this navy dye got me thinking about my blue shell wallet. It is, I believe, oceano colored comipel cordovan, which seems to have an unfortunate propensity to show a bit brownish. Any of you guys ever take a crack at using dye on cordovan? I'm thinking about dying it navy but I am not too sure how well it will work.

Is it very difficult to dye shell due to the oil/fat content? I know Carmina hand dyes their cordovan in order to make their brolive shell (and more recently purple).

Anyone ever try? I don't want to destroy the wallet since it's seemingly indestructible, if you know what I mean.

You should watch this video from Bedo's at the 36 minute. May offer some ideas.

 

[Paul902]

These are McHales, so they have McHale codes instead of Florsheim. The normal rules for Florsheim codes do not apply here.

Thanks, mormonopoly. Good to know. It was a delight to find them in this condition....

 

[stook1]

Amazing! First off, thanks a lot for the tip. I never would have found that myself. Second, I really should send my next pair of shoes to Bedos as a thanks for all that I've learned from Steve's videos.

For anyone that doesnt feel like watching the video... wipe down with turpentine to prep the surface. He then used fiebings oil based dye but implied that alcohol based dyes can be used as well just that they are more drying. So - sounds like its basically the same process as for calf.

You should watch this video from Bedo's at the 36 minute. May offer some ideas.

 

[suitforcourt]

I was the only bidder for this pair of Barrie PTBs in shell. Made by Alden?

 

[davidVC]

These are McHales, so they have McHale codes instead of Florsheim. The normal rules for Florsheim codes do not apply here.

I agree. I would guesstimate they were made in the 1970s.