Vintage Dress shoe appreciation, tips, maintenance and advice

[wasmisterfu]

I'm only a couple years older than you and spent the late 70s and early 80s getting hauled around in this beautiful beast. The 67 Imperial Crown from before Lee had to save anything.
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Sadly it was sold a couple years before I got my license because parts were getting too hard to find. It was replaced by a Chevy Cavalier.
The equivalent of throwing out your 67 Florsheim Imperials and buying some Hush Puppies.

Oh man, one of the last of the “real” Imperial’s. That’s a perfect analogy.

 

[friendlygoz]

The ebay auctions just ended for those five NOS 1950s 9D pairs. All the pairs went for pretty good prices. The only exception was the British Walkers PTB that looked like Shell went for $127.

I watched them closely but didn’t bid. I agree that those BW PBTs could be shell. After seeing what they went for I understand why the seller ignored my offer to buy them all for $250. It was worth a shot, right?

 

[friendlygoz]

It was kind of exciting watching the bidding action. Like the NBA finals.

I’m a die hard Warriors fan. I didn’t bid because I was afraid of rupturing my achilles or tearing my ACL just as it looked like I was about to win the auction.

 

[Hotel Cali]

It was kind of exciting watching the bidding action. Like the NBA finals.

Yes, good action.

All winning bids were preset last minute robo-snippers.

t***1 (is that you friendlygoz? won three.

 

[suitforcourt]

I watched them closely but didn’t bid. I agree that those BW PBTs could be shell. After seeing what they went for I understand why the seller ignored my offer to buy them all for $250. It was worth a shot, right?

The answer is always "no,", if you don't ask.

 

[wasmisterfu]

The answer is always "no,", if you don't ask.

That’s some truth, right there.

 

[ccpl14]

Anyone know what to use to hydrate extremely dry shark skin? Just Bick 4 (maybe watered down a bit?) Saphir Reptan seems to be specifically for snake/lizard.

 

[friendlygoz]

Yes, good action.

All winning bids were preset last minute robo-snippers.

t***1 (is that you friendlygoz? won three.

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No. Wasn’t me. My wife is pretty tolerant of my addiction, but if I told her I dropped nearly a grand on three pairs of shoes she’d probably kill me. Crazy as this sounds, I wasn’t dying to have any of these. The French Shriners were the jewel in the lot but too pricey for my taste.

 

[friendlygoz]

Anyone know what to use to hydrate extremely dry shark skin? Just Bick 4 (maybe watered down a bit?) Saphir Reptan seems to be specifically for snake/lizard.

I used Bick4 on mine. Worked fine.

 

[actionjbone]

Anyone know what to use to hydrate extremely dry shark skin? Just Bick 4 (maybe watered down a bit?) Saphir Reptan seems to be specifically for snake/lizard.

I use Bick 4. No need to water down, it absorbs.

If any areas have lost color, I've had good results with colored VSC on shark.

 

[vestbash]

Deadstock Stetson in Alligator, 10C

 

[CWOyaji]

Fresh from Alden Recraft, these 2160 shell captoe derbies arrived yesterday; $199 shipped with trees and bags from the Bay.

 

[Roycru]

My father worked at a Chrysler factory and joined the company around the time Iacocca revived them with the iconic K-Car. We owned one of the first ones made, and let me tell ya... luxury was the game.

My Father always bought Chryslers. He bought a new one every two years. My Mother got the two year old one and the four year old one got traded in on the new one.

Here I am in our driveway with one of them. It was two tone green, dark green on top and the rest of the car was light green. (This was long before street cars and busses in Los Angeles were painted two tone green.)

In this picture I am wearing what would now be vintage shoes.

 

[Numbernine]

Not quite sure how watch (or pen or pencil) pictures started appearing in Vintage Shoe threads, but, in the great American tradition of "Monkey See-Monkey Do", here's another watch picture.

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Both are Hamilton 929b watches I've had since the sixties, and have worn one or the other every day since then. (Should be fairly obvious I used to work for a railroad.)

On the off chance anyone is wondering, the picture of the boy in the top hat was my Grandmother's favorite picture of my Father. (It is a hand tinted black and white picture.) It was taken in my Grandparent's back yard in San Francisco around a year before a very unfortunate incident in Sarajevo changed the world for the worse forever and ever.

On the even more off chance anyone is wondering if I still have my lantern, yes, I do (and it still works, as do both watches).

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Took this picture a few weeks ago since some of my (younger) friends who still work for the railroad posted a group shot on Facebook with them all holding their lanterns, so I wanted to post a photo comment holding my lantern.

Had a harder time finding someone else holding a lantern to be in the picture than they did.

I'm sure this is the wrong place but I saw your post and thought this might interest you.
Towards the end of ww2 my dad was stationed in San Diego after having served in some of the earlier Pacific battles with The First Marines.They were staging for the invasion of Japan when the Bomb dropped and the war being over they started discharging men as fast as they could. The old man found himself on the street with a wife and child on the way(yours truly). With all the men still overseas he quickly found employment as a brakeman with (I think) SP on the (I think) San Diego-Mexicali run. This was his watch . The pin was my moms who had been a Navy nurse and the cord is Tuna line from the Tuna fisherman who's spare house they lived in.

 

[stook1]

In the interest of closing the loop... I completed the dye project on the AE Rutledge pair that I showed a few days ago. These are ehhhhh --- 6 years old, I think, so not quite vintage but a relatively vintage pair compared to my own rotation of welted shoes that I bought new (does that qualify my post as topical? no? I agree, sorry).

They ended up a bit differently than I'd planned. Ironically, these turned out to be more of a learning experience for me than the British Walkers that I did a few weeks ago. Well, maybe I shouldn't say that. I learned equally from both but perhaps was a little over confident after the first pair. I wouldn't say that I am unhappy with how they turned out --- actually they fit a nice slot in my rotation now (which was the plan) and they may be a little easier to wear than what I was initially targeting, although more dressy.

So, before pics... lessons learned:

1. Be patient with the dye. Everyone always says this but really... patience is a virtue. I layed down about 6 or so coats of heavily diluted navy dye and it just seemed like it was way too transparent and I was still seeing brown undertones from the base leather. So said to myself, hmmm... I think I need to go stronger and see what happens. So I layed down a single coat of 100% strength navy blue dye. Ah hah! Progress! And with that... I layed down several more. I think I may have been deceived by that irridescent/bronzy look that you get with the dye sometimes. I will admit that I was shooting for a true navy blue tilting towards a midnight blue on the toes but I ended up with midnight blue throughout. I did lay down several coats of black along the brogue trim but it isn't that obvious.

2. Take your taping seriously! I did actually tape off the welt pretty carefully, I thought. But I must have had some run off that got onto the welt, which blew up my plans for either a natural or chili colored edge. I tried to clean up the mistake but just made it worse and decided to go with a black welt and edge instead. This is not the end of the world. In fact, I was debating going with black from the get-go but the error forced my hand.

Finally, I know that there are some who will say that I took a good pair and made them worse. There may be a kernel of truth to that! However, these were not getting worn anymore since I have other walnut colored pairs that I prefered. The airbrushed trim was flaking off and looked like crap and the toes were looking very splotchy. To this day, I am not sure what caused the splotchyness since I know that i did not stain them --- they just kind of evolved that way with wear and polishing. All of that aside, as I mentioned earlier, this fit a hole in my rotation so I am very pleased to have them and I know that they'll get worn now, which is what really matters most.

Anyway... too much text. Pics below.