Material source - leather, shoe supplies, etc Leffler

[andrewa]

Having made all these knives, I've now moved on to making knife sheaths, and, in buying half a cow hide for these, will move on to making an aesthetic leather overnight bag......however...

Visited Leffler leather and shoe making supplies today in West Melboure. All sorts of interesting raw materials there. Obviously all sorts of leather, but also various webbings for rucksacks, fastex style buckles, glues, boot soles , hooks for the front of home made gaiters, eyelets, buckles, blah blah blah.

I was looking for stuff for saddle stitching leather, but also bought a pair of Topy shoes soles to resole my shoes , which had worn through. To get this done at a "cobbler" would cost ~$70-80. I bought a pair of soles for $4, glued them on with contact adhesive, sanded the edges with a belt sander, and coloured them to dark brown with some agent I bought from them for $10.

Now, not only a doctor, but a cobbler!

A

[Rlgm12]

Don't cobblers use more than glue???? I wouldn't know.

[andrewa]

Yes, proper cobblers do use more than glue, but I reckon your local shoe repair man who re-soles your shoes would mostly just use glue. A well made pair of shoes is actually designed so that once the leather sole has worn through it can be removed and another one sewn on. Mostly theses days another layer is just stuck over the top, and Topy rubber works well for this, as its thin and very hard wearing.