scouring shoe edges

[kobblers]

how do you finish your heel and sole edges if your customer just has the heels done on a pair of mens shoes? specifically the pvc units.

 

i scour and smooth all the way round to get consistency but we get a lot of repairs from elsewhere where just the heels have been scoured flush and they look bloody awful in contrast to the untouched soles.

[Hugh-Candoit (ENG)]

There are technical problems here and I hope I can explain without going in too deep.

I prefered to trim or scour just the top-piece and not disturb the original unit whatsoever.

The reason is thus.

If you scour PVC or PolyUrethane or Thermoplastic rubber or Thermoplastic PolyUrethane you will not be able to obtain a smooth finish as was the case when the shoes were brought in for repair. Once scoured you cannot reinstate the unit to its original condition.

Secondly the units of a PolyUrethane based material are hygroscopic, this means that they will absorb water through the sides where you have removed the dense gloss finish produced by the moulding proccess.

Water once having got into the open cell structure of the unit will have the unit acting like a sponge.

As the customer puts weight onto the shoe the sponge type structure compresses and forces the water out in watever way it can and this is a cause of many failed adhesive repairs to these units.

Sorry but I could not put it simpler.

[Lee]

I use both methods, including on PVC. It very much depends on the condition of the shoe when it arrives and the quality of previous repairs as to which method I use.

I think this is one of those question which has many different answers!

 

Lee

[kobblers]

i should've explained properly....

 

what i meant was , how do you finish off the edges if you have to scour the heel block such as after building up or dealing with heel edges previously repaired and scoured all round the heel block edge?

 

i generally trim just the toppiece otherwise

[Hugh-Candoit (ENG)]

I would also just trim/scour the build up.

[jimbo1943]

Not sure if this is what is meant but to get a reasonable smooth finish on heels I polished the heel with a bit of pressure backwards on the neutral brush.

[Hugh-Candoit (ENG)]

It's not to difficult to get a half decent finish but once you have scoured the heel block you can expect trouble.

[bkb]

we use a scotchbrite brush ,on the polisher to finish that type etc..

thats good info on water seapage. we usaly paint the edges for looks, and i assume that would water-proof to some extint.

thanks Hugh for that insight. it makes sence.

bkb

[Hugh-Candoit (ENG)]

The real danger comes form when you get them back for soling of heeling and you put them on a press, the water absorbed into the open cells acts like a hydraulic ram when under pressure and destroys the adhesive bond. A few days later the shoes will be back with adhesive failiure and you wont know what has gone wrong, you will be blaming combinations of primers and adhesives.

[Bren]

Thermplastic PU finishes nicely if you apply the right pressure on the brush and roll forwards.

Careful though, too mush pressure and the brush will eat the unit.

 

I always trim if possible.

[ironplanet uk900]

how do you finish your heel and sole edges if your customer just has the heels done on a pair of mens shoes? specifically the pvc units.

 

i scour and smooth all the way round to get consistency but we get a lot of repairs from elsewhere where just the heels have been scoured flush and they look bloody awful in contrast to the untouched soles.

 

Each pair needs a different aproach, Sometimes I just trim the top piece, It doesn't look awful if your good at it. But agree that some make a real hash of it.

Sometimes we finish the whole heel, depending on build up, previous repair, type of material etc etc

[kobblers]

how do you finish your heel and sole edges if your customer just has the heels done on a pair of mens shoes? specifically the pvc units.

 

i scour and smooth all the way round to get consistency but we get a lot of repairs from elsewhere where just the heels have been scoured flush and they look bloody awful in contrast to the untouched soles.

 

Each pair needs a different aproach, Sometimes I just trim the top piece, It doesn't look awful if your good at it. But agree that some make a real hash of it.

Sometimes we finish the whole heel, depending on build up, previous repair, type of material etc etc

 

exactly the same methods as we do it, i'm interested to know how you can scour build up totally flush on a pvc heel without touching the original heel block edge and also not affecting the finished look due to there usually being moulded lines all around the edge of the block.

[elfman]

on some of the thermo rubbers if you wipe round them with soft cloth dipped in kumzoff you can restore the high gloss look

[Hugh-Candoit (ENG)]

[ i'm interested to know how you can scour build up totally flush on a pvc heel without touching the original heel block edge and also not affecting the finished look due to there usually being moulded lines all around the edge of the block.

 

Answer is you dont scour the block.

No matter what is argued over, once the block is scoured you have lost the finish. any subsequent action will only give a temporary gloss, elfman is partially right in that "some" TR will shine using Kumzoff (according to manufacturing mix of components making up the TR), but PVC is not Thermoplastic rubber.

Brushing clockwise or anti clockwise, with or without was is only a temporary quick fix solution.

 

Scouring PU or TR or even TPU will expose the open cell structure of the product and will allow a hygroscopic action to take place causing premature faliure of the bond (unless of course you "Blake2 em on.