This thread is for anyone working on personal projects to share their progress, and hold themselves somewhat accountable to a group of peers.
Post your project, your progress from last week, and what you hope to accomplish this week.
If you want to be pinged with a reminder asking about your project, let me know, and I'll harass you each week until you cancel the service
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Notes -
Over the years, I've begun to develop a moderate interest in leather shoes - the idea of a long-term solution for footwear that, if properly maintained, could provide good use for potentially decades appealed to me a great deal. This appeal, I suspect, was likely driven by being soured over shoe makers turning out very nice shoes that did an excellent job while only lasting a year, tops - only to find that the newer incarnations of the model were far worse than the originals(I'm looking at you, Merrel).
Red Wing came up while researching the matter - how could it not? - and I, being curious, snatched up weird, mystery pair of used Red Wing Irish Setter Moc Toes that served me disturbingly well over two years of hard use doing damn near everything.
Sadly, this wasn't to last - they finally gave up the ghost, and will require submission to a cobbler and a resole(if possible) to continue their use for years to come, which I plan to do so in the future, likely next month, once I've made my choice of cobbler and sole.
But, given all the walking I do, I found myself in a weird situation where I didn't have a pair of walking shoe/boot to really use. Work, sure - I have another pair of actual Red Wings that are wonderful for some of the heavier stuff I do outside, but not good for walking(they're used, and developed an odd stick in the leather that's rubbing at the ankle that I'm seeing if I can correct through useful of neetsfoot oil and a shoe tree).
So. Off to ebay I go once more. And stumbled across a pair of red wing boots for a measly thirty bucks. The pictures were... something else, but a part of me couldn't hold back the idea of a challenge. The description of said boots called them 'distressed', and once I got them in my hot little hands, well... yeah, I'd have to call that distressed.
Thankfully, after the judicious use of saddle soap and Saphir(with a medium brown dye, to restore color), they're looking far better off. I don't know how they work on my foot while walking, but I'll find out over the next day or so. Hopefully they'll work well enough and last atleast a few months so I can sort out the rest of my footwear situation.
As an aside, if anyone knows of any good online cobblers aside from KW Shoe Repair or Potters and Sons, feel free to toss them out.
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