SecondMoonshot Dabbles in Cobbling (Cobblering?) - Frankenstocks


When one of my daughters asks me for anything, they usually gets it, true for anything within reason any of our kids ask for. Throw in a “Daddy”, and I’m putty in their hands. Yeah, a bit spoiled, but there are worse things.

This week was an ask to see if I can repair a torn leather strap on a what I suspect is a well like pair of sandals…maybe Birkenstocks or something, have no idea (and don’t really care). Her foster pit bull, Patsy Cline, must have thought it was a toy, one dog’s pleasure is another man’s opportunity to learn. Sure, I have some time on my hands, I can cobble and be an amateur cobbler. On a side note, Patsy was doing her second home visit yesterday by a prospective adoptive family and turns out she has allergens and the wife got hives or something….sweet….I like allergens (and Patsy).

Sandals are a great sleeping aid.

Returning from the adoption visit gone bad (or good from our perspective).

I approached this as any first time cobbler would do, see if there is a leather glue (no, not find a YouTube, figured I could handle this on my own). Low and behold there was….Bush’s Original Tear Mender Instant Fabric & Leather Adhesive. Then I got a leather strip and that was about all I needed - all acquired through my unofficial business partner, Amazon. I already had a leather repair sewing kit and was then ready to tackle this job. All in for about $25 total.

I started by seeing how strong this adhesive was so glued two strips together with a liberal amount of glue. What I can say is it truly is “instant”, bonded within seconds and minutes as stated and was pretty strong. So I started to work on a patch for the back of the strap and had to thin out the leather as it was too thick, I also wanted to taper the sides so that it would be smooth while wearing; no daughter of mine will get a blister on my watch. I did this with a simple utility knife and it took me about an hour to get it where I wanted. I suspect there is some specialty tool for this and if I do further cobbling, may invest.


Once I got the patch as I wanted, I then glued it onto the back of the strap and clamped it with some small clamps. Turns out it bonds so quickly, I probably didn’t even need to do that. 



While it was pretty strong, I figured this being the ankle strap, it would probably need some reinforcement, so went into the leather sewing kit and after some struggling (and a broken all important Glove Needle), managed to sew it along the broken seam.



While not pretty and my leather sewing skills are a work in progress and only get exercised maybe once a year, hopefully these shoes will see another few years. Either that or she will wear them on some special occasion, the strap will break, and I will be disassociated from the family forever. I’ll take my chances on my handiwork. 

John


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