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dad used leather from cut up machine belts,to repair shoes. there are a few of them 3 footed iron things in the scrap yard here in the village. folks use them to keep the door open. it seems cheaper to buy a new pair of boots these days.
Our Dad mended our shoes too, I'd forgotten about that! The 3 footed last was used as a door-stop for years, I always thought it was from the Isle of Man when I was little! LOL!
My dear old dad had a 3 footed cobblers last, and repaired all our shoes, mainly with "Phillips Rubber Soles and heels", attaching them with "Evo Stick", which he calmped with clothes pegs till it had dried, he also used thick card board cut to the shape of the foot size inside the shoe to stop up a hole in the soles.
paul
I contributed to this topic by mentioning that we used to have to bash thirteen studs into our boots while in the army.
That contribution has vanished.
Was it something I said, perchance ?
Sounds as if your dad, and mine, were bought up the same way podgery, I seem to remember that shoes for us kids were very expensive in those days, a great finacial burden to our family.
paul
The steel studs that Lencops referred to in post #15 were called SEGS and Dad or even sometimes Mom would bash them into the heels to stop them being worn away.
I remember the oldman doing the shoe repairs alright, quite regularly--usually at about 10pm on a sunday night--he'd wake us kids up every time the old idiot. Another trick of his was to start playing the joanna about the same time of night--but not while mending shoes/boots though--he wasn't that clever/mad. Golightly. ( which should have been his 'handle' )
I have seem people do cobbling in their own homes, but never seen it in mine. Like anything different from the usual it seemed curious. I got the impression it was done by necessity in some instances and from frugality in others.
Necessity in my parents' case, Alan, as Dad was only earning £2. 12s. 6d a week at Perry Pens until he died in 1952, while at the same time my mother was doing two part-time evening jobs including piecework at Lucas' Formans Road, and tote operator at Kings Heath & Hall Green greyhound tracks. When he died, that went up to three part-time jobs!