Re-soling felt wading boots

P

Pigs

Steelhead
Any of you bought the caddis kit and re-soled boots?

I have two Pairs of Simms boots that I had one of the soles come off. Uppers are in great shape.

Found a YouTube vid where they used a ton of shoe goo and duct taped the hell out of it. Is this the way?
 
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I have used scotch 1300 as the adhesive for several resole and for 1st time on rubber boots before you could buy them felted from the factory. I usually filled the boot foot with newspaper to give the boot a stiffer presence. Dont know if this is really necessary but i did it. Use lots of duct tape and wrap it tight after applying glue to both boot and felt. After removing the tape i would ad a bead of glue on the outside edge between the felt and boot. I used to put a lot of days Hiking and wading every year and you dont want your repair to fail. My old repair failed one day from the toe to the instep and me a long ways from my rig. I was able to wrap the shoe strings under the felt and criss cross the tie to get me back to the rig. If you are buying a kit that contains the adhesive , make sure that you have enough for the second boot after you do the first one.
 
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Kilchis said:
I used Barge Cement to refelt a couple of pairs of boots, and the bond outlasted the felts. About 55 years ago I used Barge to attach pieces of kitchen carpet to a $4 pair of surplus Nam boots. That worked too.
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Yep, I glued up pairs of old keds with carpet. Last pair of boots I did years ago I had to trim the felt after gluing, and the felt in the kit didn't wear well but the glue held.
Korkers are easy.
 
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The shoe guys have a vise where they also tap the glued up sole down with a hammer. I remember my old boot repair guy giving me that tip, to try to rig a way to tap the glued up sole down using a hammer. And they also used a heavy application of Barge cement, and then trimmed the excess that squirts out the sides later after it’s dried.
 
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With the absorbent prices of new boots, it is worth a try?

How about a boot repair business? I had some resoled here in Bozeman MT.
 
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DanielOcean said:
It was more than 13 dollars. I think the resole was 80. These guys role the red carpet out for your shoes. Its pretty cool. Worth the cost.
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Yeah if there are any spots that need sewing up or patching, they will usually do that too and you end up getting a lot more life out of your boots. It's true that they have the proper tools to do a kick-ass job. A regular civilian can also probably do an acceptable job on their own. Heck, maybe it'll turn out better than acceptable!
 
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Matt B said:
Yeah if there are any spots that need sewing up or patching, they will usually do that too and you end up getting a lot more life out of your boots. It's true that they have the proper tools to do a kick-ass job. A regular civilian can also probably do an acceptable job on their own. Heck, maybe it'll turn out better than acceptable!
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I agree. Personally I do not have time so drop off service and my own way of supporting local. I hope shoe repair guys never go away.
 
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I received the Caddis felt sole replacement kit. It comes with 1.5 ounces of Aquaseal +Neo (neoprene contact cement). Not sure how good it is, or if 1.5 ounces is enough for two boots
 
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Pigs said:
I received the Caddis felt sole replacement kit. It comes with 1.5 ounces of Aquaseal +Neo (neoprene contact cement). Not sure how good it is, or if 1.5 ounces is enough for two boots
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doesnt sound like a lot of glue to do the job. I have
used aqua seal for a long time and its a great product for what ive used it for. Everything from cracked wires on recharger cables for phones to neoprene wader repair.
 
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CRO said:
doesnt sound like a lot of glue to do the job. I have
used aqua seal for a long time and its a great product for what ive used it for. Everything from cracked wires on recharger cables for phones to neoprene wader repair.
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I'm going to use both 1.5 ounce tubes for one pair of boots. I bought a tube of shoe goo for the other pair.....it's like 3.7 ounces I think. I can do a side by side comparison.


Seems to me, the most important part of this process is the prep work, and then using a lot of glue, and getting good contact. Then use something (duct tape) to press the sole, and boot together.
 
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I used to glue up felt to uh old boots. I used whatever glue came with the kit. I would put light pressure on boot solexwitg grinder to take odd old glue and rough up surface. Fill boots with newspaper tight. Use duct tape to hold boot soles tight by making maximum pressure and wrapping duct tape completely around boot. Then letting it dry for the amount of time recommended by adhesive company. Did it maybe 6 times and felt never delaminated.

I am with Tom. discovered Korkers brand. Sole wears out? Buy a new one and pop it on. I love versatility of diff sole for stream, boat and hiking.
 
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I had the original korkers boots back in the day. Nice, but the leather would shrink up so much had to dump water on em to get feet back in. Had the mudder duckers too. They were pretty cheap, and the upper didn't last. I will look into korkers when I do get a new pair. Hoping to get a few more years out of my two pairs of Simms, after felt sole replace
 
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