blog post series by James Ducker on adhesives
Water-Based Craft Paste
- they use Hirschkleber
- can also use Metrotex, but more expensive
- important: water based
- dries slowly
- dries hard
- can be softened with water
- applications
- stiffeners and toe puffs
- position and last before it dries
- easy to repair
- can wet and reshape to change heel pocket shape
- building heels
- “paste and nails”
- helps close the edges
- rasps and sands at same rate as leather
- Don’t do the very edges. They will wash away.
- relatively easy to take apart
- stiffeners and toe puffs
- alternatives
- wallpaper paste
- flour and water
- starch
- Hirschkleber made from potato starch and preservatives
- need preservatives
-
will rot
Solvent-Based Contact Cement
- they use Renia Colle de Cologne
- aka neoprene
- strongest glue they use
- essential
- must put on both surfaces in thin layers
- must allow to take 5-30 minutes
- can leave overnight, then revive with heat gun or hair dryer, producing even stronger bond
- only works on porous surfaces
- applications
- attaching soles
- splicing welts for welted heels
- shanks and filler
- top pieces
- closing channels after stitching
- issues
- can leave a line between layers
- can’t reposition once stuck
- toxic
- extremely strong
- they were taught not to use for shanks or filler because taking off the sole will take shank and filler with it, but they do all their own repairs and don’t care
Rubber Cement
- they use Renia Gummilösung “Extra”
- weaker than contact cement
- things you might want to take apart later
- Lobb taught to use for soles before stitching, but they switched to contact cement
-
So that leaves not much else to use it for.
- application: sock liners
- can put a dollop on insole and a bit on sock liner
- can move around, let dry in place
Final Notes
- can rub either contact cement or rubber cement off uppers without marking
- for hard to reach stains, ruby off with a piece of sole, insole, or outsole leather