Orvis Wading Boot Sole Replacement

[Clarmy]

Looking for advice on adhesives to use to re-glue sole on Orvis wading boot. On-line searches coming up kinda empty. Anyone ever use double sided tape? Any process suggestion for performing this exercise is appreciated.

 

[kbobb]

In the olden days we used contact cement or "barge" cement to glue felt soles on boots. Not sure if this will work with newer materials like rubber soles. Hope someone else chimes in. There are a couple you tube vids but these are not for underwater boots.

 

[RLeep2]

Barge works if you can find it. So does Aquaseal, but it gets pricey to do it with Aquaseal.

Here's what I do if I'm using Barge:

Make sure your boot surface is as clean as you can make it. It's OK to leave a little felt if its clean and doesn't make a noticeable bump.

Stuff your shoes with as much wadded up newspaper as they will hold to form a firm rigid last. Make sure the new felt is sized to the boot bottom. Any overlap, especially at the toe, will pry at the felt when you walk and then, you'll be putting another new set of felts on sooner than you'd like....

Spread a healthy layer of Barge on both surfaces covering them completely. Use more glue than you think you need. It's hard to use too much and easy to not use enough. The new felts will suck up some glue so use even more on them. Wait 15-20 minutes for it to get tacky and fit felts to boot bottom pressing them firmly into place at all points. Get it right the first time because that's the only chance you'll get..

Put several wraps of duct tape around the boots covering all bonded surfaces several times, Make the tightest wraps you can without distorting book shape. This is where having a good last comes in handy. Just as it is hard to use too much glue, its also hard to use too much duct tape. Wrap them thoroughly.

Go away and leave them alone for at least 12 hours. 18-24 is better, actually.

Remove all the duct tape and go fish.

This is what I do and it has always worked for me...

 

[Bamboozle]

Barge Cement is what shoemakers use and they glue all kinds of stuff to all kinds of stuff.

Also, any cement will soak into felt so IF you are gluing felt, the trick is to apply cement to the felt, let it soak in, let it dry and apply some more.

Keep doing that until you get a layer of glue on the felt which has soaked in so it sticks to what you apply on the bottom of the shoe.

 

[atticus]

I bought The Orvis Pro wading boot with the Michelin Tire soles less than a year ago and the sole is already separating. Shoe Goo seams to be holding up well. Will be going back to Simms.

 

[Clarmy]

thanks for the suggestions. I'm no spring chicken but never heard of barge cement so a clue as to where to find it would be good.

 

[Bamboozle]

You should be able to find Barge Cement online.

You will be much less likely to find it anywhere else other than a shoemaker's shop, leather working supply and sometimes in fly or tackle shops.

I did see the Michael's sells the Toluene free version but I never used that so I can't comment if it is better, worse or the same as the stuff that comes in the yellow & red can or tube.

 

[atticus]

If you use shoe goo let it set up for 48 hours before use. Like i said holding up well so far.

 

[Clarmy]

Just to finish what I started, I ended up using the FlexSeal product in the tube (white). It's tacky right out of the tube so it holds immediately and didn't require any pressure or clamping to keep the sole pressed to the boot. Result so far is it's worked great. Been out half dozen time with them on.

 

[martinlf]

Good to hear this. I've had my Orvis Pro boots replaced twice due to the soles separating. It's a known issue with Orvis, and seems to have been due to a bad glue batch. I'm hoping this third time the soles won't separate. The Michelin soles are nice, but seem to be made from a kind of rubber that few glues will stick to. Aquaseal will not stick. I put a bead of it around the sole/midsole seam on my previous pair to reinforce the bond, and it pealed right away from the sole, though it stuck to the midsole. I've wondered about Barge, but haven't tried it. So far I've been able to return the boots for replacements each time the soles separated. Supposedly Orvis is shutting this down after a year's use now. I have had good results with Flex Glue (not Flex Seal) on other boot repairs, and will likely try it if I have problems and Orvis won't replace.

 

[wildtrout2]

This wasn't the actual sole, but I guess it's considered the "upper sole"? Anyway, I posted about this quite a while ago. I used Gorilla Glue to fix my separation issue, and it has held for two years now. It isn't pretty, but it works. The glue dries white in color, so I took a magic marker and made it black. lol

 

[Bamboozle]

That's called a midsole in shoemaker parlance.

The welt or the connection between sole & midsole is made to the midsole. In the good old days, it was a stitched connection. These days on cheaper to manufacture wedge sole/heel combos, it is most often glued despite cosmetic stitching around the sole or it's an injected welt where the shoe upper is inserted into the sole material while it is in a melted or liquid state creating a fused connection.

In regards to glue; it isn't the same thing, but I once tried using some Flex Glue to attach a small piece of leather to the polyurethane coating on a waterproof pouch. Once it cured properly, I could peel the leather right off, so I passed on using it. It was also easy as heck to scrape the leftover Flex Glue off the polyurethane coating with my fingernail.

If you have a glue job failure and want to repair it, it makes a huge difference if you know what you are gluing to what, so a call to the manufacturer may be in order. Below is an application chart for Barge products. (FWIW - I ended up using their Infinity product for my leather to polyurethane gluing job):