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So, the show finally closed and everything's come back from wardrobe to be restocked and i can give you guys the followup on how 1812 industrial adhesive performed as a substitute for Barge.
The verdict is: a cautious hooray!
I wound up sending two pairs onstage with soles rubberized using 1812, and one pair with the ol' toxic standby, Barge. During the course of a month's run, one of the Barged pair dropped its rubber under the ball of the foot and had to be reglued. This is pretty much par for the course, IME, particularly with very active performers--there's always one shoe that the bond somehow didn't set right on that has to get redone at some point in the run. Both pairs rubberized using 1812 did have peelage in the instep of the arch, but that was easily fixed by reapplying the glue and clamping it good overnight. I think also some of the peeling might be chalked up to my learning curve on working with the medium. I just rubberized another pair of shoes and sent them into rehearsal for a new show, so we'll see if those peel as well, or if the bond is better now that i'm getting into the swing of using the adhesive. All told though, it seems really promising as a good quality Barge replacement!
In other shoe news, anyone who's used those rubber-foam-soled gladiator sandals that International Male sells knows, those bastards always split right through the middle of the sole. Seriously, all the way through, every pair it seems! What a design flaw. They usually can handle maybe a 3-week run of a show, but then they're worthless, the sole all flapping like granny's jaw. I need some for my event that's coming this Saturday though for an ancient Greek character, and we've got a pair but of course the sole's split.
Today i'm trying a new idea for fixing those, and if it works, i'll let you know how it goes. I've repaired the crack with Gorilla Glue, and "clamped" it back together using a staplegun, shooting the staples down into the cracks of the tread so that in theory, i can just leave the staples IN the sole (they are short enough not to come close to penetrating the footbed of the shoe, of course, for actor safety). If it works, i might have just found a way to make those damn shoes wear longer, which would be great, since they are indispensable for shows set in that period.
The verdict is: a cautious hooray!
I wound up sending two pairs onstage with soles rubberized using 1812, and one pair with the ol' toxic standby, Barge. During the course of a month's run, one of the Barged pair dropped its rubber under the ball of the foot and had to be reglued. This is pretty much par for the course, IME, particularly with very active performers--there's always one shoe that the bond somehow didn't set right on that has to get redone at some point in the run. Both pairs rubberized using 1812 did have peelage in the instep of the arch, but that was easily fixed by reapplying the glue and clamping it good overnight. I think also some of the peeling might be chalked up to my learning curve on working with the medium. I just rubberized another pair of shoes and sent them into rehearsal for a new show, so we'll see if those peel as well, or if the bond is better now that i'm getting into the swing of using the adhesive. All told though, it seems really promising as a good quality Barge replacement!
In other shoe news, anyone who's used those rubber-foam-soled gladiator sandals that International Male sells knows, those bastards always split right through the middle of the sole. Seriously, all the way through, every pair it seems! What a design flaw. They usually can handle maybe a 3-week run of a show, but then they're worthless, the sole all flapping like granny's jaw. I need some for my event that's coming this Saturday though for an ancient Greek character, and we've got a pair but of course the sole's split.
Today i'm trying a new idea for fixing those, and if it works, i'll let you know how it goes. I've repaired the crack with Gorilla Glue, and "clamped" it back together using a staplegun, shooting the staples down into the cracks of the tread so that in theory, i can just leave the staples IN the sole (they are short enough not to come close to penetrating the footbed of the shoe, of course, for actor safety). If it works, i might have just found a way to make those damn shoes wear longer, which would be great, since they are indispensable for shows set in that period.
