Barry

I quite new here...'don't think I'm allowed to post pictures yet. But on the website, dance.net, under tap pictures, you can see a pair of red stilettos with brass jingle taps on the heels. The adjusting screws are held in place by Loc Tite. I made the taps for a dancer named Tammy of "Taptease.com." I don't think she's danced on the net since '07; but she did quite a few videos for You Tube and Revver.com. I'm still setting up the bronze casting equipment to make pointy toe taps. They can be bandsawed from brass sheet (1/8"); but it is much better to cast them hollow with plenty of air space underneath. Aluminum such as alloy 356 or 319 works well; but bell bronze (B-20) is very resonant sounding and longer wearing than aluminum. It should work very well on parade boots. Oh, I am known as "Taphead25" on Dance.net; but I frequently use my real first name. I am "Yehudi" on You Tube...check out my videos of bronze/aluminum taps for heeled majorette boots. Much more stuff to come when the furnace is hot again. The electricity will be on next week. I think the high heel fans need to hear more metal underfoot!

I use a mini lathe to turn dowelled heel "lifts" (tips) from brass. If a "D"-shaped tip is desired I either turn the round piece oversize and belt sand the deges; or I saw it from 1/4" plate and silver solder the dowell into a close fitting hole. With steel tips you can use brass brazing rod and the original dowells to make properly fitting metal tips. For the toes I usually cast bronze or aluminum taps similar to the ones used for tap dancing, but much more pointy. These are cast in Petrobond sand from wooden patterns that are easy to make out of white pine. The toe taps can be attached to the shoe sole with clinch nails or small wood screws, if you want to easily remove them later. You can get fancy and use standoff washers around the screws and oversized holes in the tap to create a slightly loose effect that is really noisy. Fred Astaire did that one commercially in 1948; but it was never available to fit stiletto shoes. A metallic high heel strike needs an equally sharp toe drop to get maximum attention.

Thank you for letting me join the group. I have loved high heels since my earliest memory...probably as much for their sound as for their looks. To that end I am entering a retirement hobby of making bell bronze taps for both the toes and heels of stiletto shoes and boots. I did considerable commercial work in the 90's on women's tap shoes and boots: dancers; majorettes, drill teams, that sort of stuff. Our next door neighbor when I was under 6 yrs. old was a shoemaker in Texas; and how I loved to visit his shop and just smell the glue and the polish on a cold Saturday morning! I guess he "marked" me for life with the shoe fetish! Or else it was weird Aunt Betty who massaged my special purpose with her green shoes while I was either held or tied up by her husband. The rather pleasant recurring nightmares continued until I was grown. As I approached puberty there was Grandma's closet with its gleaming black patent "Sunday go to meeting" heels in many styles. Conveniently this closet adjoined the bathroom....you know the rest! It was electrifying. So was college in the late 60's....so many cute babes in heels and sexy flats; often with those "clickety-click" steel heel taps that mimic the sound of high heels on concrete. Sadly, not many women wear metal taps on high heels today...perhaps they are illegal...which is even more reason to bring them back! Well, enough rambling! I look forward to sharing ideas and experiences with the group...what a blessing the internet has been!