Making Some Wedges

[Nova]

I'm gonna try and make some wedges (eventually) out of some 5.5" heels I've got. They were fairly cheap, the shoes are kinda scuffed up, and one of the heels is broken, so I figure they are good candidates for experiments. Does anyone have any suggestions for what material to make the wedges out of? I was thinking of using wood, because I might be able to shape it the way I want. What type of wood might work best? If not wood, then what other material might allow me to create a strong wedge that I can shape? Also, does anyone have suggestions for attaching the wedges? I was probably going to use the same kind of nails that were used to attach the existing heel, but I'd welcome other ideas.

[jmc]

I would probably try it with wood. Most likely pine because it is a softer wood that is easier to shape. Since you are making a wedge heel, strength is not an overriding issue -- a solid block under your foot isn't going to go anywhere. (Were you making more of a stiletto type heel you would definitely want to run the grain vertically in the heel itself.) Some of the hardwoods get a little bit heavy too. If this were my project I would run the grain horizontally and I would make a little platform under the toe -- between 1/2" and 3/4" thickness. The heel would rise up from there and the entire shoe bottom would be one piece. With a belt sander one could roll off the toe quite nicely. I'd make the bottom one piece to support the toe of the original shoe upper. If one were to fashion a wedge heel and attach it to the back of an existing shoe, I can envision a lot of pulling stress at the joint between the original sole and the block heel as one walked. Once I had a shoe-bottom I was happy with, I would stain it to go with the upper and really douse it with a good polyurethane finish. I would do at least three coats for waterproofing. I would use an epoxy glue like J-B Weld to attach the shoe upper to the wooden bottom. It can be used to fill gaps between the upper and the bottom too. Oh, and one last tidbit -- inner-tube rubber makes dandy non-slip soles. Glue them on with a good rubber contact cement like Pliobond or DAP Weldwood Contact Cement. Hmmm -- almost talking myself into a project here. . .

[Nova]

Dee-zamn! Very informative, thanks. I've got a bit of background in construction so this stuff should not be a problem. I think getting the shape just right might be the trickiest part. As this will be my first project of this nature, I'm not expecting it to be perfect. Now I just need to find some time to do this!

[terayon]

let us know how this turns out I've been contemplating a project like this myself for quite some time as well. I was going to try and use some type of rubber to fill in the gap between between the heel and angled sole to make chunky non wedge heels into wedges. Dont know what type of rubber to use for this though so its on the backburner for now.

[onyourtoes]

I've fitted a (well waxed) cardboard form around the heel of a shoe extending to the arch so as to make a mold for a wedge, then filled it with Bondo auto body filler and let it harden. It actually worked, but is a potentially extremely messy project. Make sure the mold is well taped to the shoe, and won't leak -- the Bondo is quite a thick mixture so you'd expect it to not leak -- but it's also heavy so will bulge the mold and maybe force your tape to tear off. It also tends to bulge at the sides -- perhaps cardboard isn't the best mold material... So, it's messy, it's mostly permanent, and the resulting wedges are very heavy.

[vector]

Here's an idea... Maybe next time try using a cardboard (or thin wood) form attached to the underside of the heel so you use less bondo and it's lighter.