Making your own Pirate Boots tutorial

[liarr]

So I've grown tired of the previous boots I had, since they were..shoddy. I took a pair of engineer's boots, and glued upholstery suede of the proper color to the outside, and fashioned bucket tops. To the unknowing eye, they were fine. To me? They were a size and a half too big and hurt my feet, and were always too close to coming undone. They're fantastically durable though, and look awesome. But I wanted REAL boots, but a pair that wouldnt break the bank. So off I went to Tandy Leather, and here is my ill-taken photographic account of what happened.


I found these boots a local Buffalo Exchange for $15! Square toed! Large foot entrance! Poifect!


And then I cut off the shaft..


And used said shaft to size the new shaft (pretend that's what is happening in this picture. I'm not good at documenting things)


then I started gluing!



Now I'm out of glue.

Having never seen CAboots unfolded, I'm assuming that the bell and shaft are a singular piece? I realized that after cutting my pattern..so my bell is going to have to be separate, but attached on the inside to fold over properly. I'm out of glue now though.
OLD BOOTS VS POTENTIAL

And here's a bonus shot of me, working-at-the-mall-jack

[Captain McCool]

Actually, the bells on the CABoots are not in fact one piece (unlike historical boots of this kind, which WERE generally once piece, but I digress). So attaching a separate bell is actually quite accurate for Jack.

[liarr]

oo! nice to know. I'm still trying to work out how to cut the correct(ish) angle for the bell..

[Captain McCool]

Okay, so this is a (very rough) basic pattern I drafted ages ago when making fake cuffs to go on top of my first ever Jack Sparrow boots. Mind you, I strongly recommend trying this out first with newspaper, or fabric, or something like that, before actually cutting it out of the leather. That's how I actually came up with the pattern in the first place - I spent about three hours playing with a bunch of newspaper until I got it to lay basically how I wanted it.

The only major modifications to this basic shape I might suggest are #1: adding a slight point to the front (Jacks boots do appear do have a very slight, rounded-off point), and perhaps rounding out the back where the two sides meet, so you don't get such a pronounced inverted "v" shape in the rear.

[Mojo Turbo]

yea I am sure anyone with a pair of caboots will take whatever pics you need...

[liarr]

lol, McCool posted that just as I finished cutting the second bell - with no leather to play with. The bell is..um..backwards, with the point in the back. How... i dont know .

And Mojo, your post comes as I've got the bells setting in the shafts with badger glue. Argh...and so, is my life. There's a lot of bell to play with though, so I'm sure I could cut it to the right size.

Mojo, the very front tip of the bell I've got at 10 inches. What length is the back end at?

[Mrs. Captain Jack Sparrow]

Hey,
I own 2 pairs of Caboots by default. I got my first pair and only wore them 4 times and only had them for 4 months and they started falling apart! What the heck man?! So I talked to Joey and he sent me another pair......without having to send the ones I have back already. (Lucky me, I am hearing from many other Caboot wearers). Second pair I got were completely a different style, size and toe! Couldn't even get my calf in them. Wow! I noticed the bells on the second pair were alot smaller as well. My first pair has a larger bell on it. Anyways....sent back the second pair and got a 3rd pair in the mail. They look alot better but I need to take them to a boot store and have them stretched out ALOT! I like my first pair better, but hey, I guess I can't complain since I have 2 pairs now.
I am not sure on what the exact measurements on the bells are. Let me check......10" Cuff on my Caboots.
Hope this helps some....

[liarr]

finished! finito?





MEASUREMENTS
BOOT 10
SHAFT - 20 inches
BELL - FRONT- 10inch BACK 8inch

Now I've got to work on weathering it. I'm thinking about pulling the back of the bells in so they aren't so wide.

[BroadSword]

How much leather did you buy?

[liarr]

weathered!

I bought about 21.27 square feet of suede ( a basic side of leather - its the standard piece they sell) from Tandy Leather, for about...70ish, but i also have a discounted business account.

[Mojo Turbo]

them look like pirate boots to me...

[liarr]

them look like pirate boots to me...

I am incredibly please with them, Mojo. And my birthday is in 2 days, so it's like a nice early present for myself!

[BroadSword]

21.7...got it! Would mind sharing your weathering techniques?

[liarr]

Keep in mind 21.7 gave me very little room for mistakes. However, going to a leather store..thats about the standard size for a side of leather. They come sometimes a foot less or a foot more. Weathering..

Brown boot polish applied in circles , trying best to keep the color even - then go over in areas that would be more dirty. Then, I gave a nice light coat of brown meltonian spray dye (and I mean a light coat..just enough to have color), then over that with some black shoe polish in strategic dirty spots.

[Captain McCool]

Very nicely done! Baravo!

[BroadSword]

I'll be sure to make patterns on paper first. Other questions.

1. In the tutorial, it talks about applying glue to both surfaces and then letting it dry. Not having much experience with leather glue, how dry is "dry"?? It seems to me if the glue is dry then how does it stick? Maybe I'm just missing something here, so your first hand knowledge would be great.

2. Did you double up the shafts like the tutorial mentions?

[BroadSword]

Oh and BTW..if anyone is looking for the tutorial and for some reason the tutorial disappears (his website comes and goes as of late)...I made word document out of it.

[liarr]

I'll be sure to make patterns on paper first. Other questions.

1. In the tutorial, it talks about applying glue to both surfaces and then letting it dry. Not having much experience with leather glue, how dry is "dry"?? It seems to me if the glue is dry then how does it stick? Maybe I'm just missing something here, so your first hand knowledge would be great.

Badger (EDIT: BARGE!! BARGE! I get badger and barge mixed up :/) glue (the glue you should be using for this) is contact cement - when you let two surfaces dry and attach them, they are basically inseparable. I let them get tacky and mostly dry before attaching them. I have attached them with wet glue and let them sit, but the connection is nowhere near as strong as letting to surfaces dry. I would say to experiment and see how it works for yourself.

2. Did you double up the shafts like the tutorial mentions?

I did not, but the tutorial's leather was quite thin. My suede looks to be about as thick as CABoot's Sparrow boot's, even though mine has no lining.

[Captain McCool]

Yeah, and as for the glue (you can also use Barge cement. Might be the same thing, actually), I generally let it sit a few minutes until it starts to set up and get really tacky, but before it becomes completely 100% dry, and then stick it together.

[liarr]

Barge. Barge. That's totally what I meant, not badger. lol

[Mrs. Captain Jack Sparrow]

WOW!!!! They came out great! It takes talent to do something like that. Bravo mate!

[BroadSword]

I plan to use this...is this what you used?

http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/en-usd/home/department/Leather/SuedesSplits/9108-05.aspx

[liarr]

I'm fairly sure that's what I used. I purchased it in person though, so..yeah. But I think that's what I used..premium suede split..yes. I did not use economy (with the sale going, premium is cheaper than econo!)

[BroadSword]

Can you take some shots of where the bell attaches and the back seam?

I had bought this glue for another project....will this work? It says Barge on it:

[BroadSword]

SHAFT - 20 inches

What is this measurement based on? Did you just decide on 20 inches? The tutorial says to make the shaft as long as your leg and I'm assuming your leg is longer than 20 inches. I'm doing the patterns tonight so I was curious. What is your height for reference?

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