OT? - Keeping shoe laces done up

[Ed Sirett]

After tying the bow, tie the loops together with a simple overhand knot. It means undoing the laces is a little more work but then you never have to retie them the whole day.

[N. Thornton]

Tell us here Mary - then I'll tell you how to make lovely decorative laces.

Regards, NT

[Mary Fisher]

Our laces and cords are beautiful and decorative already.

We sell the instructions.

Mary

[mike ring]

Robert wrote in news:O32EJ9HvF1QBFwNQ@192.168.1.11:

It's strange, I don't have this prob because my laces, like my shoes, are reely reely old.

All frayed, not much actual lace left, etc, but they stay tied up.

They even stay tied up "loosely"; the knot is tied pretty tight, but there's alot of slack, so the shoe is more of a slip-on.

And the laces are very polished on the surface - it may be a bit like putting polish on them.

I hate to buy new shoes as the laces won't stay tied up (and I'm a skinflint)

mike

[Dave Stanton]

You should have watched trade secrets on Sat BBC2, lots of tips on renovating shoes. Keep an eye open for it coming around again.

Dave

[Jonathan]

In the army we rubbed laces with shoepolish mixed with some cordite. This impregnates the laces and makes them sticky enough to keep tied, yet lubricated enough to untie when covered in water/mud/entrails.

Jonathan

[Jonathan G Campbell]

Yep, that's what athletics runners use. Works with even the crappiest of synthetic material. And you can still undo without undoing the top knot -- always a consideration for runners, e.g. when a shoe comes off after someone steps on your heel, and hands may be numb.

Best regards,

Jon C.

[Mary Fisher]

It's how we taught our children to do it ...

Mary

[Pet]

My more "refined" version is similar to the above, but once you have tied your initial "bow" tie a second Bow with the loops but instead of pulling the new "over the thumb" bow right through, Leave it doubled back on it's self.

Not the prettiest of bows, but never comes undone accidentilly and dead easy to undo by pulling the looped-back loop (the end that wasn't pulled all the way through) which dispose of the secondary bow for regular shoe lace undoing.

Hope somone other than me followed that.

:¬)

[Zipadee Doodar]

Regular soaking in urine will help. The nitrogen in the urea combines with the unfixed hydrocarbons in the synthetic element of the laces and creates "sticky" molecules which tend to adhere to each other by molecular attraction. Soak them weekly and you will have no further trouble. And its cheap......

ZD

[Set Square]

Well mine don't! Maybe that's the problem. Perhaps I need to re-adjust my aim.

Don't think SWMBO would be too happy about the bathroom carpet though!

[Jon Nicoll]

Or, you could investigate "Ian's shoelace site":

Jon N

[Andy Dingley]

Have you ever used sewing patterns from Folkwear ? (if not, take a look at

or I'm making up one of their Kinsale cloaks at the moment, and they have an awful lot to say about Irish traditions of urine-based fulling - it wasn't just the men who did the barefoot work.

[Mary Fisher]

Of course not :-)

We make our own.

My reference to little boys was inspired by the idea of applying urine to a yurt :-)

Urine was used in fulling but it's not essential, especially these days. You can get the same effects with soap. That's what hand felt makers use.

As I'm sure you know

Mary

>

[Chip C]

Tie 'em with a slipped reef knot instead of what you're likely using now, a slipped granny knot; the difference is a matter of "right over left, twist, left over right, twist" instead of "right over left, twist, repeat". See pics and some other alternatives (along with, er, "testimonials") at

.

Chip C