Hi there,
I have recently brought some Aldens and am wanting to 'darken' them to match what Indy had in the films.I have heard you can use a mixture of red and black boot cream (not polish) or the use of Pecards Brown weatherproof dressing and then switch over to Pecards Classic leateher dressing. What do you do? :
Hi.carefully sand them down..I mean carefully.you DONT want to ripp the seams after that find a leather dye that you find SA and gentley apply it with a clean cloth.after that add pecards to soften them up again
I've tried the brown Pecard's and it's okay. It helps a little, but it's still reddish. I've really wanted to try sanding them down with a very fine grit (like 1500 or something), but I haven't had the guts. I actually wear them almost every day in my office, and although I like the distressed look, I still need them to look nice.
I read a thread somewhere on COW where someone used the lighter/soot method as well. It looked really good. Afterward, you would smear around the soot build-up with your finger. A combination of methods may work pretty well I suppose. Again you wouldn't want to burn seams or leave the lighter in any one place too long.
I've experimented with mixing dark brown and mid-brown polish. No sanding for me. I figure that unlike a jacket, boots take a sufficient beating just doing daily duty.
I use this method with all my leather products. Leather is skin and when I want to darken my skin I go out in the sun. I put alot of pecards on whips, boots, holsters, etc. and leave them out to soak up the sun and they darkens up great. I don't like to use dyes for fear they will rub off.
Back when they were coming in the pumpkin orange, I found that using a coat of leather dye (I think Russett Fiebings to be the best) did an excellant job. (Can be found at most shoe repair shops.)
Many years ago Mr. Michaelson told me to use Meltonian Shoe Cream, the color was BRICK. I have been using it with great success on my 405’s for the last 7 years.
The brick color darkens the leather just right.
Just FYI.
Regards,
Forrestal
My boots started out being the pumpkin orange we all loved so much. After a few years of adventuring (which mellowed the color a bit), I took Michaelson's advice... some Meltonian polish, followed by brown Pecard. I now use neutral Pecard for subsequent treatments...
Do you mean Meltonian? It is essentially a type of shoe polish. It does absorb into the leather, but not to the extent of a dye, if that is what you are asking. The original color will still sort of "show through."
Mine also started out as the lovely "pumpkin" color (yech!). As soon as I got them, I gave them a good, heavy coat of Red Wing shoe dressing. This seems to be very similar to the old "Hubbard's Shoe Grease" that was around for our grandfathers to use! Anyway, I let that soak in for a few days, rubbing it in periodically and warming it over the wood stove. I wiped off the excess, and let it dry. After that, I gave them a coat on neutral Kiwi shoe polish, and this is the result, shown with my Red Wing Classics from J. Crew for comparison. It didn't darken them that much, but cut some of the "orange".
I was watching Raiders the other day and I came to the truck chase scene at the end. After Indy gains control of the truck, they show a close up of his foot on the gas pedal. I paused that shot and zoomed in on it, his boots looked almost identical to the color that Aldens are now. They had a reddish brown color to them. Maybe todays color isn't as far off from screen accurate as most think. Does anyone have any input on this... or possibly the screencap that Im talking about?
It's possible that dust and dirt may have disguised the actual boot color in the movie....maybe if it was polished off, that classic orange-brown would show through.
Does anyone know how to take a screen cap with windows vista? I use windows media player. I tried the printscreen button but I couldn't get it to work. I want to post a pic of that screen cap from the movie.
Here is that screen cap that I was talking about. The boots definitely look reddish brown to me, not plain brown. They look like the present color of Aldens, albeit scuffed and dirtied.
Has anybody had any luck with just repeated applications of the dark brown Pecards? I bought a small tin of that stuff and it's darkened the shoes a *little* but not as much as I'd like.
However, I think the brown Pecards is GREAT for dulling down the bright stitching!
I'm trying something new right now - I'm using a cloth, wetting it a little bit with the Pecards Shoe Oil, then dipping that into the brown Pecards, and darkening the shoe like this. I'll post pictures later.
Anybody check with a Cobbler for professional advice? Certainly anyone who wears a pair in the Northeast US will not have to do much distressing or "aging". Though that sole is not ideal for slippery winter weather.
Well, I did one of my shoes! I think the results are pretty nice, and that if I did this again in a week or two, the color could be even better.
(Top: The shoes as they were originally, shown at Ft. Mac - Nov. 2007. Middle: The shoes after several coats of brown pecards, and today's coating of brown Pecards + Pecards Shoe Oil. Bottom: The color of the shoes after several coats of just brown Pecards; as they looked after the QM but before the Pecards + Shoe oil color.)
So how do you guys keep the stitching across the top so white? I’ve had my Alden’s maybe a week or so and the stitching is already the same color as the boot. Any advice would be great thanks in advance
i just cleaned mine up with saddle soap. then, after they were dry, i hit them with regular pecards, coating them evenly, then i soaked the pecards in with a blow drier. three coats of pecards, & bam!!! dark brown...
I put a coat of Pecards Leather Dressing on there...then dried it on low heat with a hair dryer to let it really soak into the leather...I did this about 4 times...
Next I put a coat of the Pecards on there and let it sit over night...Just to seal in the color...
Next I polished them with some Johnston & Murphys neutral shoe cream to give them a nice shine...
I like the contrast of the white stitching so that's why I wen't with the neutral shoe cream...
And the other pair (The pair I'm wearing in the pic) is just an old beat em up pair that I have had for a while now...
I put a coat of Pecards Leather Dressing on there...then dried it on low heat with a hair dryer to let it really soak into the leather...I did this about 4 times...
Next I put a coat of the Pecards on there and let it sit over night...Just to seal in the color...
Next I polished them with some Johnston & Murphys neutral shoe cream to give them a nice shine...
I like the contrast of the white stitching so that's why I wen't with the neutral shoe cream...
And the other pair (The pair I'm wearing in the pic) is just an old beat em up pair that I have had for a while now...
If you leave them out in the sun, constantly drying and wetting the stitches can basically make them loosen. That's all I'm saying. I remember on another forum someone did that and the stitching holding the vamp together started to tear apart because the stitching was so brittle from all the heat/pecard. He did this every day with them when he got home from work.
I'm stepping in what you're dropping. I guess "all the heat" doesn't apply to me though, since I'm in New England, so sun drying happened at a nice 70 degrees.
I could see how doing that every day would ruin them. I'm done with the pecard darkening treatment. What I meant to say was that I did it 5 or six times, but not any more than that.
I guess your warning does make sense though, I would not recommend anyone treating their boots everyday. That (besides costing a fortune in Pecards!) seems like overkill.
Whatever. Just retelling a story i heard. I've also had really really bad experiences leaving leather goods outside in the summer, so I totally believe it.
Haven't been to this thread in forever...Here is an update on my pair that I darkened with Pecards...No dye job or anything like that...Only Pecards and Johnston & Murphy neutral shoe cream...I've used Pecards on them now once since I initially did the darkening treatment that I talked about earlier in this thread and used the Johnston & Murphy shoe cream maybe twice...They've lightened back up a bit but it's turned into a nice dark flat brown color and I really love it...
and Thank You Ram for posting the info for me...Much appreciated since I don't have to type all that out again along with this...Whew! Thanks...
and this picture came out too light for some reason...
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