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[Knnn]

I previously purchased new felts from Highwater tackle on the north shore and Larry's Sports would remove the old and glue on the new.  One set of my Simms are over 7 years old and have been re-felted twice now.  Because I was wearing through felts every 6 months I switched to Vibram (not as gripey) to reduce the wear rate which I augmented with studs.   Not sure if felts are still available at Highwater or if Larry's still do replacements, but may be worth calling.

[Spawn Sack]

Thanks knnn, I will hit up high Water tackle and see if I get anywhere with them.

Regarding the comment by GordJ about using crampons, studs and similar. For me, the only time I would use such a sole is in snow/ice. Or maybe if I'm hiking in on a trail that I know is slippery/muddy. For 99% of my fishing I like felt.
I have tried the Korkers alumabar soles. They DID actually grip slippery rocks quite well. However, they are heavy and clunky/loud for most of the places I fish. The bars also broke and fell off the soles at an alarming rate. Like maybe 10-15 times out steelheading I had lost 1-2 bars per sole and others showed signs of failing. I contacted korkers and requested a set of carbide stud soles instead. They sent me a set, which has been fine for the odd day on snow/ice.
I will also say that if you wear the studs for walking on regular rocks they are terrible, unless you like the sound of nails on a chalk board all day. And, I find they do not grip the big smooth rocks that well (think Tamahai area). It's like the rocks are TOO hard and smooth. The only exception would be slimey rocks. Felt tends to slip on these whereas the studs bite well.

I own two pairs of Korkers that I use from time to time. One pair is older with the boa lace system. I like them for boat launching as they are ultra fast to pop on/off. I have vibram soles on these as they are grippy on muddy boat launches and sand and crap does not stick to them like felt, which then gets tracked into the boat. My other pair are lace up. They are more comfortable and what I reluctantly wear steelheading ATM. I have felt soles on them 99% of the time. Will occasionally put the studs on if I know I'm heading out to snow/ice. Having had like 5-6 pairs of korkers (most warranty replacement)  over about 15 years I will say that every pair has pretty much sucked. Not that well made, not that comfortable, although the replaceable soles IS THE BEES KNEES. I will also say that Korkes warranty replacement HAS been very good to me and have given me a new pair several times times with minimal hassle. By comparison, I have had to deal with Simms warranty replacement just once for a G3 jacket many years ago, and they were beyong brutal and really dropped the ball.

I have pair of G3 boots with the felts worn right down to SFA, and an old pair of Simms Guide boots in the same shape. Not even wearable really the felts are so worn down. Still, I refuse to toss them out until I exhaust all of my refelting leads. They are definitely WAY more comfortable, especially the newer G3 pair, than any other pair of wading boots I have ever owned or tried on.

I sent Daniel K. a DM on instagram telling him that I cant find his refelting video. No reply back yet. Can't seem to find an email address on his insta or website.

If anyone has any better contact info for him please DM it to me on this site. Thank you.

[JBB]

 Spawn Sack , I did a google search on "refelting wading boots " and got several promising hits. Saw one video on youtube where a fellow carefully cut off the old felt and reglued using gorilla glue . Other adhesives were mentioned as well. It's worth a look .

[Spawn Sack]

Alright, I've been email/calling around and have some good info to report.

The Cobbler (Vancouver) got back to me and said they do re-felting for $180 +gst AND YOU HAVE TO SUPPLY YOUR OWN FELT! Ya, I'm serious. Give that that guy a miss. Jesus.

Didn't really have any other luck finding a cobbler that will do the labor work for you. As others have said, seems like a job no one really wants to do any more.

However, I got a hold of Daniel K. and he told me how to do it yourself. Does not sound that hard. Basically,

-Remove/sand the old felt off as best you can. You want a flat, clean, dry surface. He said no big deal if a bit of the old felt remains as long as it is stuck on really well and is clean/dry.
-Stuff rags in the boots so they'll hold their shape when you tape the crap out of them after.
-Good coating of E6000 glue on the felt and on the boot sole.
-Glue it in place, then tape the crap out of the boot with packing tape. Leave to cure for a few days.
-Remove tape, trim felt as needed with a box cutter
-IMPORTANT: after the felts are glued on and cured, go around the entire perimeter of the sole, and apply a coat of glue to the edge/outside of the sole, where it is adhered to the boot. Let that dry/cure for a day or two.

Dan said he just buys/uses the felt insoles from Mark's. They are about $12 for a pack of 4.

I plan to give this method a go on my older Simms Guide boots. If my glue job holds, I'll buy some more expensive felt and do my G3 boots. The felt insoles from Mark's look like they would shred pretty fast IMO. However, Dan says because it is softer felt, it bites REALLY well on wet slimey rocks.

As far as "more expensive felt" goes, Searun has some on their website that looks pretty good/thick for around $80 plus tax. I called Simms and they sell the OE felt for $80 USD and will ship it to a US postal address. The guy on the phone said it is the same as the OE felt, which IMO is far superior to any 100% felt you can buy in stores in Canada. 

[Roderick]

A couple of years ago I couldn't find any replacement felt at any tackle store at any price, so I went on line and bought the toughest, high quality industrial felt I could find, 3/4 inch thick, from a business called The Felt Store. The smallest portion they would sell is enough for 4 boot re-fleltings.    Went on great, looked great, worked really well, but did not last even half the summer beach fishing.  Ended up buying new boots because of the required drying time.

I still have enough for 3 more sets of felts. 

What I'm thinking I want to do is, before I put the felt on the boots, I want to soak the felt in some kind of liquid plastic stuff that will will soak all the way through, and then cure in to a flexible plastic.  Probably polyurethane.  I think that is what's done to the store bought felts.  My question though is, does anyone have any idea what particular product I could use? 

Any thoughts on this will be helpful.

[RalphH]

back in the day people used indoor/outcarpeting. I have no experience with it however.

I have also heard recommendations for the felt used in conveyor line belts.

[Aki]

I have Simms G3s and the felt was worn to nothing (over about 10 years or so)…I tried a couple of places in Maple Ridge and the felt fell off while fishing….I sent them back to Simms in Montana and for about $100 they did a great job…just like new…

[Spawn Sack]

Yaaaa, personally I think soaking them in anything like that would greatly compromise the grip of the felt on smiley rocks and similar. I get what you are thinking, as clearly the OE felt is not 100% felt; rather, they obviously soak the felt in something, or the material it's self is a blend of felt and resin or something that adds in durability but maintains its grip.

A couple of years ago I couldn't find any replacement felt at any tackle store at any price, so I went on line and bought the toughest, high quality industrial felt I could find, 3/4 inch thick, from a business called The Felt Store. The smallest portion they would sell is enough for 4 boot re-fleltings.    Went on great, looked great, worked really well, but did not last even half the summer beach fishing.  Ended up buying new boots because of the required drying time.

I still have enough for 3 more sets of felts. 

What I'm thinking I want to do is, before I put the felt on the boots, I want to soak the felt in some kind of liquid plastic stuff that will will soak all the way through, and then cure in to a flexible plastic.  Probably polyurethane.  I think that is what's done to the store bought felts.  My question though is, does anyone have any idea what particular product I could use? 

Any thoughts on this will be helpful.

Huh, interesting. I DO actually have a decent amount of indoor/outdoor carpet let over from redoing the bunks on my boat trailer. I can see it gripping alright and being reasonably durable. I'll probably just stick to using actual felt for now.

back in the day people used indoor/outcarpeting. I have no experience with it however.

I have also heard recommendations for the felt used in conveyor line belts.

Okay ... I'm guessing this pricing is a bit out of date as I just called Simms last week and the price for just the felts was $80 USD. Add in the cost of shipping them your boots there/back, plus whatever they charge for the labor ... probably more than I'd want to pay.

I have Simms G3s and the felt was worn to nothing (over about 10 years or so)…I tried a couple of places in Maple Ridge and the felt fell off while fishing….I sent them back to Simms in Montana and for about $100 they did a great job…just like new…

[Spawn Sack]

Okay ... I'm guessing this pricing is a bit out of date as I just called Simms last week and the price for just the felts was $80 USD. Add in the cost of shipping them your boots there/back, plus whatever they charge for the labor ... probably more than I'd want to pay.

UPDATE: I called Simms USA and the cost for them to re-do the felt is $150 USD, plus you are on the hook to ship them the boots. However, included in the price is return shipping within the USA. I still decided to just order the felts and glue them on myself.

I removed the last of the old felt off my G3 boots with a 40 grit flap disc (used on an angle grinder). Cleaned up the job with an 80 grit disc on my palm sander. Have not picked up the felts yet in Sumas, WA, but when I do my plan is to give the soles a wipe with acetone, and glue then on using E6000 ahhesive.


[/quote]

I have Simms G3s and the felt was worn to nothing (over about 10 years or so)…I tried a couple of places in Maple Ridge and the felt fell off while fishing….I sent them back to Simms in Montana and for about $100 they did a great job…just like new…

[Roderick]

To update my progress on re-felting my freestones for the third time...

As I said before, I bought natural, high density felt (actually 5/8 in thick) which, when I tried it last year, wore away very quickly.  I still had lots of felt left, so I wanted to try again. 

I bought a quart of oil based liquid polyurethane from Home Depot thinking it might be enough for a couple of sets of felts.  After a successful test on a small piece of scrap felt, I started pouring it on to felts that I had cut to a size just slightly bigger then the boot prints.  I was shocked to find myself pouring the whole quart on without it being enough.  The felts could have soaked up more.  The VOC stink was terrible.  Took 3 days before I could go near them. 

Instead of letting it cure completely, I just waited until they weren't tacky anymore, and glued them on to the boots using the marine grade Goop.  Since Goop is also polyurethane, I wanted the glue and the liquid polyurethane in the felts to bind and form a single piece.  Taking no chances, I used the equivalent of a whole tube of glue for each boot.  I have had them fall off before because I didn't use enough glue.  I applied a layer of glue to both the surface of the boot and the surface of the felt, let it de-gas for 10 or so minutes, and then applied more glue before putting them together.  The felts didn't absorb as much glue this time, I think because of the pre-treatment with the liquid. 

The cure time is critical because exposing polyurethane to water prematurely causes it to go a milky colour and fracture.  Because the solvent has no where to go except through the felt, it takes a long time.  The way I think about it, if you can still smell it, it's not finished curing.  I would say at least a month, if not 2. 

Total cost for materials for one pair came to about $110.  But these are twice as thick as most replacement felts, and I'm hoping they last a long time. I will do another update after I try them out and let you know how they work on slippery rocks. 

[psd1179]

To update my progress on re-felting my freestones for the third time...

As I said before, I bought natural, high density felt (actually 5/8 in thick) which, when I tried it last year, wore away very quickly.  I still had lots of felt left, so I wanted to try again. 

I bought a quart of oil based liquid polyurethane from Home Depot thinking it might be enough for a couple of sets of felts.  After a successful test on a small piece of scrap felt, I started pouring it on to felts that I had cut to a size just slightly bigger then the boot prints.  I was shocked to find myself pouring the whole quart on without it being enough.  The felts could have soaked up more.  The VOC stink was terrible.  Took 3 days before I could go near them. 

Instead of letting it cure completely, I just waited until they weren't tacky anymore, and glued them on to the boots using the marine grade Goop.  Since Goop is also polyurethane, I wanted the glue and the liquid polyurethane in the felts to bind and form a single piece.  Taking no chances, I used the equivalent of a whole tube of glue for each boot.  I have had them fall off before because I didn't use enough glue.  I applied a layer of glue to both the surface of the boot and the surface of the felt, let it de-gas for 10 or so minutes, and then applied more glue before putting them together.  The felts didn't absorb as much glue this time, I think because of the pre-treatment with the liquid. 

The cure time is critical because exposing polyurethane to water prematurely causes it to go a milky colour and fracture.  Because the solvent has no where to go except through the felt, it takes a long time.  The way I think about it, if you can still smell it, it's not finished curing.  I would say at least a month, if not 2. 

Total cost for materials for one pair came to about $110.  But these are twice as thick as most replacement felts, and I'm hoping they last a long time. I will do another update after I try them out and let you know how they work on slippery rocks.

Too expensive. Must source something from China

[Roderick]

Too expensive. Must source something from China

Agreed.  Let me know if you find something.