BOOTS 'n BRACES 'n OTHER THINGS
I was wondering if it was possible to make some braces that would give the wearer the feel of the real thing without having the expense of real braces. So I commissioned my master mechanic friend to find standard hardware store pieces and come up with a design that looked good enough to please a devotee and worked well enough to satisfy a wanabee.
He easily spent more than 40 hours and over a hundred dollars to get reasonable facsimiles of knee joints and the velcroed leather cuffs together. He has yet to come up with a satisfactory ankle joint design and a way to fasten them to my varioius shoes and boots in the rigid manner that I prefer, in spite of his infinite patience, massive talent, and willingness to please. (Poor man!)
He told me that if one has any other practical, paying use for their time, it is way more economical and satisfactory to purchase the real thing from one of the several suppliers that have offered their service. So much for our experiment.
Meanwhile I find the braces satisfactory for my limited uses and I enjoy the clean lines and symmetry that my old ones lacked.
As usual, if you click on the following photos you will get a larger detailed image of the braces in that photo. My apologies for the poor focus on some of them.
HERE are some construction details of the new Braces.
If you want a whole page of just the braces, click here. (It will be slower to load because I made those files full resolution.)
I always appreciate your comments at steelwun@aol.com