Editors Note: This article resumes after the application of the shoe in July 2012.

The shoe didn’t stay on past the next day. The leverage on the toe caused too much leverage and the left shoe pulled off at the heel.

Devastated by the results, Keenan asked Steve Kraus at Cornell about rethinking the approach.

From Keenan:

Notice his heels are still off the ground, but there’s an underlying issue here, why am I reducing the depth of the heel, why am I cutting the heel back. I didn’t even touch it in this case, he’s about as square as he’s going to stand right there.  His heel is off the ground, the back half of that foot is off the ground.  But look at the hairline, relatively flat. 

So, now I’m starting to discount more, cut the heels off, because it doesn’t matter if the heels are there or not because he’s not bearing any weight on them, the reason I’m leaving on the heel now is that when I wedge the toe, and have a negative palmer angle by putting a toe plate on the toe, it’s going to put more pressure on the heel because the heel is there to accept the pressure, does that make sense?  So it’s trial by error and learning from your mistakes.

This particular shoeing job came after several conversations with Steve Kraus at Cornell, and he told me some really good advice, when you are trying to build up a foot, and you really want to reinforce the glue, cut up some fiberglass and mix it in with the glue and it will act almost like cement.  Just bonded that much better, and it will prevent it from wearing as fast otherwise. 

 

I built up the whole toe area and I got the dorsal where I want it and above is the after, to do this job that one day. It took me almost 3.5 hours, waiting around.

I had to build up the dorsal wall with the acrylic, and then I had to wait 20 minutes for it to cure. Then I had to go get the cuff of the shoe, shape the shoe to the cuff, and then let that set for 20 minutes.

I then applied the cuff and the shoe that’s glued to the cuff, to the foot that has the glue built up on the toe and fiberglass. So once I got down I had to wait another 20 minutes for it to cure, I was just standing around doing nothing for an hour.  

So this is a prime example of patience. This is how you learn.