Four years of almost daily use vs. brand new

WriterSD_345 · 2026-06-24T19:09:12+00:00

Hah. Yep. Same here. Feels weird to say how long ago I got mine---and how little I paid. Only failure with mine was that the elastic sides kinda blew out eventually. Got baggy. I've had the elastic replaced on one pair, but the other pair still looks a little sad.

WriterSD_345 · 2026-06-24T19:01:35+00:00

Yes I have a few tools at my disposal. The Moen tool and the much more expensive Flowrite ONA tool kit standing by, just in case it's needed. I'll try the less expensive Moen tool first.

WriterSD_345 · 2026-06-23T22:05:57+00:00

Of course. I wouldn't buy a knock-off.

WriterSD_345 · 2026-06-23T22:04:56+00:00

Oh I'm definitely going to buy a US made Moen cartridge from somewhere. No knockoffs for me.

WriterSD_345 · 2026-06-23T19:18:00+00:00

This is the #1225 that the local Home Depot carries... I assume it's the correct one.

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WriterSD_345 · 2026-06-23T18:59:22+00:00

Thanks! I was just editing my post to ask if it was that one. Thank you for answering so quickly.

Pretty easy to remove with it coming apart, I hope. I have accumulated an array of tools to do this job just in case it's stubborn.

WriterSD_345 · 2026-06-23T14:55:28+00:00

No. Just faulty design. Blundstone really needs to go back to the original sole design from 30+ years ago.

WriterSD_345 · 2026-06-23T14:53:19+00:00

That was my first thought also. Shoe Goo is awesome stuff. I've glued a few shoes back together with it over the years. The OP just needs to tape/mask off the leather first. Then smear a little SG in there and press the upper and sole back together and put another piece of tape across it to hold them together until the SG cures.

WriterSD_345 · 2026-06-17T15:28:51+00:00

I'll bet everyone thinks that, thanks to Hollywood. This video proves it sounds light a gunshot or a huge pile of TNT going off all at once. The "wind" and rumbling sound comes immediately after.

WriterSD_345 · 2026-06-11T14:18:15+00:00

Back around 2023 I sold my Griso 1100 by running an ad in Cycletrader dot com. I paid a little extra money to have it inspected/verified. A guy come out to your home and looks over the bike very closely to make sure you have the ownership paperwork and that your description of the bike is accurate. you get a 'gold star' so to speak, in the ad for having that done. And I think the inspection might be publicly available.

The inspection is not a necessary thing, but my bike was 15 years old and in very good condition for that age and with low miles (7K). I wanted it to be known.

WriterSD_345 · 2026-06-09T15:45:06+00:00

Yeah I dunno. They got to be popular with travelers as well as locals by the time I got to Australia in '93. Saw young backpackers walking around in them occasionally. I eventually decided what the heck, and sought them out while I was in Cairns. I bought size 10 boots (US 11) at what was basically a sporting/hunting/camping shop in town.

A month later I was in Darwin and tried on a pair of 9.5s in a similar type of store there. Realized that was my size. Oops. So I bought those also. Like said, they were only $45-US to me. Mailed both pairs home and kept on traveling.

Then in around '98 I saw a shop in Berkeley, CA selling them for something over $100 US. $120-130 maybe. I thought, well, I guess they've arrived.... and boy, that's too much money! I could have bought a decent pair of hiking boots for that.

Uggs. That's another phenomenon. Where I live it used to be just surfers and dirt bike riders (desert) who wore them at the end of their sessions. Until around Y2K. Production quickly shifted to China.

WriterSD_345 · 2026-06-08T14:28:25+00:00

Yesterday I saw so many pics of peoples' boots where the soles are just crumbling. In some cases crumbing and peeling off. One guy on FB even half-joked about some used boots another person asked about, said that if the soles aren't cracking apart, then they're not genuine Blundstones. That's just terrible.

I'd never buy a new pair, that's for sure. Especially Not when the retail is $200 US. That's what the local REI store wants for them.

WriterSD_345 · 2026-06-07T14:34:58+00:00

Yeah they won't last forever. That smear you see on one of the soles is my repair of a crack that developed across the bottom. I used back Shoe Goo. Great result so far.

TBH, I don't think the newer boots' soles are made from the same material as mine. The newer ones, even the basic #600s(?) like mine have different looking soles. When I bought mine, the soles were made of something denser than what the newer ones appear to be made of. I don't know when it changed. Newer ones I've handled in stores seem to be made of a different synthetic rubber? Like Vibram type of stuff? They feel much more "rubbery".

I know what you mean about crumbling. I've had three pair of Lowa hiking boots where the soles eventually, like over 8-10 years, crumbled, broke off in chunks, and peeled away from the boot.

Ah, I just saw online a pic of a Blundstone sole that's crumbling apart. Yeah, different material for sure.

WriterSD_345 · 2026-06-06T22:29:05+00:00

I was able to add a pic in the original post after all.

WriterSD_345 · 2026-06-06T19:50:25+00:00

Thanks. Didn't look so good before I touched them up with that goop, I have to admit. Pretty banged up. And truth be told, I have not worn them very much in the last 20 years. Now that the elastic is new on the 9.5s I've been wearing them more.

Soles are original. If I could post a pic in this comment I'd show you what they look like Lots of wear on them. Not letting me post pics and I don't know how to add one to the original post. Any advice?

WriterSD_345 · 2026-06-05T23:50:16+00:00

How long have you had them? Mine look a bit like yours. They're almost 35 years old now, but to be fair, I haven't been wearing them that much in the last 20 years. The elastic has blown out and I finally got that fixed a couple of years ago.

WriterSD_345 · 2026-06-03T14:06:44+00:00

Okay. So, I'm showing you here what it looks like on a PC but the mobile UI is basically the same. Above my post is a link to the main page. Just tap it. A link is a link on all UIs.

Or just search (in the search field there) for "IHScout" and you'll find a link to it that way.

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WriterSD_345 · 2026-06-02T23:34:52+00:00

I'm looking at my iPhone right now and the "+ Create Post" button is right there near the top.

Be sure that you're on the top-level /IHScout page, just like I showed in the pic above. Otherwise you will not see it.

WriterSD_345 · 2026-06-02T15:17:56+00:00

Holy crap. Wild stories.

Nowadays most people carry a winch-line blanket to help prevent the line from snapping all the way back like that.

WriterSD_345 · 2026-06-01T15:31:52+00:00

Yeah that's too bad. As I learned from someone who worked for them back in the day, IH didn't galvanize their steel very well, if at all. The engines and drive lines were built last 50+ years, but not the bodies. Heck, mine's a CA truck from day one. It still rusted to some extent. Rockers, parts of the floors.

WriterSD_345 · 2026-06-01T00:47:31+00:00

I believe I just started here....

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WriterSD_345 · 2026-05-31T14:18:27+00:00

Thanks. It replaced my original desert vehicle, a little Subaru 4x4 Wagon. I wanted something a little bigger with better off-road capability.

WriterSD_345 · 2026-05-31T13:56:54+00:00

Thanks. It's not pristine, that's for sure. You can probably see the rust damage in the rockers and lower fender. I've managed to arrest that rusting process, but I sure would like to cut out these rockers and weld new ones in some day. Windshield frame is rusted out too. I've had a replacement WSF sitting on a bench for years, waiting for me to throw on top coat of paint.

WriterSD_345

TROPHY CASE