Skate tongue repair

[ktang 34]

I just de-stitched my 8090's tongue and it has, from inside to outside, a layer of felt and a layer of plastic foam. The plastic foam has creased enough so that it's not protecting my foot from lace bite any more. The other skate's tongue is almost at the same condition.

What's the best way to repair this: replace the whole tongue, replace the plastic foam with another piece of plastic, or replace the plastic foam with another material like felt?

Is there a better tongue construction, or is the traditional felt tongue a longer-lasting choice?

Thanks in advance...

[shifter 0]

its time to replace the tongues, just go to a local shoe repair shop and see if they can put some more life into it or get new tongues and tell them to stitch it.

[cbart 1]

Like this...

8090's

[ktang 34]

Like this...

8090's

What kind of tongues are those?

Thanks,

[krwwc6 0]

They look like old school CCM Tacks tongues.

[lampliter87 8]

http://eastwesthockey.net/basuclwhfeto.html

[krwwc6 0]

Just find an old pair of skates, buy them, and part them for the tongues. It will probably be a helluva lot cheaper than getting those tongues off of EWH

[ktang 34]

Yeah, it looks like those $50 tongues that lampliter87 pointed me to are sold out at EWH, too.

For now I think I will try putting in some cut-up mouse pads until I can find some nice tongues somewhere.

My guess is that the 8090 tongues were made for weight savings, but my 8090 boots have outlasted the tongues.

[Law Goalie 147]

I've recently noticed that some old-style cobblers are still selling felt insoles: really heavy, nice, thick felt, exactly like you find on old skate tongues.

Frankly, I think if you just took the tongue to a cobbler and told him to make a new one, he could without much trouble.

[mxihockey 0]

Would it be possible for a cobbler to just add felt to your tongues, instead of buying new ones?

[Law Goalie 147]

Yeah, but I would imagine it would be nearly the same price, except for a few extra material costs.

Either way, he'd have to remove the tongue from the boot, do significant work, then stitch it back on.

[ktang 34]

That might be possible, because I am rotating two pairs of 8090s. I could just use one pair while the cobbler makes the new tongues.

Now, to find a cobbler...

[cbart 1]

Like this...

8090's

What kind of tongues are those?

Thanks,

Old school 652 tacks

[ktang 34]

About a week and a half ago I replaced the plastic foam in the tongues with some thick felt and stitched the covering back on. After 18 ice times with this repair my lace bite has improved substantially, even without the use of gel pads etc. The repair seems to be holding up.

If this works I will leave it as currently repaired. The backup plan is to get some felt tongues from somewhere and replace the 8090 tongues.

Again, thanks to everybody for the info.