Talk:How to Make Sandals

I heard about this method of making sandals from a fellow who had lived in Hawaii for many years. Hawaiians used their tire sandals to walk across cooled lava flows; apparently the tire rubber was the only material that would not be cut to ribbons by the sharp lava. Wishing to put soles on my Birkenstocks that would not wear out so fast, I looked into making soles from tires that I could get locally (western North Carolina, USA). To my dismay, however, I discovered that there were virtually no tires available here that do not have steel belts in them, making it impossible to cut the rubber. I did manage to find a tire with bias-ply reinforcement in it, but it could not be cut by my husband's bandsaw. I am greatly disappointed, for I felt that would be a great solution for the fast wear-out rate of shoe soles, and a way to make shoes last many times longer.

Has anyone found a source of pure rubber tires? I still harbor the hope that I can find something somewhere. Thanks for reading!