It’s part of a shoe stretcher

John Carnegie reports

LAST WEEK in En Passant I asked if anyone recognised a particular instrument/tool/gadget that once belonged to my grandfather. Its use was not immediately obvious, and it seemed to me that perhaps its use had been forgotten or overtaken by technology.

Two people recognised the “dingus” for what it was. Ralph Cilevitz said it was part of a shoe stretcher, and Daphne Wynne in Edward Street said she actually had two of them.

And she has.

The metal rod “dingus” in my possession fits into a pair of wooden shoe “templates” (I guess is as good a word as any) which are hinged at the heel end. The centre swivel anchors the metal rod into the closed template, which is inserted in the shoe to be stretched. When you turn the T-piece at the end of the rod, the angled end piece of metal at the other end, which slots into grooves inside the wooden template, moves down the angled grooves and exerts an outward force that will stretch the shoe.

It sounds complicated but is very simple and completely effective if you have new shoes that are pinching your foot.

Daphne Wynne (94) says she got her shoe stretchers from her parents back in 1962, and she still occasionally uses them. She has one for men’s shoes and one for smaller shoes, possible women’s and children’s shoes. She had only the one metal “dingus”, and since my grandfather’s one fitted the bigger men’s wooden template, I gave it to her, since one is useless without the other.

Thanks Ralph, thanks Daphne, now we know.