John, in the days when it was my turn at home to be "rigged out", my mother bought me a pair of black shoes for best use only. They were my Sunday shoes. Well, I lost the left one. Sounds silly but there it was - gone. You must remember this was in the days of clothing coupons and I had to find a way to fool mum into not finding out. So, I black-leaded a reasonably good left brown shoe. It took an age but it eventually polished up to look like it had been cast in an iron foundry.