Intro:

so these past 2 days have been just above freezing temp and raining: but, today it is 7 below, typical February Toronto weather. this morning I got to work and my constriction site was a big sheet of ice. I am not prepared for this sort of thing so I don't really have boot studs handy.

I scrounged up some tie wire in my office and some pliers and figured out a quick temporary fix to give my boots some grip.

here is how you can iceify your steel toes without screwing into them or buying boot studs:

Disclaimer: this DIY is purely a convenience based utility and in no way should it be used as a safety device. ice is dangerous and by no means should someone walk on ice without exercising caution. if you are not capable of walking on ice this instructable is not going to change that.

Step 1: Acquire Tools and Materials

Get these:
-> pliers with snips (as you can see mine are quite "broken in"
-> tie wire (easy to get, very common on most construction sits.)
-> steel toed (or not?) boots
-> a cup of hot coffee (because if you need to make ice boots, its probably very cold out.)

Step 2: Prepare Piece of Wire

OK, don't blink this is going to be quick.

cut a piece of wire about 18-20" long depending on the boot, longer is better because you can always cut off excess.

starting about 1.5" in from the end of your piece twist 3 or 4 little loops about an inch apart (single twist don't go crazy, well tighten those later)

and now you are ready to install.

Step 3:

wrap your wire around the toe of your boot, you will be twisting this pretty tight so try to keep the wire over the steel toe portion so as not to compromise comfort.

keep the end that will be twist jointed under the boot because once twisted it will act as a stud itself.

go ahead and twist the ends to create a tight loop around the toe with the little loops (studs) on the sole.

at this point the wire will be a bit loose so ho ahead and tighten the heck out of the loops individually to strengthen the "studs" and tighten the wire.

repeat as necessary, feel free to throw 3 or 4 of these things on depending on how icy it is.

Step 4: Finished

and your done, this will buy you a surprising amount of grip on the ice, now I'm not saying to go ahead and climb up a glacier in the Arctic but at least you wont have to walk around on the ice like you have a wedgy all day.

The goods:
-makes walking on ice a bit less dicey
- impress all of your friends with your sweet tie wire macgrouber skills.
-pretty good temporary quick fix for that one time thing.
- only takes about 3 minutes, 2 if your good with pliers.

the bads:
- if you are going to be walking around on bare concrete allot, they will get ground down pretty quickly
- I couldn't figure out how to make it work for the heel, so it takes a little getting used to.

Disclaimer: this DIY is purely a convenience based utility and in no way should it be used as a safety device. ice is dangerous and by no means should someone walk on ice without exercising caution. if you are not capable of walking on ice this instructable is not going to change that.

NOTE:
yes the studs do end up getting bent up, but thy still grab the ice just the same.