shoes

[meinfs]

If only I had the money and time, etc I would love to apprentice with you!

[tyger]

It sure is refreshing to see handmade goods in a time when expediency rules. And the fineness is all the more pleasing. I would love to see more pictures, and hear more history, as you can. Thanks for what you have shared with us so far.

[DWFII]

Well, there appears to be enough interest...I have put it to the mods. Waiting to hear back.

I envision less than a dozen photos with descriptions...some of which may be somewhat detailed (as above).

It certainly won't be a tutorial of photos (I don't have photos to document every step and even if I did it would end up being another book ) but should give some glimpses into the process.

While we're waiting...let me again thank everyone for their interest and kind words.

[JolyStNicholas]

I tip me cap to a real "Master Craftsman", there are so few that put that much effort and care into their work these days.

You kind Sir are a true "Master".

[ScottishShoemaker]

DWFII thanks for the link to the forum in the pm you sent me, been offline for a while sorry as I have just taken up tooling leather and it has got quite addictive. I would like to say that your work is very nice and a high standard and commend you for going ahead and posting pics of your craft. in anticipation...

[DWFII]

The mods have graciously given me the go-ahead to post this photo essay (thank you mods)...it may take a couple of days to complete as I sort through photos and write descriptions. I hope that you enjoy this process. If you have questions, ask...

First, a cobbler is not a shoemaker. Cobblers were itinerant shoe-repairmen and often used pieces of old and worn-out shoes to repair other old and worn out shoes. The proper (and traditional) term for a shoemaker is "cordwainer." This terminology dates from the 12th century at least and is still in use today. To call a cordwainer a cobbler was an insult. Shoemaking, especially in western Europe, was highly regulated...one could not call himself a cordwainer until he had passed a series of Guild requirements and demonstrated his knowledge and skill.

The Scots word for shoemaker is "souter" or sometimes "snab."

Any really well made pair of shoes or boots starts with a "last." A last is a "foot shaped" (roughly) form over which leather is "drafted" or pulled to create the shoe. The Scots word for the last is "deevil" or "divil."

Lasts may be made of wood, or in more contemporary times, plastic. Lasts have evolved over many centuries. Today lasts are a very refined and subtle blend of curves and measurements...some of which address foot anatomy and others that address shoe design. The earliest lasts were probably "straights" although throughout the centuries some attempts to make shoes on left and right lasts came and went as fashions (especially heel heights) waxed and waned. Lasts were at one time carved entirely by hand and in some high end shops still are. Today, however, they are most commonly turned on lathes that are especially designed to create lasts.

This last (in the photo) is "to size." But "bespoke" work of the kind we are talking about here almost always involves modifying the last to accommodate the customer or foot structure that is "outside the statistical average," so to speak. This is where the real "Art and Mysterie" of shoemaking comes in--fitting up. The shoemaker must not only fit the customer's foot, he must fit the customer's head.



The next step is mounting an insole. The insole is the foundation of the shoe and the surface upon which the foot rests. It is cut from vegetable tanned leather...generally a shoulder, as the shoulder is a bit looser and more long fibered. This means that the insole will form a "footbed" when the shoe is worn. A footbed is a unique "topography"--bumps and hollows--that customizes itself to your individual foot as the shoe is worn.

And the long fibers means that the insole will hold a shorter stitch better.

The insole is mounted on the last in a "tempered" or moist (not wet) condition and formed to the bottom of the last. The nails or tacks that you see in the photo and all subsequent photos are temporary...to help hold components in place or aid in forming to shape.



Here the insole is off the last but not trimmed to shape or size. The photo illustrates the shape that the insole has acquired during drying.



As mentioned the insole is the foundation, the spine, the "heart" of a shoe. Good leather will wick away moisture from your foot and it will remain flexible and retain its integrity for literally decades if properly conditioned once every blue moon. Many, many "off-the-shelf" shoes have cardboard insoles even if it appear that they are leather.

The next installment and set of photos (maybe tomorrow) will show the insole being prepared and maybe illustrate exactly why the insole is so important and why there is no substitute for leather in this application.


Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC

[DWFII]

Before the insole is mounted the last itself is used in yet another technique.

When the last has been fitted up...modified to measure...and prepared to accept the insole, a pattern must be derived from the last. Since the last has been modified to fit the customer, the patterns will be unique to that foot even though we generate the patterns from the last.

The first step is to create a set of "formes." This can be done several ways--with plain brown paper, with canvas or with masking tape. The objective is to start with a flat medium and derive a three-dimensional representation of the last which can then be flattened out again to generate the patterns for the shoe (known as the "standard").

The photo illustrates a set of formes--"medial" and "lateral" that have been created by wrapping the last with masking tape (I prefer using heavy canvas, myself, but many technical types prefer the tape). The centerline of the last is marked on the last and when the tape has been wrapped and layered over the last, each side is cut free along the centerlines that have been drawn. The formes are then flattened.



Sometimes a shoemaker will actually draw the patterns components directly on the last or the masking tape and cut those pieces individually. In such instances the shoe will be created by adding seam allowances, "lasting allowances" or folding allowances to the pieces and cutting the leather directly from them. Some consider this a benefit as the medial and lateral sides of the last are not identical and shapes meant for the lateral side of the last will not be the same as those meant for the medial side.

More commonly the two halves or "formes" are merged into a "mean forme" and the patterns derived from this averaged shape. In this approach the elasticity of the leather and the skill of the shoemaker are relied upon to even out the differences between the two sides of the last and create a balanced look.

Often a "fitter's model" may be generated to test both the fit of the shoe on a particular foot and/or to test the patterns and styling. In this photo, the pattern lines for an oxford have been stitched onto a fitter's model to proof the design.




Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC

[DWFII]

When the insole has dried it must be trimmed to the shape of the last. It will then be "feathered," "channeled" and "holed." This prepares the insole for inseaming after the shoes have been lasted and the "toe puff" added and shaped.

The first step is to cut a "rabbet" around the perimeter of the insole. This is essentially a "notch." This notch is more correctly called the "feather" and cutting it is, quite naturally, known as "feathering the insole." It is usually cut to a depth of half the substance. Then a "channel" (it might be a simple groove although there are other variations) is cut, again to roughly half the substance, inset about a quarter inch inward from the feather. These two procedures create a ridge or "holdfast" between them. It is into this holdfast that the threads will eventually be set.

Then the holdfast is "holed." Essentially a series of holes is made...three to the inch is the standard...beginning in the channel, going through the holdfast and exiting in the corner of the feather. The photo below shows the awl piercing the holdfast and emerging in the feather.



The next photo shows an insole trimmed, feathered, channeled and holed...waiting for the "upper" to be "lasted" or pulled over the last.



As mentioned in a previous post, the insole and the inseam are the foundation of a shoe. Shoes can be, and are, made using other materials and construction techniques...almost all of them demonstrably inferior to the method described above. The only things to be gained by using these other methods is lower production costs and some reduction of weight--paper does weigh less than leather (although even there the difference can be mitigated by the thickness and quality of the materials chosen). Modern society is, however, a consumer society, to one degree or another, and we don't value quality (much less recognize it) in the same way our ancestors did. Fashions change too rapidly and a shoe (or kilt) that is intended to last 20 to 30 years may spend most of its later life in the "Coventry" of the closet.


Most commercial shoes employ some sort of synthetic insole. And as a consequence, channeling the insole is not an option. In such circumstances, and sometimes even when leather is used, a canvas ribbing, known as "gemming," will be cemented to the insole in lieu of the "holdfast." Subsequent procedures will then, perforce, be reliant upon that canvas and that cement rather than a firm and reliable, sewn, connection to the insole--the inseam. Gemming is one of the weakest and most problematic methods of construction and yet the most common on commercial footwear, for the simple reason that it is cheap and fast.

At this point, the shoe is lasted and a leather "toe puff" (or stiffener) is added. During lasting, a "counter" (or heel stiffener) is also added, sandwiched between the "upper" and the upper lining. It too is made of leather, usually of a hard leather similar to, if not cut from, the same materials as the insole. When done in the traditional manner this counter will be as long as the last itself and consequently wrap a considerable distance around each side of the shoe. To further buttress the support that is provided by the counter, an additional piece--the side lining--is added on each side of the shoe to provide a "bridge" (or transition) of sorts from the counter to the toe puff. No commercial shoes are made this way....period. But you will never walk a shoe, made in this fashion, out of shape. In fact, in almost all commercial footwear (I am not aware of any exception), the toe puff and the heel stiffener are either plastic or some variation of fabric or cardboard stiffened with a plastic resin.

The shoe is usually lasted with a slight bit of moisture to help it form to the complex topography of the last. When the shoe has dried, inseaming begins and in the process a "welt" is added. The "welt" is a (roughly) half inch wide strip of oak tanned leather, about an eighth of an inch (or six "iron") thick, that will be sewn to the perimeter of the shoe. It is to the welt that the outsole will be stitched. Again this takes time and skill but it creates a shoe on which the outsole can be replaced time and again...almost indefinitely. With no other method of construction is this possible.

It is at this stage that the "waxed end," as it is known, comes into play. The "waxed end" is the linen cord, tipped with a boars bristle, I described in a previous post. The Scots term for "waxed end" is "lingel."

A curved awl is run from the channel, through the holdfast, through the upper leather and into the edge of the "welt." The bristles are fed into the hole thus made from either direction and the waxed end is "yarked" (drawn tight). Inseaming is done by hand and it is a hard job and one that requires some skill and finesse. Leather fittings...a "thumbstall" and hand leathers...are usually worn to protect the hands from the force that is brought to bear when tightening the stitches--a practice that dates back to at least the sixteenth century where several poems describe their use.



The photo below illustrates a shoe that has been inseamed and is ready for the outsole. (ready_for_outsole) Note the "heel seat" (the horseshoe shaped piece at the heel end of the shoe) is leather and it has been pegged. In almost all commercial footwear the heelseat would be plastic and the entire heel area would be nailed or stapled. Any high end bespoke shoe will probably have no nails left in the shoe--nails are generally iron and iron rusts. Rust is a slow fire and will destroy leather and even paperboard...it will actually carbonize the leather.

[DWFII]

Parenthetically...

Since nearly the end of WWI the great Irish linen Mills have been in decline. I read recently that the last of them has closed shop.

Linen is derived from the flax plant. The flax grows quite tall and when ready for harvest it is dumped into large ponds to be "retted." This retting breaks down the fibers and then the flax is beaten or broken up to further separate the fibers. It is all very labour intensive.

Wool yarn is made up of fibers spun together. The length of the fiber is known as the "staple." The longer the staple, the stronger the yarn Similarly, the length of the fiber in linen yarn contributes most critically to its strength.

My wife spins flax into linen yarn. I have seen some of the fibers be 36" long. But commercially produced linen yarn seldom has fibers exceeding 3 (that's right three) inches long. Even from the great old Irish mills.

Combine this with the scarcity of European boar's bristles...or even India blond or Russian black...and the shoemaker who wishes to work in the traditional manner is in something of a bind.

[Boars bristles are used in the paint brush industry although less and less as the years go by. But there is virtually no other demand. I have a lot of prime India and Russian bristles...running seven inches long...but I hoard them]

Boar's bristle has a unique property, beyond being flexible and strong, in that the ends are generally split (as in "split ends" on human hair) and these ends may be split lengthwise even further. This allows the "taw" (or taper) in the waxed end to be sandwiched between the split ends of the bristles and so afford a better purchase as the bristle is mounted.

Because of this shortage, some shoemakers are resorting to dacron yarn and sections of nylon fishing line to create waxed ends...an approach that I was instrumental in developing.

The dacron can be tapered, waxed and twisted up the same as the linen although it does not hold the wax as well as linen. Balancing this, the dacron is not subject to rot the way linen sometimes is if the waxing is not thorough enough.

Nylon monofilament can be split lengthwise in a very similar manner to natural boar's bristle.

And the upshot is a substitution of materials in a technique that is centuries old...maybe the best of both worlds--the old and the new.

Here is a photo of a waxed end made with nylon monofilament and dacron. Even experienced shoemakers would have trouble telling the difference without deconstructing the taw.

[DWFII]

And finally...for today...under the heading of "more-than-you-ever-wanted-to-know-before-breakfast-on-a-Wednesday"...

Why is all of this is important? The foot and shoe combine to create a micro-environment that is essentially a little jungle--heat, moisture, and beasts that relentlessly devour everything in their path.

Leather wicks away moisture from the foot, synthetics hold that moisture in place. Bacteria that naturally exist (in relatively small numbers) on the surface of the foot thrive in such conditions. They will eat any organic material that hasn't been properly preserved or protected, including the foot itself. Unwaxed linen or cotton thread, paper, cardboard or high tech composites of paper and fiber that are not impregnated with chemicals...anything organic that is within reach. Even cotton and wool socks/hose are subject to a faster rate of decay in these hot, steamy environments.

And if the consumer switches to nylon or polyester hose and vinyl footwear, the bacteria just move on the the main course--the skin. Athlete's foot and other foot diseases--lesions and open sores, in some cases--develop and become hard to eradicate as the creatures adapt to their new bill of fare.

A word to the wise...

The next installment may be the last or the next to last but that's all for today.