My adventures in (DIY) shoemaking -- part 14

Continually one of the best posts on SF. I'm always impressed by your work and progression from #1 to now.

These look amazing. I applaud you, good sir.

You never cease to amaze me with your creations, Shoefan! Great work as always.

Spectacular work as always!

In response to request for some 'action' pics.


Here are some pictures of the preparation of the outsole for a beveled waist, and then the preparation of the channel on the bottom of the shoe.

Marking the waist location, which must be thinned for a beveled waist.




The outsole after it has been thinned:



The outsole from a side angle showing the thinned area -- about 1/2 thickness vs the rest of the sole:



And here is the outsole applied, trimmed, and marked along the edge where I will cut the channel:



The channel cut, opened, and scraped to provide room for burying the thread, and the tools for doing the scraping:



And a closeup of the channel. When doing the sewing, you sew from the top down through the welt and the outsole, and you have to hit this channel every time. Not so easy!

When you say hand stitching the welt, what sort of tool are you using?

Do you soften the leather and use some variety of awl? Or just a hand powered stitching machine?

I hand sew the welt and sole together at 10 to 12 stitches per inch, depending on the shoe. This is done with a shoemaker's (a.k.a saddler's) stitch, which has two (handmade) threads going in opposite directions through each hole. The holes are made with a special awl called a square awl (a.k.a. a stitching awl), which is only used for this purpose -- other awls are used for the sewing of the insole, upper, and welt together. The square awl features a very narrow, rectangular cross section, which allows many stitches to be put in side-by-side. A regular oval awl would end up cutting the welt in half if this stitch density were attempted.

Yes, the leather is 'mulled,' which means it is soaked, then allowed to get about 80% dry; this leaves the leather somewhat mellow for sewing. The outsole is made from vegetable tanned leather, which is quite pliable when wet but very strong when dry. In this instance, the outsole is J & FJ Baker English oak-bark, pit tanned leather, which is tanned in a centuries-old manner and takes up to 18 months to tan.

Factory made shoes use a large outsole stitching machine, which is sort of a giant lockstitch sewing machine. The lockstitch is a different stitch than the shoemaker's stitch, as the latter cannot be done by any machine.

Originally Posted by shoefan

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Factory made shoes use a large outsole stitching machine, which is sort of a giant lockstitch sewing machine. The lockstitch is a different stitch than the shoemaker's stitch, as the latter cannot be done by any machine.

Right, I am familiar with the machines that stitche outsoles, and not having a Landis or other on hand, I have a few shoes that I want to dabble with. No machine can turn the needle around and send it back the other way, that I can think of anyhow.

Very cool to see some in-process pictures. It gives me an indication of how difficult the craft is. Thanks for taking the time to document the process for us.

Dude you rock.

Originally Posted by Cary Grant

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Continually one of the best posts on SF. I'm always impressed by your work and progression from #1 to now.

Originally Posted by mktitsworth

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These look amazing. I applaud you, good sir.

Originally Posted by srivats

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You never cease to amaze me with your creations, Shoefan! Great work as always.

Originally Posted by ajmanouk

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Spectacular work as always!

Originally Posted by Aldehyde

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Very cool to see some in-process pictures. It gives me an indication of how difficult the craft is. Thanks for taking the time to document the process for us.

Originally Posted by Mr. Moo

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Dude you rock.

Amen.

wow just great stuff. so knowing what you know, may I ask who you admire most - for artisanship - of the brands we know and love? top 5?

This is great...

The guy I talked to at Nordstrom today while looking for shoes was a shoemaker prior to working at Nordstrom. He mentioned it, and we talked about it, after I mentioned needing to get my AE resoled. Too cool.

Great stuff.

The fine quality and small broguing of the toe cap really caught my eye as well. Well done!!