G & L Handmade Shoes, Sydney

[bengal-stripe]

Originally Posted by fritzl

Only the "crude" stitching on the sole would bother me a bit.

Originally Posted by Imakeyourshoes

looking at the pictures I would say that is not a welted shoe at all........looks like it is either pre-stitched or blake sewn, blaked by the size of the stitches

The visible stitching on the sole is definitely Blake-stitched (large stitches und further away from the sole edge than in a welted shoe). Whether it is a variation on Blake-Rapid, I cannot say from the photograph. Blake-Rapid is normally done by Blake-stitching the shoe to a Middle-sole, than using a Goodyear machine (also known as a "˜Rapid' machine) to stitch the extension of the middle sole (the equivalent of the welt) to the outer sole.

Advantage of the Blake-Rapid to conventional Blake there is no direct connection from the outer sole to the inside of the shoe. But that is the case with your shoe. Unless the sewing thread is very well tarred, it is likely to act like a wick, taking the moisture from the wet street through the holes, right inside the shoe.

My guess, there is a non-structural welt, already with a decorative row of stitching, glued into place, then the outer sole gets cemented on top and a row of Blake-stitching holds it all in place.

Should you find the shoe draws water in wet conditions, get a rubber sole (Topy) glued over the sole. That will prevent water from penetrating.

But taking the price into account, as made-to-order for feet that are difficult to fit, it's pretty good value.

 

[Eck]

Sator what is wheeling on a shoe? I have never heard of that before..
cheers

 

[Imakeyourshoes]

Originally Posted by bengal-stripe

The visible stitching on the sole is definitely Blake-stitched (large stitches und further away from the sole edge than in a welted shoe). Whether it is a variation on Blake-Rapid, I cannot say from the photograph. Blake-Rapid is normally done by Blake-stitching the shoe to a Middle-sole, than using a Goodyear machine (also known as a "˜Rapid' machine) to stitch the extension of the middle sole (the equivalent of the welt) to the outer sole.

Advantage of the Blake-Rapid to conventional Blake there is no direct connection from the outer sole to the inside of the shoe. But that is the case with your shoe. Unless the sewing thread is very well tarred, it is likely to act like a wick, taking the moisture from the wet street through the holes, right inside the shoe.

My guess, there is a non-structural welt, already with a decorative row of stitching, glued into place, then the outer sole gets cemented on top and a row of Blake-stitching holds it all in place.

Should you find the shoe draws water in wet conditions, get a rubber sole (Topy) glued over the sole. That will prevent water from penetrating.

But taking the price into account, as made-to-order for feet that are difficult to fit, it's pretty good value.

thats exactly what it is, seen them before, its a leather unit with a fake stitched welt glued on then blaked, you can see where the stitches underneath end before the heel unit

 

[Imakeyourshoes]

Originally Posted by Eck

Sator what is wheeling on a shoe? I have never heard of that before..
cheers
i can tell you, its the decorative impressed lines or ridges extending from where the top edge of the sole(welt) meet the upper and the edge of the sole, created by a ridged wheel heated and branding the leather as its 'wheeled' round the welt

 

[Harry Lean]

Originally Posted by Imakeyourshoes

looking at the pictures I would say that is not a welted shoe at all, there is nearly no feather round the toe, it looks exactly like a cemented shoe, the stitching on top doesn't corresond to the stitching underneath, there are no slugs in the heel top piece either, its a unit, and looks like it is either pre-stitched or blake sewn, blaked by the size of the stitches
l agree completely. l cannot see a welt anywhere. The shoes look poorly constructed, just look at how wide those stitches are apart on the single sole (usually a feature in lower end shoes). The sole leather looks cheap too....the type of leather that would probably be on mid end designer shoes. They look very very ordinary to me.

 

[Harry Lean]

Originally Posted by Imakeyourshoes

thats exactly what it is, seen them before, its a leather unit with a fake stitched welt glued on then blaked, you can see where the stitches underneath end before the heel unit

lf they are blake stitched, that means the construction would be woeful. Those wide stitches will not provide enough strength and the shoe would come apart in a relatively short time. l've seen bad blake and it's consequences. That is one poor shoe.

 

[base615]

So the recent view seems to be that they're a waste of money. Shows up my lack of knowledge.

Oh well, they're certainly not as poor as my other shoes, they fit well and they've been getting some unsolicited compliments today so until I can afford better they'll have to do.

Cheers,

Craig

 

[Imakeyourshoes]

Originally Posted by base615

So the recent view seems to be that they're a waste of money. Shows up my lack of knowledge.

Oh well, they're certainly not as poor as my other shoes, they fit well and they've been getting some unsolicited compliments today so until I can afford better they'll have to do.

Cheers,

Craig

people may say it wont last because of that type of construction but its not true, they should last you until the sole wears out, the blake sewing isnt whats holding it together, the glue is, the sewing reinforces the glue and stops the sole from starting to peel off should you catch it or something, you just cant deconstruct the shoe to repair it, if your happy with how it feels, looks and costs, thats all that matters

 

[bluscuro]

Originally Posted by Eck

Sator what is wheeling on a shoe? I have never heard of that before..
cheers

I think Sator is referring to the decorative design applied with a "Fudge Wheel" to the surface of the exposed welt.

bluscuro

 

[Eck]

Thanks for the replies!

 

[Harry Lean]

......

 

[Harry Lean]

Originally Posted by Imakeyourshoes

people may say it wont last because of that type of construction but its not true, they should last you until the sole wears out, the blake sewing isnt whats holding it together, the glue is, the sewing reinforces the glue and stops the sole from starting to peel off should you catch it or something, you just cant deconstruct the shoe to repair it, if your happy with how it feels, looks and costs, thats all that matters
l don't think you are correct in that it's mainly glue holding the blake construction together. After a sleepless night stressing over it, l contacted a number of my shoe making sources today. They said a Mackay sewing machine DOES a lock stitch, so this definately means that the `blake' construction is more substancial than just a glued sole. Anyway, my experience goes contrary to what you are saying. l'm just curious, do you work on shoes in the Northhampton factories? lf you do, what task(s) do you perform there? Do you have any experience with Mackay machines?

 

[Sator]

The Northampton makers all make Goodyear welted shoes (a hand welted shoe is not described as Goodyear welted ie they are machine made). Blake/MacKay construction is not that far behind Goodyear welted shoes for quality. Don't get too worried about it, the fit and elegance of the last is more important with a MTO shoe.

 

[the.chikor]

Looks great.

 

[Imakeyourshoes]

Originally Posted by Harry Lean

l don't think you are correct in that it's mainly glue holding the blake construction together. After a sleepless night stressing over it, l contacted a number of my shoe making sources today. They said a Mackay sewing machine DOES a lock stitch, so this definately means that the `blake' construction is more substancial than just a glued sole. Anyway, my experience goes contrary to what you are saying. l'm just curious, do you work on shoes in the Northhampton factories? lf you do, what task(s) do you perform there? Do you have any experience with Mackay machines?
when them stitches wear out from sole wear its the glue holding it together, its an incredibly strong bonding adhesive and applied with immense pressure on a sole press, its not coming off easily, but of course over time the edges may start to lose their bond, hence the blake sewing to stop this from happening for the period the stitches are still intact, all types of sole stitch are a lock stitch, welt stitches are chain stitched, some places even call it lock stitchin instead of blake sewing (used to anyway) im not aware of any places left in this country still producing like this, although im sure there are 1 or 2, it depends on the manufacturer, a lot of places have their own terms for operations. I do work in Northampton yes, I can 'make' a shoe completely, but ive never heard of Mackay, although when I first started work the company i was with produced both welted and cemented shoes, 50% of which were blake sewn, wether they were Mackays or not I dont know, as Sator says, we make Goodyear construction on mostly very old machines, BU and Standard made, the best in my opinion, new fangled machinery from america and europe tend to be built for speed and mass production on a large scale, engineers have to slow them down before we use them, some of them run at ridiculous speeds, there is no room for precision at all operating them