Hand lasted vs machine lasted

[DWFII]

Janne,

I didn't say that my body was in "good shape." Quite the opposite.

I have what is sometimes called a "shoemaker's hump" Some days I can hardly straighten up.

I also have aches and pains. For about three years I could hardly inseam my shoulder hurt so bad...hurt so bad, I couldn't even brush my hair with that hand. Had steroids shots three times a year which got me through until one day I didn't need them.

Then about two years ago, the other shoulder and arm went bad. The only way I could inseam was to brace my hand against my knee and use the knee to push the hand away. It's gone now...I had steroid shots for that too but they never helped for long and I just quit them.

Earlier this year I had a bout with both my knee (same knee) and my arm (second go-round with the arm)...intense pain radiating away from the joints. I iced for about two months and now I'm pain free...there.

Sometimes my hands ache fiercely. No help for that. Sometimes the thumb or a finger will even go numb.

My neck always hurts. One day walking to work I developed a pain in my jaw so severe I couldn't chew for about a week. Next day it was gone.

Developed an airy pounding noise in my left ear (same side as the neck injury)...took almost two month to disappear of its own accord. I get PVC's (missing heartbeats).

Never quit making boots or shoes...never even thought about it.

Neither getting old nor being a shoemaker is for sissies...maybe that's why the Holiday Inn School of Shoemaking is so popular.

I try to make shoes. I have always felt that if you concentrated on doing the best you could , you'd eventually develop the skills to make at least sufficient money to survive and sometimes even flourish. But note that "making shoes" comes first--I am a shoemaker first and a "moneymaker" second...or even third. In my opinion, suborning shoemaking to moneymaking inevitably leads to more money but a decline in the quality of the shoes. And, unfortunately...at least in this country...the reverse is also true.

I also believe in the "you get what you need" principle.

 

[emptym]

"Seek ye first..."

 

[janne melkersson]

DW,
I am sorry, I read you as if you where in good shape physically. Hopefully we will recover so we can continue for many more years.

I have always said that if you want to make shoes you have to be an enthusiast, at least if you are outside the London West End area. One colleague of mine had a visit by the bookkeeper who told him that he was kind of sponsoring his clients! Well, that is pretty much my experience too so I agree making shoes comes first and money making second and probably third... if ever.

 

[DWFII]

Originally Posted by janne melkersson

DW, I am sorry, I read you as if you where in good shape physically. Hopefully we will recover so we can continue for many more years.
Fortunately, my tolerance for pain has gotten higher as the years go by...I don't know whether that's due to a general decline of nerve ending sensitivity or some permanent damage. Making boots with a finisher for many years, I have ground away my knuckle so many times that if I were to hit it again today (number of incidents have diminished...one does learn, hopefully) I probably wouldn't even notice until I started to bleed all over the leather. But hey, it's just life and the price we pay. No biggie. And yes, I am in good shape....for the shape I'm in.

 

[LynahFaithful]

"Go out yonder..peace in the valley"....
"Oh you don't know the shape I'm in"

Keep making shoes and keep defending your profession. We all learn from you...at least I do.

 

[furo]

Originally Posted by DWFII

When I finish welting a shoe, and before the insole lining is in place, the customer can immediately wear the shoe around...almost indefinitely. Even outside, on the pavement. This is true of any handwelted leather shoe...regardless the skill level or aesthetic sensibilities of the shoemaker. Because of the materials, because of the techniques, the shoe is already a shoe...functioning as a coherent unit. It is intrinsically stable. It has a native integrity.

If you try this with a gemmed shoe, I've got even money it will be ruined within ten minutes, but the probability is that it may not last even that long. The gemming will break down, the glue will release, and the shoe will have to be re-lasted and re-gemmed to recover the uppers and regain the fit.

Wait.

So, since Janne has weighed in here... could it be possible that DFWII is actually wrong?

Can a gemmed shoe be worn without catastrophically self destructing?

 

[bengal-stripe]

Originally Posted by furo

Wait.

You're stirring the pot! - Couldn't you've just let it rest? - I'm exhausted!

 

[furo]

Originally Posted by bengal-stripe

You're stirring the pot! - Couldn't you've just let it rest? - I'm exhausted!

Yes but given Vox's heightened sense of fear, I figure this update might begin to ease his trembling, knowing that he may survive another day in his gemmed EGs...

 

[DWFII]

Wrong?! It always was and always will be possible. But now you're dealing in probabilities...and the odds aren't in your favour. I've known Janne for years. Longer than I've been on StyleForum and I've known for most of that time that he gemmed his shoes. I don't. I won't speak ill of a colleague...whether he be a one-man shop, a small factory, or a large firm. But I will note that Janne also offers hand-welted construction...presumably at a higher price since it is, in his estimation, onerous work. If Janne himself were convinced that gemming was comparable (nevermind equal), I can't see a single, logical reason why he would to continue hand-welt--he's a better salesman than that. One consolation in all of this, however...even if I am wrong...in the morning I will still be a highly skilled shoemaker who creates beautiful and high quality goods...and you'll still be clueless. In passing, I recently had the chance to examine a beautiful pair of high-dollar RTW (almost certainly gemmed with a celastic toe box and a nailed heelseat.)...from a "colourful" manufacturer...and I noted the lack of a mid-lining and learned that they would retail for $1100.00.They're gonna have to lower their prices if they want to compete with me.

fini

 

[agoelesina]

f u

 

[apropos]

Originally Posted by agoelesina

That factory shoe is not only soul-less but also immoral, behind it there's more than just cut-corners, there are skilled workers in Italy deprived of a fair income and exploiting low wage labor in a third world country just to improve the margin of profit even further. That's your factory shoe, at best it cuts corners in production, but is still priced as if handmade or near, at worst it exploits people who can't buy them.
Wow. Everytime I think SF can't get stupider... it does.

 

[agoelesina]

There you go, didn't waste any time with lowlife insults, why don't you try to work that asymmetrical pea brain a little to understand what people with a lot more character than you to call you stupid might have to say.

 

[RJman]

Quolis artifex pereo...

 

[bigbris1]

Originally Posted by agoelesina

There you go, didn't waste any time with lowlife insults, why don't you try to work that asymmetrical pea brain a little to understand what people with a lot more character than you to call you stupid might have to say.

Speaking of stupid, you typed the address to your website in the link in your sig incorrectly so it goes nowhere. Might want to delete the )/

 

[apropos]

Originally Posted by agoelesina

There you go, didn't waste any time with lowlife insults, why don't you try to work that asymmetrical pea brain a little to understand what people with a lot more character than you to call you stupid might have to say.
Well, you did fire the first shot by posting that insult to human intelligence with your poor showing of a post that was, at best, tangential to the discussion with your arse-up bringing in of China and immigrant factories in Italy, neither of which were even mentioned here. Or is a immigrant sweatshop factory somehow equivalent on a moral plane or soul-less spectrum as a factory in Northhampton run by 'indigenous' Brits? And especially since, genius, the Parthenon was built with the help of machines. Go look up what the definition of 'machine' is. And peas are asymmetric?