Shoemaking Techniques and Traditions--"...these foolish things..."

[Wusterhausen]

what is the difference between single and double prick stitch?

 

[DWFII]

what is the difference between single and double prick stitch?

I've always heard it called a "stitch prick"...

The difference is one blade versus two blades.

The first photo (they're out of the order I intended) is a double I made with a persimmon (American Ebony ) handle. It is set to make an indentation between each stitch if the stitches are 14 per inch. It can also be used to mark where to "hole" the welt and outsole if 14 stitches per inch are wanted.

The second and third photos are single stitch pricks. they are intended to separate and tighten stitches by making an impression in the welt between each stitch. The one on top is an antique and the one on the bottom is one I made fairly early on in my career.

 

[Wusterhausen]

Thank you DWF II.

Maybe you can also help me to find those plastic covers that shoemakers use to cover the uppers during the process of bottom making?

 

[DWFII]

Thank you DWF II.

Maybe you can also help me to find those plastic covers that shoemakers use to cover the uppers during the process of bottom making?

I wish I knew. AFAIK, there's nothing available in the States. Carreducker in London (?) offers them, if I recall correctly.

 

[Wusterhausen]

I wish I knew. AFAIK, there's nothing available in the States. Carreducker in London (?) offers them, if I recall correctly.

Thank you, but do you know where Carreducker get those covers from?

 

[DWFII]

Thank you, but do you know where Carreducker get those covers from?

Regrettably, I don't. And I probably wouldn't order them from across the pond even if I did. That said, offering them is part of his business model which includes the teaching he does. If i were in his shoes (no pun intended) i wouldn't make the source widely available either.

I use shrink wrap tubing and it works well...once you get past all the fussing and cutting and taping that is needed to make the cover conform, more or less loosely, to the shape of the last.

 

[ntempleman]

Get your local polyethylene manufacturer to make them up for you, they aren’t particularly complicated. They’re just plastic bags

 

[ntempleman]

You’ll typically have to order a fairly industrial sized amount though

 

[Wusterhausen]

Regrettably, I don't. And I probably wouldn't order them from across the pond even if I did. That said, offering them is part of his business model which includes the teaching he does. If i were in his shoes (no pun intended) i wouldn't make the source widely available either.

I use shrink wrap tubing and it works well...once you get past all the fussing and cutting and taping that is needed to make the cover conform, more or less loosely, to the shape of the last.

thank you.

Get your local polyethylene manufacturer to make them up for you, they aren’t particularly complicated. They’re just plastic bags

thank you, but are you sure, that those covers are made of polyethylene and not of some sort of vinyl?

 

[ntempleman]

Buy one and give it to the plastics company to replicate

 

[bengal-stripe]

Make those bags yourself - use a bag sealer for sous vide cooking!


Alternatively you can do a heroic Anthony Delos number: no covers whatsoever.

Although he could not use those bags an the actual shoe section as those are in Norwegian construction; he doesn't feel the need for covers along the boot legs with it's white canvas (surely a veritable dirt magnet, if there ever was one):

 

[DWFII]

Make those bags yourself - use a bag sealer for sous vide cooking!

I'd like to see that. I'm not sure how a vacuum sealed bag would be any better than a regular plastic bag. The bags (any type of cover) have to be put on before inseaming, and to inseam you would have to breach the vacuum almost immediately. I suspect that doing so would leave you with a shapeless bag not too dissimilar to a regular plastic bag.

What you want is a cover that is close fitting and somewhat fixed in place. That's why shrink wrap works so well. Once shrunk, it is the shape of the shoe and more or less rigid.

Not saying that vacuum sealed bags wouldn't work, I don't know, but I suspect that they might bring their own set of problems and in the end, not work as well as what is already out there. In any case, as mentioned, I'd have to see it.

That said, when I saw the Delos videos some years ago, I thought the man was either inestimably steady-handed or a bit reckless.

 

[ntempleman]

I think just the sealing bit was implied rather the man the vacuum, the covers are just folded over like a whole cut pattern and the “back seam” is bonded with a heat sealer

 

[bengal-stripe]

I think just the sealing bit was implied rather the man the vacuum

Exactly!

I've got one of those sealers in the kitchen (not necessarily for sous vide but old-fashioned 'boil-in-the-bag').
It works with an electrically heated metal wire. That wire cuts and seals plastic with a single operation.

 

[DWFII]

I think just the sealing bit was implied rather the man the vacuum, the covers are just folded over like a whole cut pattern and the “back seam” is bonded with a heat sealer

Well, not to put too fine a point on it, that's not much different than a "zip lock" plastic bag. I've tried almost every conceivable alternative to shrink wrap and while they all work...after a fashion...they they are none of them optimal.

Look at this--not saying this is ideal either but it conforms to the shoe near-as-nevermind perfectly, is rigid enough to trim and stay in place all by itself, and will even provide a measure of protection against the impressions left by the square awl.

Before heating with a standard hair dryer.

Fully shrunk.

Bottom after trimming and ready to inseam