The Bespoke Shoes Thread

[ixk]

Makers here in Paris usually have no strong objection regarding toe-plates.
Aubercy even makes fancy looking toe-plates upon request.

They add considerable longevity imho.

 

[j ingevaldsson]

Beautiful footwear! Interesting....no or very little toe spring. I have a pair of SB with a small toe spring like this and I don’t quite know how I feel about it. Does anyone have an opinion about what it does to a shoe’s silhouette? I think I love it, but I may also hate it? I dunno.

Yeah, lovely looking stuff.
Wouldn't call that no toe spring, but low, sure. When it comes to customer shoes, I know my shoes made on Daniel's lasts have about 1 cm toe spring, which is what most other lasts I've seen by him have as well.

 

[patrickBOOTH]

It is hard to believe the French don't have a rejection to something.

 

[dieworkwear]

I like a little toe spring on loafers, but prefer toe fall and toe winter on boots.

 

[patrickBOOTH]

OHHHHH!!!!!!!

 

[ericgereghty]

if I even think about sweating I sweat. I am with you!


Recently I have been buying shoes from makers that install them from the start, but in the past Nick V. @ VIP Shoe Service Plus has done them for me.



I definitely think gait is part of the problem, you're correct, but I did say I walk with purpose. So much so my shoes wear out in multiple places. The ball, the big toe, and the tippy tip. Take a gander...

View attachment 1344492
just to note, these are very old shoes that have cracked in the camp and I’m just wearing them into the ground as rain shoes (bad weather today).

And you're a skinny dude! Good lord.

 

[nevaeh]

Does anyone know what the triangular pen holder tool, indicated by the red arrow in the first photo, is called? And where can one obtain it? (It is from a video by Kirby Allison where Daniel Wegan measured him.)

How about the tool that looks like a pair of calipers, indicated by the orange arrow in the second photo, used to measure lengths of feet?

My apologies if this is not the right thread for my questions. But I imagine this crew likely has some knowledge in this area. Thank you!

 

[DWFII]

Does anyone know what the triangular pen holder tool, indicated by the red arrow in the first photo, is called? And where can one obtain it? (It is from a video by Kirby Allison where Daniel Wegan measured him.)

How about the tool that looks like a pair of calipers, indicated by the orange arrow in the second photo, used to measure lengths of feet?

My apologies if this is not the right thread for my questions. But I imagine this crew likely has some knowledge in this area. Thank you!

Salaman (Dictionary of Leatherworking Tools--c.1700-1950, R.A. Salaman, George Allen and Unwin, London 1986) calls it a 'Tracing Block.' It's an old tool and simple to construct. Salaman has an illustration/schematic on pp. 153. I made my own out of a piece of scrap wood. All that is necessary is that a hole large enough to accommodate a pencil or pen be drilled at a angle such that the tip touches 'ground' in the same plane as the vertical face. The vertical face is run against the side of the foot and the pen/pencil makes a line that exactly represents the outline of the foot.

The "caliper" device is simply called a 'Size Stick or a 'stick'. You're correct, it is used to measure the length of the foot and has been around for centuries...so long, in fact, that the length of the foot itself is often called 'the stick.'

 

[nevaeh]

Salaman (Dictionary of Leatherworking Tools--c.1700-1950, R.A. Salaman, George Allen and Unwin, London 1986) calls it a 'Tracing Block.' It's an old tool and simple to construct. Salaman has an illustration/schematic on pp. 153. I made my own out of a piece of scrap wood. All that is necessary is that a hole large enough to accommodate a pencil or pen be drilled at a angle such that the tip touches 'ground' in the same plane as the vertical face. The vertical face is run against the side of the foot and the pen/pencil makes a line that exactly represents the outline of the foot.

The "caliper" device is simply called a 'Size Stick or a 'stick'. You're correct, it is used to measure the length of the foot and has been around for centuries...so long, in fact, that the length of the foot itself is often called 'the stick.'

Thank you so much for your insightful reply, DWFII. The ingenuity of skilled folks to devise simple yet elegant and efficient tools always amazes me. And it looks like I will be adding Salaman’s book to my library list. Thanks, again!

 

[ntempleman]

I never understood the benefit of the tracing block, seems like a very German-orthopaedic solution looking for a problem

 

[Manuel]

The feet are perfect, the lasts are perfect, a person who does not make shoes take the measure of the foot ......... Everything is perfect here, the theory is very good but the practice ....... I would just like to know the opinion of the customers, just that ..... it would be very fun
Reality is very different friends.

 

[bengal-stripe]

I never understood the benefit of the tracing block, seems like a very German-orthopaedic solution looking for a problem

Bashing the Boche, are we?

Golding in 'Boots and Shoes' (1935), Vol VIII discussing the 'tracer' in 'Drafts and Elevations' comes to the conclusion:

because the pressure on the foot can be varied by each operator at his will, but in practice such variations as is given is not of practical significance considering that the shape is given.

but any Brownie points for common sense go out of the window when he discusses in 'The latest Apparatus' monstrosities like 'Bradley's Machine' or 'The Datum Machine'.

Who wouldn't like to have a rosewood tracing block with one's initials inlaid in brass?

 

[DWFII]

I went to some minor trouble to make mine own...and used it seldom, despite the fact it works well.

Of far more importance to me, as a maker, is a 'pedograph', which allows me to obtain an accurate representation of the weight-on footprint. Which in turn allows me to make the insole to the foot in a way that guessing or relying entirely on girths will not...neither too wide, nor too narrow.

Unfortunately too many in the discipline that I began in and came up in, ignore the footprint altogether--relying on girth measurements and assuming that the substance of the foot overhanging the insole and the welt will not present problems. Which is, IMO, & IME, unfortunate if not a little wrong-headed.

Equally unfortunate, when I began making men's and women's shoes, and began talking to other shoemakers I found much the same indifference, if not to the same degree.

But I agree the tracing block seems somewhat superfluous although it has always been my philosophy that, for a bespoke maker, collecting more data from the foot (as opposed to collecting less) is never wrong or superfluous.

 

[DWFII]

Golding in 'Boots and Shoes' (1935), Vol VIII discussing the 'tracer' in 'Drafts and Elevations' comes to the conclusion:
"because the pressure on the foot can be varied by each operator at his will, "

That's certainly true in my experience. But tio be fair, the same can be said for taking girth measurements. And that's a whole 'nuther ball of wax and of far more significance.

Who wouldn't like to have a rosewood tracing block with one's initials inlaid in brass?

Sign me up...can we get a group order?

?

 

[Son Of Saphir]

Me find new maker,
he called Nedelcu Marian
he make the shoe very very big and very very fat.
Look,

close up of braided norvegese stitch

Look at this!
he not finish it,
it half finished,
he inseam and stitch upper to mid sole.
brown stitch in middle is inseaming stitch,
other two braided stitch are decorative.
It look like he add rand (bonwelt) to upper and inseam/stitch it,
and upper turned out under neath it,
he still need to trim upper and stitch mid sole to out sole.
It look very very funny but very very good.
me like it when a man do thing like that.

He like many Italian,
he use no feather.
Me once had maker he use no feather,
he was very good.
Look,