Tools of the Trade

[D.A. Saguto--HCC]

016: My very first hammer, a smooth-faced Crispin pattern. I got this in
a magical cigar box full of shoe tools for $15 the whole lot antique shop
around 1974. More gems from this box will be shown [shewn] latter.

018: A Crispin of more modern vintage.

019: Its checkered face.

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[D.A. Saguto--HCC]

ERRATA:

Shot 011 was mislabeled. That's just a nice German pattern, not the Swiss pattern from the Volkens that got me delayed at airport security in Switzerland. My-bad.

[dagon]

Howdy all!
As some of y'all know, I used to make Armour for a living. Finding decent armouring tools is a real pain, and finding a blacksmith to MAKE the tools can be a pain. Fortunately, There is a FANTASTIC smith who will make just about any hammer you can describe, and do it at what is also a FANTASTIC price! His URL is: http://www.kingslayer.com/ironmonger/tools/tools.htm

I know it is a lot of metalworking tools, but take a look at some of the hammers he has made, and you will see some that I bet you would like. Need a tool that is no longer in production? Ask him!

He is Quite easy to deal with, very nice, and very up front about when, how, and most importantly, IF he will make a certain tool!

Oh, and Texas does too have breath taking moutains. I remember quite well standing on a moutain outside El Paso and not being able to breathe. Of course, It may have had something to do with the dust storm....

[cmstrong]

Hi to Everyone

Need some help here. I'am trying to start up a new boot making shop at the Department of Correction that I work for here in Oregon. Well anyway they want me to make a couple of pairs of boots for them. The only lasts that I have at this time is a size 5 DE with an 1 5/8 heel I can make the logger type work boot on this last but, I think it might be a little small to really show the boot. Next I need a last with a 7/8 in. heel anyone have one they can set me up with. Thanks in advance for any help Mike(let's do it right)

[dw]

Al,

Re: your Swiss, nee German, hammer...I *thought* it looked suspiciously like a German pattern hammer. It *is* a beauty though. I like the refined way in which the head of the hammer is sculpted as it emerges from the body.

The pegging hammer is an oddity. Never seen anything like it. I bet there aren't too many of those around simply because I can't see anyone actually using one. I'm not the most accurate person when it comes to swinging a hammer spot on, but even if I were I can't imagine how a person could generate clean work. I wonder if that hammer isn't a bastard offspring of an early pegging machine? It seems like that would be the only way such a unwieldy tool as that could be conceived. Some bright guy, with little or no experience actually making shoes or boots, sees the pegging machine and decides to adapt the basic concept to a hand tool--kind of like taking factory techniques back into the bespoke shop to supplant the old traditional skills...or maybe because the old skills were never learned or were lost. In either case, a sad event all around...and unfortunately all too common.

Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC

[D.A. Saguto--HCC]

DW,

So, you like that German hammer, huh? I'll try to shoot the Swiss one I got from the Volkens, plus my paste fitters' hammers, over the weekend to finish off my hammers. Then move on to..., awls?

That pegging hammer was a "gimmick" I'm sure, and they are rare as hen's teeth. It must take practise to get satisfactory results, and I've only tried it for heel-building, when the top-piece is pegged the usual way for neatness, or a rubber one nailed on. IOW you don't see the errant pegs. BTW, here're the official details on these:

'Chronicle', Early American Industries Association, vol. 22, December, 1969--item: 'Unusual Shoemaker's Hammer', page 51-52, and vol. 23, March, 1970, page 10. In that article only two of these were known in collectors' circles, one from Massachusetts, one from Nova Scotia. Haven't run out to the shop to check the patent information on mine, but it looks like the one in the article, patented by "P.F. Peters", 25 January, 1878, Mass., filed 18 October, 1877. It's patent number 199,533, by Patrick F. Peters. He calls it a "Lasting[sic] Hammer" for pegging "...in the outer sole for the reception of nails or pegs to confine it to the inner sole, or for other purposes in shoe work...". Sole-pegging ain't "lasting", technically, but there you go. In the article, one Mr. Margetta, "an old shoemaker of Erie [PA?], was apparently familiar with this type of hammer.

Since this contraption post-dates pegging machines by a good 30-40 years [there were hand-held, hopper-fed, loose-peg, pegging "machines" early], my *guess* is that this was yet another gimmick-tool. The old catalogues were full of 'em--"One Trick Pony" hand-tools that separated the shoemaker from his money--hand-tool manufacturers had to eat too, and with the machines slowly forcing the hand-shoemakers onto the rubbish heap of history...well, you get the point. While I'm not going to go so far as to suggest this hammer was directly "inspired by" pegging machines, it was, after all, a distinct "response" to the pace of mechanization. By the 1870s the standard was factory-made and machine-done, and hand-makers responded to this in one of two ways: 1) incorporating new gimmicks into their hand-shoemaking to "speed things up" even a little, following the impulse of the factory machines' rate of production [vain attempt at competing with the factory as you put it], or 2), doing that mind-boggling "prize work", 64 stitches per inch, etc., by hand the old way, to demonstrate the limitations of machine work, and superiority of hand-work, thumbing their noses at modernity.

Anyway, it's a fun piece, and I have a few more up my sleeve too

[dw]

Strictly speaking, this is a "machine," although it is hand powered. It is commonly known as a "tug roller," but I'm not sure that name is really correct. A tug roller is used to to firm up a leather for "tugs"--a harness piece that connects the collar to the vehicle. This machine on the other hand, while superficially resembling a tug roller, is clearly designed for shoemaking. It might be called, more accurately, a "bottom roller." What it is intended to do is compress leather soling to impart extra strength and wear.

Most of the soling leather that we purchase on today's market is already compressed. But it wasn't always so. In elder times, shoemakers had a "lap iron" that they used on which they would hammer the leather into firmness.

I buy soling leather in bends, for various usage--from heel stiffeners to toe boxes and an occasional insole. A fair proportion of this leather is near the belly or the neck and is too soft for use as counters or even soles.

I could use some of this leather to stack heels but even the best of it is too soft for that purpose, in my opinion. Doing so only results in a heel that is "mushy" and very prone to deforming in wear--compressing on one edge or mushrooming out on the other. I also buy individually cut and hardened heel lifts from Heel Rite--what is known as "Frommer Stock." At their best these lifts are hard as wood, and perform well under prolonged use. But I hate to throw away the "offal" that is part of every bend I buy. This is where the tug roller comes into play...

I cut the scraps from the bends into heel-shaped pieces and throw them into a bucket of water for 20 minutes or so. Then I wrap them in paper--newsprint--and let them "mull" overnight. When the leather is almost back to colour, I begin feeding them into the tug roller. With each pass, I tighten down the large screws on the top, just slightly, thus bringing the rollers closer together. After half a dozen passes the leather pieces may be only half their original thickness and, although still damp, very hard. When dry they'll be hard as a rock and suitable for building heels.

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Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC

[Pablo]

Al,
The EAIA article on the lasting hammer by Margetta should have the patent number 199568
not 199533( oilwell tubes ).
ADIOS

[D.A. Saguto--HCC]

Pablo,

199568, right you were. The caption to the illustration in the EAIA 'Chronicle' said "533", but upon examining the patent drawing depicted there with a magnifier, it was indeed "568"--thanks for setting us straight. You just can't believe everything you read

[Tex Robin]

Pablo,
Is this Pablo Vasquez? If so email me..TR

[gaid]

Al,
Here are the tool which I use when closing the channel on the out sole after it is stitched. As you can see is it mounted on the shaft to my sander. My mentor regarding the semi-handmade grade, Mr Michael Anthony told me that it is also used for hardening the leather. This tool work best if the channel is cut by hand and if the groove is deep enough for hiding the stitches.

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[fjones]

At last I have got around to posting the following.

When I was a student at Cordwainers Technical College in the late 1950’s I met a shoe repairer who has become a life-time friend. Apologies for the personal note but it is relevant. He introduced me to a tool I had never seen, before except in the Barnsley Catalogue. Below is a Drag Knife shown as it would be held when trimming a top-piece to size on a men’s heel. I was so impressed with my friend’s ability with this tool that I bought one.
\image\c:crispin colloquy\drag knife photos\temp\dscf0004
Over the years I had tried to use it but I was never as good in use as him. He could cut from heel breast round around the heel to the other heel breast and take the spare material off in one piece, leaving the top-piece trimmed so close it was ready for scouring on the finisher.

The tool was left unused in my tool bag. Some 15 years later I took a job as a training manager for a heel bar company and on a visit to one of the company’s largest shops in northern England, I saw a 17 year old using a drag knife exactly as described above. This galvanised me into action. His shop manager was also a drag knife enthusiast and I explained that I had a drag knife but found it hard to use. It transpired that as with all knives, the sharpening was the answer.

The second picture shows my drag knife with together with my sharpening stick. My knife has a blade of one inch width. This was the most common type forty years ago.
\image\c:crispin colloquy\drag knife photos\temp\dscf0008
The sharpening stick is a piece of rounded timber in fact a piece of broom handle about ten inches long. About half the length is the plain wood of the handle. The other half has been flattened slightly on the scouring wheel so that the cross section is slightly oval, rather than circular. This is covered with some scrap upper leather stuck right around the circumference with the flesh side outwards. One of the slightly flattened sides has some very fine emery cloth stuck to the leather and on the opposite side of the stick the flesh leather has a little oil on it. As you can see in the picture the cutting edge of the drag knife has a curve. The slightly-flattened emery covered section of the sharpening stick is stroked across the blade and once it has a suitable “edge”, the stick is rolled around and the oiled leather side is used as a strop, the same principle as that used by a barber to hone a cut throat razor.

Once I had mastered its use, this sharpening stick transformed my drag knife. Now it was so sharp I too could round up a top-piece or sole in one piece and I have been a drag knife enthusiast ever since.

The final picture shows a narrower drag knife acquired from Barnsleys for a friend. This one has a five eighths wide blade which is the most popular width now made.
\image\c:crispin colloquy\drag knife photos\temp\dscf0006
One important observation, a drag knife is similar to a golf club, in as much as they are either right or left handed.

Before somebody comes back to me and says this is just like a Stanley Knife with a hook blade, I will say yes - it is similar in use. However, the drag knife is the specialist tradesman’s tool. I have used both. The Stanley knife is OK for the guy fitting vinyl flooring who cannot sharpen the blade. When working on footwear, the slightly cranked and curved blade on a drag knife is the professional’s tool but he must be able to keep it really sharp.

Frank Jones
frank.jones@shoemaking.com

[proxy posting]

All,

Here are the photos that accompany Frank's posting regarding drag knives

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[fjones]

All

First an apology for messing up the posting of my photos. I like to think I am reasonably computer aware then something pops up and bites me. Serves me right for having a “big head”.

More importantly, a word of appreciation for our worthy janitor who has very kindly picked up the pieces. Thank you DW, again!

Frank Jones
frank.jones@shoemaking.com

[dw]

Frank,

I recently acquired a drag knife with the help of a friend across the pond. A tip of the hat and a sincere thanks. It is a Barnsley five-eighths inch virtually identical to the one in your post, Frank.

Coming as I do with no experience using a drag knife I was both eager and a little dubious as to how I would fare with it. I can sharpen a lip knife to do everything you mention in your post. I'm a dern good hand at sharpening knives, period. But I was also aware that sharpening a drag knife was the critical element. So I made a sharpening stick and went to work. It is now razor sharp. And will trim a rubber or leather lift right around in one motion. I like it and as I get better with it I expect to like it even more.

But I will make these comments...from one who has now used both a lip knife and a drag knife...the drag knife is sharpened in such a way as to make the edge always track *into* the material. This is good but itcan also be dangerous. Care has to be exercised when using a blade as aggressive as this.

A lip knife is sharpened just the opposite and must be *held* at an angle to cut anywhere near as closely much less cleanly. But the drag knife has one thing to recommend it...it just seems more natural and comfortable in the hand. The force that is applied is subtly different from that given to a lip knife and it seems to cut a bit easier for that.

Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC

[D.A. Saguto--HCC]

DW & Frank,

Well, dare I say it, I've had two older Barnsley drag knives for years. After I figured out how to sharpen them correctly I seldom pick up another knife off the bench for rounding and trimming. The lip-knives currently sold here, with stained green handles, are crap. I have an antique lip-knife I got off of Wild Bill Julian at Brownwood '99, and that works like a champ. BTW, I sharpen the lip-knives with the same bevel as the drags, so they dig in, not out, of the work. After I shoot the last of my hammers, maybe I'll post some shots of my cuttoes.

[Tex Robin]

Al,
All I can say about the green handle lip knives is I would never trade mine for any drag knife. You just have to know how to sharpen them and use them. It is the most important tool a bootmaker could have on his bench. Any hammer will do for a hammering job,(sorry Al,and DW, you have a nice collections and I have a few too) but only a lip knife will do for it's intended purpose in this bootmaker's opinion. TR

[jake]

There may be some who don't know what a lip knife look like. Here's three examples. The one to the far right is like the "green" handle lip knife referred to by Al and Tex. The other two are custom made for me by Danny Marlin of Texas. The one to the far left is much too long for my small hands. The one in the middle is a dandy for me. I don't ever pick up the one on the right unless I can't reach anything else. Danny has spoiled me!

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[jake]

Here's a few more "specialty" knives made by Danny Marlin.

The two to the left are "skiving" knives. You use these type of handled skiving knifes to "push" skive, in contrast to "pull" skiving. The knife to the far right is just a "half round". I like to use this to "breast" the heel.

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[Tex Robin]

Jake,
There are so many things that have to be explained about too many things in bootmaking!
Nothing is as appears at first glance..

I use a 1 3/4 in curved lipknife(as short as I can find) for my heavy cutting and a small(toplift knife)like the one on the right in your photo for my finishing up.

The proper way to hold a lipknife is with the back of the blade inside your first finger(trigger finger)second joint. This only leaves about an inch of the knife protruding. I actually only sharpen the first 1 inch of the blade. And 90% of the sharpening is on the outside.

They do have to be shaped as they are not ready to go out of the box. And they do maintain an edge if you keep them away from tacks and pegs. I sharpen my knives on the fine side of my rock and never use oil or water on my rock. If someone spits on my rock , I shoot them with my .45 I use a strap for the finishing edge and use a combination of wd40 and ground up sharpening rock on the strap, or you can use grinding compound(but it is messy)

To each is own , but I have not found the existing green handle lipknives to be lacking in any way and I don't like the custom made ones. I guess it is personal preference. I simnply don't care to change something that works and has worked well for my 45 plus yrs of bootmaking.

I am not an old fogey and am not set in my ways and as Jennifer June said, I would change to plastic pegs if they worked better than wood. But I like my green or yellow handled Hyde lipknives and will not give them up for any drag knife! TR

[jake]

Tex,

Hey, I ain't gonna argue with 45 years of experience! We appreciate the input. I'll give one of those green handled rascals a try. They got to be cheaper than custom......but the handle sure don't look as nice! (grinning)

I'll also make sure I keep my chawin' tobacie outside while you're sharpen' yaw knives! I'm kinda reckless with my spittin' sometimes.

Thanks again for the information.

[dw]

Tex,

You know I've always maintained that the genius of the Forum and the reason it exists is that, down deep, we all have more in common than we have things that separates us.

Like you, I have never had a problem with the green handled lip knives. No, they're not Sheffield steel but sharpened correctly they are really superb for what they are designed to do. And I couldn't agree with you more about how to hold the lip knife. That's one of the biggest mistakes people make with lip knives...never getting their fingers crooked around the blade. I generally have about half an inch sticking out beyond my finger. For myself I like the short, crooked, and tapered lip knife--like Jake's 00 Hyde.

That said, I've ever been a firm believer that you can't know where you're going (or even if you really want to go there) if you don't know where you been. I don't know if you've ever used a drag knife or not--you don't say--but sharpened properly I can see how people would prefer it to a lip knife. It cuts slick and fast.

When it comes to tools--hammers and knives and such--I guess I'm just not hungry enough. I has always been my philosophy that a man ought to enjoy what he does for a living...or at least take time to enjoy what he can about it. I love old tools, and the connection with past masters of the Trade--the patterns, the techniques and the theories. And like the Berg's we were all on about recently, there *is* a difference in tools--in balance, in angles of attack, in comfort for each individual hand.

I could very well get to the point where I prefer the drag knife above the lip knife. It's not likely, but at least I've satisfied my curiosity, increased my knowledge, and in the process, I'm just doing what any good bootmaker might do--immersing myself totally, in something I enjoy.


Tight Stitches...
DWFII--Member HCC

[Tex Robin]

DW and Jake,

I agree! Just don't spit on my combination stone.

[Tex Robin]

DW.
No, I have never used a drag knife. It doesn't even look good to me, at all. I look on the lipknife as the most perfect tool used in bootmaking and don't see how having to import a completely foreign looking thing like the drag knife could be any improvement on perfection. And I sure wouldn't trust using it on an $ 800 pair of boots. But as a toy or collector's item I might give a few bucks for one. I have done a lot worse. Everyone to his own. The only difference between men and boys is the price of their toys...TR

[bct]

The Art Of the Lipknife

I too prefer the Hyde Double OO. I started out in a shoe shop as s a young boy. Being a south paw, I was handed a right handed Lipknife and learned to use it. I was taught to hold my thumb against the shoe/boot. This provides a lot of control and leverage. Something I still do to this day. Tex Robin was the one who really taught me how to sharpen and use a Lipknife. Up to that point I had done repair and made a few school style boots. Tex even trims side seams with a lip knife. I still prefer a square 4 inch blade with the sawing action when trimming side seam. The reason I believe is because I have no place to rest my thumb if I was to use a Lipknife. Beside using a Lipknife, square knife, skiving knife, and a pointed knife for cutting tops, vamps, counter etc.

I will have past on the drag knife, as it appears to be a Drag!
Brian C. Thomas