Bottoming techniques

[amuckart]

That's really neat. The basic technique is the same as was used to attach the treadsole to pattens and mules in the 15th-16th centuries, but it's good to see the details of how a professional actually does it in practice.

To save having to search the blog for it once it's fallen off the front page, the direct link to that post is here:
http://carreducker.blogspot.com/2011/05/velvet-slippers-2.html

[dw]

Channel Stitching pt. 1

So, here's a photo tutorial of what I believe is called channel stitching. It is essentially a hand-sewn Blake method. I've been fooling with this concept in my mind for several years and upon seeing the videos that Tim posted of George Koleff doing something similar if not identical, and Randee wanting a new pair of shoes with a very trim look, I decide to give it a go.

I started out with one of my fancy new shoe lasts with the "break forward" hinge (SAS?)

13783.jpg

I used a fairly thin, for me) 8 iron insole and I did not channel or hole it.

After I had the shoe lasted and it had dried, I peeled back the vamp and lasted the lining as if I was going to do a cement sole construction.

13784.jpg

Then I mounted the toe stiffener and re-lasted the vamp.

13785.jpg

I don't trust cement construction and I don't like it. So I did Hasluck's whip stitch variation to connect the upper to the insole.

13786.jpg

To be continued...

Tight Stitches
DWFII--HCC Member

[kevin_l]

You continue this protest of simplicity. STOP!+
I find this naugT in GOLDING OR REES! tHIS IS YOUR FINDING

[dw]

Channel Stitching pt. 2

The next step is to fill the bottom

13788.jpg

mount the shank and the heelseat

13789.jpg

And then put the outsole on

13790.jpg

Tight Stitches
DWFII--HCC Member

(Message edited by dw on July 06, 2011)

[dw]

Channel Stitching pt.3

At this point in time the outsole has been trimmed to very nearly its final shape and size. i want to be within a millimeter or so of final size.

Next I channel the outsole. For this shoe I channeled at an angle from a fingernails width from the edge inward. The outsole was split to roughly 9 iron, and the channel runs a little less than half that thickness in depth.

13792.jpg

Of course I cut a shallow groove down in the channel to accommodate the stitching which I will do at about 3 or four to the inch. I made the stitches a little long this time because I was not sure how much force I could exert tightening up the stitches.

In this photo I am holing the outsole. I am using a pegging awl for this job. It begins at the bottom of the groove mentioned above and goes through the outsole and the insole at an angle ...the tip of the awl blade penetrating the plantar surface of the last by a quarter inch or so.

13793.jpg

At this point I have to pull the last. This would be very difficult to do with a standard spring hinge or slip cone last. Well, not so much the pulling of the last but the putting the last back into the shoe when the channel stitching is complete. With the SAS last the back (heel) of the last move up and forward...foreshortening the overall length of the last.

More to come...

Tight Stitches
DWFII--HCC Member

(Message edited by dw on July 06, 2011)

[paul]

DW,
I'm interested to see more.

Please comment on the separate heel seat section.
I'm sure it makes sense but I can't guess right now.

The SAS last makes sense too.
I've not made many shoes, but I know the struggle to get the last back in that you're referring to.

I like the use pegs for the shank retention. Duh, good idea.

Very interested in what's next.

Paul

[dw]

Paul,

Hoo hum...the separate heel seat section is illustrated in Golding, Thornton and other, old books. Generally it is cut with a square (vertical) edge although it might have a half-moon shaped "bite" taken out right in the center of that edge.

As far as I can recall none of the old books that illustrate this technique give a reason for using it nor do they offer any clues as to why the half-moon shape is removed. If I knew I could probably describe all this better.

But since this is all an experiment, I thought I would experiment with the heel seat as well...in hopes that I could discover the advantage of this approach just by doing.

I did, however, cut the edge of the heelseat piece at a slight angle and the outsole at a mirroring angle to get a tight fit.

I also found that the bottom liner didn't really come up flush with the lasted edges of vamp and vamp liner, etc.. (That's a lot more substance when simply pulled over an uncut insole than it would be if the insole were feathered and channeled and inseamed.) So, I threw in a piece of tar paper in forepart.

I am given to understand that tarred felt is used extensively in the U.K. for a forepart filling and I even have a pair of deconstructed shoes that were made that way.

I have looked high and low on the Internet for tarred felt...an actual felt made from animal fibers...and cannot find any. It's all tarred paper. (The tarred felt from the deconstructed shoe is actual felt. ) So, as a lark, I thought I'd give it a try.

Anyway, I hope some of that makes sense.

Tight Stitches
DWFII--HCC Member

[dw]

Channel Stitching pt. 4

I now have the last pulled. I need to access the inside of the shoe.

While this technique was historically done with a waxed end, appropriately bristled on both taws, I have never completely understood how it was done until recently. By that time, I already had a pretty clear mental image of how I would go about it.

Instead of a bristles, I used waxed thread and a guitar string. The guitar string is folded in half and it is the folded end that is inserted into the holes from the outside towards the inside of the shoe. It penetrates the outsole and the insole. Because the guitar string is so long, even when folded in half, "the loop" formed by folding will reach all the way to the back of the shoes, and beyond, when sewing in the toe area.

It is fairly obvious that with this technique you might most commonly run the guitar string up through a hole, pick up the thread and pull it through to the outside. This forms a loop in the thread.

Removing the guitar string and pulling the other half of the thread through this thread loop, and then tightening down, forms a stitch that is identical to what a lockstitch McKay might make--a machine stitch.

But it is also possible to make a shoemakers stitch using this technique. And that's what I did.

Here you can see the thread coiled on both sided of the insole/outsole and the wire loop emerging from the inside of the shoe. Koleff demonstrated something very similar with a piece of "fuse wire".

13795.jpg

This next photos shoes the stitching from the inside.

13796.jpg

And the same area from the outside

13797.jpg

And again further along

13798.jpg

Tight Stitches
DWFII--HCC Member

(Message edited by dw on July 07, 2011)

(Message edited by dw on July 07, 2011)

[dw]

Channel Stitching pt. 5

When the channel stitching is complete, the channel is closed and glued or vice versa. I use a waterproof PVA for this purpose.

If the outsole is to be left natural, trimming and burnishing the edges will remove and/or cover any evidence of the channel. A clear and even bottom finish will aid in this effort.

When done the outsole will have all the trim shapeliness of cement construction ("Look ma, no welt!" ) with none of the inherent weakness.

In this case, I will build the heel and then add a topy overlay the entire length of the outsole. This, so that rather than replace a worn leather outsole, the topy may be replaced and the outsole left intact/undisturbed. I am not a great fan of sole protector overlays but the wife is.

This will be the last photo in this series. I will post a photo of the completed shoe when it is finished.

13800.jpg

Tight Stitches
DWFII--HCC Member

[lancepryor]

On the topic of tarred felt, has anyone thought of making it him/herself? I have considered getting some wool or other felt and saturating it with warmed pitch.

Lance

[dw]

Lance,

I'd be interested in what you come up with.

I just got off the phone with Frank Jones and he told me he hadn't seen any tarred felt in the UK in over 20 years.

Unfortunately, I'm not a fan of cork... [sigh]

Tight Stitches
DWFII--HCC Member

[elfn]

DW, I'm not a fan of cork either, but possibly not for the reason you are not a fan. I've used it when making the shoes I wear and I MUCH prefer the feeling of leather over cork. I do have a pair of slip-ons with flooring felt under the insole and those are quite comfortable.

[dw]

Where do you get flooring felt? Frank mentioned that as well.

Tight Stitches
DWFII--HCC Member

[elfn]

I purchased it from a carpeting warehouse. It's used under carpeting for high traffic areas - hallways, entries and stairs. It comes in ~6' width. I primarily use it for vertical gardening.

Nori

[chuck_deats]

DW,
Excellent presentation. I may not make shoes like that, but the blind stitching technique with the guitar string is worth the price of admission. Thank You
Chuck

[dw]

Chuck,

Thanks.

Originally this method was done with a simple waxed end and bristles. I believe Al Saguto or maybe Garsault illustrates it in AdC.

I've never actually done it that way and always felt that one of the big stumbling blocks to using bristles was trying to find the first bristle down inside the toe of the shoe. Not that it would be all that hard but as clumsy as I am I would be nervous about bending the shoe (there's no last in the shoe) and ruining the way it presents when finished. As it was I re-laced the facings together after I pulled the last just to insure that I didn't create creases.

I thought the other day that the work-around was just to use a really long piece of monofilament for each bristle...of course that's something Garsault wouldn't have had access to.

The critical issue for me was to find a way to do a "shoemakers's stitch" rather than a "machine stitch."

Tight Stitches
DWFII--HCC Member

[dw]

PS...something I failed to mention in my presentation...

Using a pegging awl to hole the outsole and insole can be a little uneven. You're holing "blind", so to speak. So you never know if the holes inside the shoe are going to be an even distance from the edge of the insole. And if they aren't then the line of stitching will be a little erratic.

But when finished, this shoe will have a full length sockliner covering the stitches. It won't be an issue.

Tight Stitches
DWFII--HCC Member

[das]

Here's what Rees had to say on "channel pumps" in 1813 (courtesy Marc Carlson's scanned version on his website). In my experience, "channels" (especially double-channels) are stiff if stitched with too many spi, loose, squeaky, apt to blow-out if stitched loosely, and a major headache to ever re-sole. See 'AotS' footnote 107 cont., pg. 93, on boots, double-channel was the preferred English method for bottoming light jockey or top-boots in the 1700s. Many double-channels just had a fake cut made to trick the customers into thinking they were fully double-stitched, when only single. That said, some of the more ellegant light dress Wellington of the mid-1800s were channel-stitched in the waist(the narrow "wasp" waisted ones, especially on the Continent), only welted around the forepart like cowboy boots. This construction was "old fashioned" by Rees' day, and should have gone the way of the Dodo bird IMO--but I still make my apprenticies do one pair to qualify for promotion

------------------------------
Channel Pump.

The stuff is to be fitted as in that of the shoe. The inner sole is to be laid to the last, and the seat of the heel rounded and holed as that of the shoe or pump.—The inner sole at the fore part is to be pared plumb to the edge of the last; and if it be stout enough, let it be taken off the last, and with the point of the knife slit the edge, near the grain side, round the fore part, in depth, full equal to the width of the sewing stitch, that, when the channel is sewed, it may cover the stitch : therefore it must be turned back when sewing.—But if the inner sole be too thin, you must cover the stitch with a thin strip or a sock: the latter is preferable to the other two.—Now lay the inner sole again on the last and last the upper leather, like that of the shoe; but the upper leather must be allowed wider than that of the shoe, that the tacks may be more within the inner sole.

After the channel is lasted, and the upper leather laid smooth on the inner sole, as well as the upper leather side, so that the edge of the last may be discernible, then brace the upper leather to the inner sole, close and firm, all round the fore part.

Then fill up the vacant space of the inner sole, that is between the upper leather, with some skivings to make it level, and proceed with the heel part as directed in the shoe. Before you put on the sole; put some paste between, and then let the sole Be well settled, and round it nearly to the edge of the last; then go on with the heel to that of paring, before you proceed with the fore part.

When you have done so much to the heel, cut a channel in the sole round the fore part, about the same distance from the edge of the last as that of the sewing stitch of a pump; and the channel must be of such width as to have a skiving off of the grain of the sole, equal to the width of the stitch: in this case, the thread will be rather full.

Then, with a straight flat awl, hole the sole through and inner sole to the last, in the channel round the fore part.—Now take the last out, and make a full thread; let it be well waxed, but not so hard twisted as in that of the shoe. You must have two threads, one from the heel to the toe, and the other from the toe to the heel.— After you have sewed the channel pump round, put the last in again and fittings, and lay the sole even, and scour out the sole, and slick it well.— Then pare the sole to the edge of the last, like that of the pump, and pare it sloping from the stitch to the edge of the sole, so that the edge may be what thickness you please, and slick the stitch, the sloping, and the square edges well; prick the stitches; and buff the bottom.—-Now finish the heel as directed in that of the shoe.

A double channel pump is only to add a second row of stitching within the first.

Channels are, I believe, entirely out of wear, or nearly so. They are very stiff heavy wear, and it is very likely that they never will be in general use again.

[dw]

This is the follow up on the channel stitching I did for Randee's shoes.

These were Randee's own design and she made then right up until they needed to be lasted and bottomed. Blue boar and Edelman Russia Modernya

13833.jpg

As mentioned i was intending to put a sole guard on. I don't like them but she does.

13834.jpg

And here's how the toe medallion turned out.

13835.jpg

Tight Stitches
DWFII--HCC Member

[dw]

Watching a video on a shoemaking site I saw a short segment of the outsole channel being closed with hot wax.

Anyone have any idea what type of wax this was, where to get it and what the drill is?

Tight Stitches
DWFII--HCC Member

[center]Little Jack Dandiprat in a white petticoat,
The longer he lives, the shorter he grows.[/center]

[jon_g]

DW,

Can you post a link to the video?

[dw]

Jon,

It's the J.M. Weston site Go to the "Know How" section and it's the video. About three-quarters of the way through.

Mostly standard factory stuff but there's always a tip or trick or insight you can pick up...if you watch close enough.

Watching it again, I'm not altogether sure the hot wax is used for closing the channel as much as just sealing it closed.

Tight Stitches
DWFII--HCC Member

[center]Little Jack Dandiprat in a white petticoat,
The longer he lives, the shorter he grows.[/center]

[dw]

All,

I have located a source of reasonably priced natural wool felt. In sheets/rolls.

I am interested in a pine tar product that can be painted/impregnated into the felt for bottom filler. It must be thin enough to penetrate yet volatile enough that it won't be runny when mounted in the shoe.

Anyone have any ideas/sources?

Tight Stitches
DWFII--HCC Member

[center]Little Jack Dandiprat in a white petticoat,
The longer he lives, the shorter he grows.[/center]

[das]

DW,

Try the Stockholm Tar from these folks: http://www.tarsmell.com/

Paint it on liberally to saturate the felt, then lay it by for weeks to dry, or until you can handle it without getting tar all over you. The purpose-made tarred felt filler I've bought for shoes, however, was more like loosely felted/matted burlap fibers, painted with roofing tar. It was somewhat tacky on the surface even after 30+ years, brittle in cold weather, soft and messy in warm weather.

If you'd like a sample PM me. Something to shoot for anyway.

[tomo]

You could thin the Stockholm tar down with Turbentine.... That would help impregnation, or do I mean saturation?