Crack3r » Tue Feb 03, 2015 1:02 am wrote:DW,
Thanks you for the information! If you were going to relast a pair of shoes, what would you do? How would you go about tacking the upper while insetting, or grabbing it since there is so little? I am wondering how the pros do it!
I see your point on this being too large a task for someone just starting out, not to say I won't give it a shot, but I do want to walk through it in my head regardless.
Since I would be sizing down a small amount and losing the steel toe, would that help by offering up a small bit of leather to tack? or would it be negligible?
Well, first I would probably not attempt it except under extreme duress. But I have a sense...from 40 plus years of making...where the toe of the shoe goes in relation to the center of the toe of the last. Etc.
Yes, it would be better if the upper was made for a bigger last than you were relasting to. But without the original last, how are you going to know that? Maybe the new last is smaller around in the ball joint area...but bigger everywhere else. Insole (last) widths are critical, as well. I suspect that the treadline and heel seat width can be an issue, even if the girths are the same or smaller...if only because a wider treadline on the new last will skew the alignment of the shoe.
Most after-the-fact, in-factory relasting/recrafting will be done on the same last or a slightly smaller last. With lasting machines. And because the shape and proportions of the last are the same, the shoe just settles into place.
For bespoke makers, relasting will be done before the excess is trimmed--to correct a trial fitting, for example. And hopefully, ideally, the issue will never arise again--in some ways it's almost easier...and certainly more satisfying...to just remake the shoe from scratch..
For someone in your situation...for someone like myself, even...relasting is a catch-as-catch-can situation. Each pair of shoes will require something a little different. You might sew a strip of leather to the edges of the vamp after you've torn everything apart. This will give you something to grab with your pincers. I have relasted boots to both a longer and wider configuration...simultaneously. But I started with the same last as was used originally and fundamentally I simply stretched the boots (with some "sneaky bits" thrown in)
before I took it apart and re-inseamed/reconstructed it.
Each maker has his own bag of tricks---mine relies chiefly on not finding myself needing to relast a shoe.
Don't get me wrong you can relast your shoes/boots but the chances approach certainty that when you're done you may be unhappy with the results.