All messages posted prior to 25 February 2002 have been moved to the first Crispin Colloquy CD Archive. Those interested in obtaining a copy of this CD need to contact admin@thehcc.org

Admin--06 May 2002

All,

As many of you know, I make waxed ends with nylon bristles that I split in much the same way as boars bristles are/were traditionally split. I've been using some 30 lb. monofilament made by Omni/Shakespeare for several years. It was just about the right size and split fairly easily.

Recently, I found that I couldn't split the stuff at all!! I went through probably 50 yards in 12 inch sections and failed on all but one attempt. I thought I was losing it. What's worse, I tried to split some 40 lb. Ande that I had sitting around and had a real hard time with it. I simply couldn't believe it. I mean I don't make up waxed ends every day but there isn't a two or three week period that goes by that I don't make up a batch or two. And the last time I made waxed ends hadn't been all that long ago...and, at that time, I had zero problems. I just couldn't accept the fact and kept cutting off yet another length, and trying again...and again...in increasing desperation.

Finally I theorized that the mono had simply deteriorated to the point of no return. Maybe due to some sort of ion exchange brought about by hot weather or increased levels of ultraviolet--this can happen with all plastics...it's the reason that sheet of clear plastic ground cloth eventually gets brittle and breaks up into a thousand hard-to-chase-down pieces if you leave it out in the yard too long.

So I went over to the sporting goods store and wheedled 4 yards of 27 lb Maxima from them. When I got back to the shop, it split like a dream.

But I've always said that the cheapest stuff was the best and Maxima is spendy. So I went back to the sporting goods store and picked up a 300 yard spool of the cheapest monofilament I could find--25 lb. It was a little light, I thought, but only cost $1.59 and I didn't figure to be out too much if it didn't work out.

It split easily and the 25 lb. weight seems to be working out fine, too.

The point of all this is, that if you are trying to use split nylon bristles for your waxed ends and are having a hard time splitting the nylon, it may not be your fault at all. It might be the nylon itself. Don't give up and don't buy the most expensive stuff in the store. And anything from 25 lb to 40 lb is suitable although the heavier weight stuff might be easier to split for someone just trying this for the first time.

Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC

DW,
I have seen your illustration of how you split a bristle for your waxed ends and for the life of me I don't understand why you do that. I simply twist them on and very seldom have one to unravel. When it does I just re-twist it back on and go on. I think by the time you split a pair of bristles I can have a pair of welts already done. Sorry but that's the way I see it. I have never even tried splitting a bristle. I use about a 30 lb mono for my bristles. And hold on to your hat and handlebar, Hog Bristles of any kind or size are not found in my shop....TR

Tex,

Why do we do any of it the way we do? Some of it is what a person likes, some of it is the way you were trained...and some of it is just habit.

Why do we (some of us) peg the shank? It's faster and easier to nail it, for sure. Why do some of us stack heels? It's faster and easier to buy pre-stacked heels and nail them on. Why do we burn or skive the edges of the vamps? The customer's never gonna know...OR care. Why do we make our own side welt and top bead rather than buy it from Texas Trim?

And on...and on...and on..

I twist the bristles on because I was trained that way; because it is a traditional and time honoured (proven) method of attaching bristles; AND I twist them on because it is THE most secure method I know to attach them to the taw. I hate...I mean HATE...having to interrupt inseaming to reattach a bristle. Short of breaking a bristle (very rare) I never...I mean NEVER...have to stop and reattach a bristle.

And finally, I twist them on for the same reason I do a fancy braid with the excess inseaming thread over the shank support--no good reason, I just like the looks of it and it's unique to me. I guess it all comes back to my basic philosophy about bootmaking. I don't want to work in a factory...not even one that I own and created. If I'd wanted to work in a factory, I'd hire on at Justin...and probably make three or four times the wages I make now. At a certain point we can throw out all the traditional techniques (too slow or too hard) and what's left? It may be faster and more profitable but it's not bootmaking, in my mind.

As for boar's bristles...I have them and...watch out!!...I know how to use them!

Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC

DW,
If it is traditional to split bristles the way you do, why have I not ever heard of or seen it done before you. I knew you would send a long windy....TR

Tex,

As to why you've never heard of it...who can say? Before the Forum, had you ever heard of Golding? Did you know that waxed ends and bristling go all the way back to the thirteenth century?

Do you think I *invented* split bristles? Long after I learned to split hogs bristles, I heard that Carl Lichte was splitting nylon bristles ( Gee, I wonder why he was doing that...?)... no details but that set me off on a quest to learn how to do it myself.

This Forum exists not simply as a vehicle for folks to vent (or vent their spleen, in some cases) but to showcase and archive ALL the DIFFERENT ways the work can be done...and has been done.

And as for my long windy's...it's true, I tend to communicate with people I respect in something more than monosyllabic grunts. But well, you know what they say..."it's an ill wind that doesn't blow somebody some good."



Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC

DW,
Sorry, but I won't play your fly in the spider web game. I didn't learn to make waxed ends from Golding. I don't need him! His way is archaic and slow. No more commemt on the subject from me. No offense to you if you want to do it the slow way. TR

Spider? Fly? YOU asked me to explain. I did so...civilly and respectfully. I'm sorry the answer didn't suit you. Life is like that...ugh.

Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC

Splitting the bristle before attaching the thread goes back at least to the early 19th century, and presumably earlier. John Rees in The Art and Mystery of a Cordwainer (1813) described the process:


Some split the bristle from the soft end to a certain distance, then putting the point of the thread in between the slit, at the lower part of it, and holding the bristle in the left hand between the fore finger and thumb, with the fore finger and thumb of the right hand twist up hard the split part of the bristle; then with the fore finger and thumb of the left hand twist up hard the point of the thread and bristle together, and so alternately till it is nearly twisted to the split end of the bristle; then put on the end a knot, or make a hole with a small awl in the thread, and put the hard end of the bristle through: others will twist the point of the thread round the bristle without splitting it, and fasten it the same as above.


I've always used the latter method but I suspect the split-bristle arrangement *is* more secure.

Rusty

DW,
You know very well what I mean by the fly and the spider.
I personally don't care if spliting bristles began with Adam. If you can show me where it is better to do something with a more complicated and longer method instead of using a simple one, I will quit stating my case. Why don't you guys go back to driving a wagon pulled by a horse? That's what the guys that wrote your books did. This will be my last comment on bristles. I have a better method...Sorry...TR

Its the opportunities to think and learn that the interplay of different opinions gives me, that makes me really enjoy the postings. Many thanks to all.Please dont stop, or pull the punches.

Tex...or not,

I can think of literally thousands of things that are both more complicated and slower and which are demonstrably better than a faster and simpler alternative...

handcrafted beer versus Blatz

single malt scotch versus blended

homemade bread versus Wonder bread

bread versus crackers

Lancastershire Chedder versus processed

marriage versus a one night stand

your wife versus the tart at the bar

a hand written love letter versus a 25 cent anniversary card

the stick pony you made for your grandson versus the plastic Kmart horse-with-wheels

imagination versus indifference

wood versus plastic

trees versus concrete

the patient explanation you give to a student (or a grandchild) versus the clipped "that's the way it's done"

stacked leather heels versus plastic bases

handmade boots versus Justins (usually)

!!!

Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC

Dw,
Very interesting but it doesn't mean you have the best method of putting a bristle on a waxed end. Just hot wind....TR

All,

Well, splitting the bristle goes even further back than Rees. Garsault, in 1767, described splitting the tag-end of the bristle into thirds, removing one third, and then twisting up first with one section, then the other. When using natural bristle I always use them split.

When I've used nylon for bristles, however, I've always just wrapped around with no splitting, which has worked just fine for me. But, I was using genuine nylon bristles made for shoemaking, with corrugated lumps to grip the taws of the waxend, not fishing line which has never worked for me.

Al,

I tried those corrugated bump bristles (courtesy of your ownself) and didn't really see the difference between them and fishing line that had been corrugated with the jaws of a lasting plyer. Both worked about equally well, in my opinion. I've used the "wrap" method enough to distrust it slightly (which probably only means I never mastered it). We all have our own idiosyncrasies and preferences...like I said, a lot of it is habit.

But having given my little demonstration at AGM last year, you mean to tell me that you never even tried to split a piece of monofilament? Tsk!

BTW, thanks to both you and Sim for the history.

Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC

DW, Al, All,

Learning to use plain nylon mono for bristles, without your complicated, time comsuming splitting process is no harder that learning to tie your shoes. You just have to do it right.

You start with a ready made poly string(or if you prefer you can make your own from the rotten flax) The ends need to have a good taper(not broken off. Make sure the ends have a good coat of wax on them and before you wind the string around the bristle you need to heat the wax a bit by pulling the string through your fingers a few times. You start by winding toward the pilot end of the bristle and go two or three wraps. Then you reverse and go the other way. As you wind, you start spacing the wraps a little more as the string gets larger. My wraps are usually about four inches long. At the end of your wrap you put a hole and run the mono through the string to keep from un-raveling..Works for me every time.
Takes about half a minute for each end. Some things take time to be right , but making a waxed end doesn't..TR

I said I wasn't going to say anymore, but I did. Maybe you guys aren't using my method?..TR

Tex,

This is exactly the way I did it when I was using that method (the very same method, BTW, that Rees describes in the early 19th century...seems like you're more traditional than you thought) the only difference was that I took some 120 grit sandpaper and roughed up the nylon a bit where the wraps were gonna be. Crimping the mono with lasting pincers also adds a bit more traction.

Oh, and one other difference, I usually coat the first 18 inches of the waxed end (including the wrapped bristle) with beeswax to make it feed and start more easily.

And yes, this method works...most of the time. Part of the problem is that because of the beeswax, if the bristle comes undone, for whatever reason, the thread (poly or flax, either one) never holds on the bristle as well the second time around as it did the first time.

The old-timers (and you can still find some Mexicans who do it this way) who took the time to master the split bristle method could wrap up a bristle in hardly more time than Rees' (your) method. I never learned to do it but the trick was to twist one leg of the bristle (this takes virtually no time) with the taw and then counter twist the other leg by itself. And then let go of the point and the whole thing will twist about itself as quick as a wink. Effectively you are making rope. I've seen the results (they are very similar if not identical to my admittedly slow method) and it's impressive.

But I've never claimed my method was better--you're the only one doing that--just different...and probably of interest only to those folks who've learned from me or who still have a healthy curiosity.

Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC

DW, You are doing it WRONG...No Beeswax on the ends. It is not needed. This is why yours are not staying. A formula of 8 parts black shoemakers wax and 2 parts beeswax works and does not need any additional beeswax to lubricate. Do them like I described and you won't have any trouble..Beeswax is too slipery to hold a bristle.

This is a simple process and if anyone wants to do it this way, it's not hard to master. But if a person wants to ride in a buggy, it will get you there.....TR

Just a thought from the audience here, if I may. I think what we have here is just a simple difference in how things are done, nothing more. There are a LOT of these in boot and shoemaking, and this one seems really minor to get be getting worked up over. I don't think there IS a "the" way to bristle your thread. There are a number of ways it can be done. For example, the way I do it is totally different from the ways you all have described. That doesn't mean that it's any more 'right' or 'wrong'. It just works - for me. I've tried it both other ways described in this thread, and for me they are not as effective. Big deal.

(For the record, I don't use any beeswax, smear the bristle and the threads and twist the bristle in to the thread as I make it, as though it were one of the strands. Al even tells me it's historical, but for him the other ways work better).

Marc

On the subject of bristles, one item of note may
interest some in the cordwainers. My father began bootmaking in 1941 ( in Texas ). In the fall of
1949 or spring of 1950,the approx. date another bootmaker joined the shop, both went fishing with the new lines to try them out... it occured to Dad that the flexible fishing lines ( he recalls them to have been about the 12 pound line size ) might just work as substitutes for the headache boar' bristles. He was the first in Ft. Worth to try them for wax ends and shared the idea with the L. White shop next door( they were still using the boar's bristles at the time).

Tex,


So you say. And I have no problem with that...I don't even have any problem with my own students deciding to do it another way. But I guess it's evident that don't agree. I've done it both ways--split bristle twisted, whole bristle wrapped and coated with beeswax, and even whole bristle wrapped and un-beeswaxed. I've done it three or four ways in, fact, and played around with several more and, in the end, I settled on the split bristle method coated with beeswax. [ If someone asks, I'll even explain why I believe the beeswax is necessary ]

All I can tell you is that in the final analysis, it probably all comes down to personality. But what I do and what I teach are tried and true methods...I didn't invent them and I'm not forcing them down anyone's throat...and whether it takes me twice as long or even ten times as long doesn't matter. Doesn't threaten anyone, doesn't insult the Trade, and in the end, only gives someone who can do it faster a perhaps questionable competitive advantage. Be grateful...

No harm, no foul....

BTW, (he said while waiting for leather to dry) thanks for that description. It was clear and constructive and very much in the manner of someone both willing and able to help.

Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC

Pablo,

I can't say for sure but that is about the time my Father started using mono, and he worked for L. White for about 4 yrs in the early 50s. Was your Father's shop next to L. White's. There was Leddys on one side and a cafe on the other. Clue me in. That was a long tme ago and I was 13 or 14 at that time...TR

Pablo,

I'm a long time fisherman--even taught fly casting and flytying. I more or less came up with the idea of using monfilament independently but truth to tell "there's nothing new under the sun" and Al sent me some commercially made English nylon bristles about the same time (we were talking about what to use in lieu of boar's bristle. I always have several diiferent kinds of mono at hand, from hard mono to limp, and in size ranging from 30lb test to one pound tippet material.It's interesting to see how the idea arose among different people in different parts of the world--great minds think alike.

Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC

All,
Recently I run across a Swedish made metal bristle with a split end. I guess they have been out of production a long time ago since I have never heard of them before. They look pretty much like a boars bristle. Much thinner then the metal bristles with a loop. I have used those all my career for sewing welts but they are no good for stitching the out sole. When stitching the out sole have I used boars bristles , nylon dittos and Pedersen 309 solestitcher. With these boar-alike "Skoma Bristles" there are no problem stitching the out sole, they are also good enough for closing uppers. I will spend some of them (they came in envelopes with 5 pairs) at the swap meet in Whichita Falls. Bristle collectors be there!
Janne Melkersson