Pattern making

[dw]

Quick question about Chukka boots... can anyone tell me what sort of "ideal" gap the facings should have at the lacing?

IMO, 3/8" - 1/2".

[PhilipB1]

Thank you kindly, @DW. I've decided to make 2 piece Chukkas, so the quarters will have no heel seam (must be a name for that). Which means I'll need to block the the heel to get the concave curve over the heel cup and the convex curve at the Achilles tendon. Do you have any advice for this? Also, I wondered how you work the pattern cutting. Is it possible to make a pattern and the block it, or is it best to block some leather and then cut the required pattern?

[dw]

Ifit were me (and it has been, many times) I'd cut a 'blocker'--an over large piece of leather in the rough shape as the quarter, block it, then cut it to size and shape.

[PhilipB1]

Yes, that's what I thought was most likely. What about the double curve? Would you just block the ankle curve with a blocking board, then do the bottom of heel on the last?

[dw]

I block both curves simultaneously. If you use a watercolour pencil to mark a centerline through the double curves, you can cut your pattern off that line.

I suppose that you could do just the ankle curve but it seems to me it would be harder to mount the quarters on the vamp with any certainty that it would all conform to the original standard when lasted.

In that context, if you were gonna have a backseam, would you make a double curve or leave the heel area flat? There too, you could probably do it either way but, well...I'm kind of an odd mix--I come from a discipline that relies on blocking extensively. As a result I block anything and everything if I possibly can--vamps, quarters, even backstraps.

[PhilipB1]

Blocking both curves at the same time makes sense to me. I dug out a double curve blocking board I'd made about a year ago for exactly this purpose and gave it a try yesterday. Since the Chukkas have been in the planning stage for around a year I'd not actually used the board, but it worked fine on a spare piece of leather. I also made a blocking board for the vamp, so will give that a try as well.

They other question I had was relating to the top line of a Chukka - I wondered how tight it ought to be? If I stand still, my commercial Chukkas have a little gap about a pencil size at the back of the heel down to roughly the counterpoint height, then they are tight around the heel bulb. I assume this is to provide some room for the ankle to flex. Is that how they should be?

[dw]

I think so, although I don't think there is any standard. IIRC, the patterns i used came from Golding and it makes a 'George' boot which is maybe an inch higher than a chukka (?).

Mine are loose from the top of the instep up. They probably could be tight to the ankle but since the laces don't go up that high it won't make any difference

[PhilipB1]

Thanks. Having looked at various chukkas there seems to be no standard height, with some being a good inch high than others (and often the higher versions looking the most elegant to my eyes, giving more scope for shaping the heel curve).

After I've made up the chukka boot, I'd like to make an Oxford version (as in a basic Oxford shoe extending up to just above the ankles as per the chukka/low ankle type of boot). You very rarely see an Oxford style low ankle boot so I wondered if there are any disadvantages compared to a Derby style / chukka? And I wondered how you would treat the facing gap on an Oxford style low/ankle boot?

[PhilipB1]

Quick question on blocking. Is there any benefit to leaving the leather on the blocking board after it it's dry? If so, roughly how long should it be left?

[dw]

There may be several answers for that. I leave the leather on the boards longer for extreme blocks than for easy blocks. i suspect you can take veg off the boards sooner than chrome.

Etc..

[PhilipB1]

To take an example, making a 2 piece Oxford from 3 to 4 oz veg tanned aniline upper. To block the vamp and also to block the one piece quarters, I'm guessing these are easy blocks. Roughly how long would you leave these for blocking?

[dw]

Two days, at least, maybe three. This is a judgement call. When the leather is dry and no longer feels the least little bit cool to the touch, it's probably safe to pull them. They're not going to be heavily 'sprung' ...not like a full wellington or jodhpur front so they're not gonna be inclined to 'remember' their flat state to any significant degree.

Again, it's a judgement call--obviously the longer they sit on the board the more tension from the blocking is gonna relax

[PhilipB1]

Thanks. I was planning a little longer, but it's good to know I'm in the right ball park.

[ohialehua]

I have a question on the geometric method vs. the masking tape method. I recently received Koleff's Shoe and Boot Designing Manual and drew the standard as directed based on my foot and last measurements. I also made up a masking tape standard using Koleff's masking tape process in the back of the book and compared the two. The J-J1 line from Koleff's geometric method is about 20mm further back toward the heel than the joint line from the masking tape method, which seems like a huge difference to me!

Am I doing something wrong, or is this to be expected? Is the geometric J-J1 not intended to be the actual joint line of the foot? Which joint line should I use when designing patterns, the actual or the geometric?