Andre _______________________________________________________________________
Are you suggesting the back of the lasts to be like in the pics above? Or are you suggesting support from the insole?
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I am suggesting that the heel be wedged and supported from the medial side as Al has stated eloquently above. The swing, twist, shape, cone and many other parts of the last play an important roll in the symphonic mechanisms that is the last thus the boot or shoe.
Now if you follow Meyers theory to the tea of an insole, you are going to pronate and the sole will be twisted which will make your feet run over to the inside of the footwear especially in closed footwear such as a boot. then if you want to try to fight this, you will need to wedge more medially. It both works with the foot at heel strick and then fights with supinate/pronate propulsion. If you want the look of a Meyers sole shape with out the pronating effect and clipping off of the little toes, it is better to line up the outside of the foot on a straight line to the ball break. Divide the ball break in thirds. The closest to the one third that is on top of the center of the first met is where the tip of your toe box should be for this design. Use a ships curve to draw your toe box to that line. This will follow the outside and allow the roll over the ball break then toe off.
All in all the sole shape should line up with the intended foot, not some theory.
12442.jpg
Al
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BTW, the Brits use the term "twist" to refer to what we call "swing", as well as what we call "twist".
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Yes in my research, I found this to be true. It is confusing when taken out of context, however upon reading further, it becomes clear that they mean swing instead of twist. In a conversation recorded by a shoemaker first meeting Ellis, he refers to the state of the current shoes as twisted shoes, in his discussed.
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As long as we now know that twisting the heel-seat plane independently of the joint-line plane of a last is a control-factor old timers used to "dial" like we dial knobs on a hi-fi. Now it only remains for us to learn how to use it all over again to better effect in our lasts to avoid inviting pronation immedicable after heel-strike, thus NOT effectively short-circuiting "cubiod stream" down the strong side of the foot to "scaphoid stream":
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I believe Creating a last shape is like sculpture & fashion design if you drape it a certain way, it makes the footwear behave in curtain manor. Lets take footwear pattern making for example. Lets also look at springing the waist as a further example. If you don't spring the waist enough or to much, the upper doesn't behave on the last like you'd want it to. The problem I run into with commercial lasts is that I do not know what the operator was thinking when he/she was designing that last. What the last was intended for, how they wanted the footwear to behave and so on, therefore, it is actually difficult for me to use commercial lasts and I wouldn't know where to start to remodel one for a proper twist (perhaps a skill I will learn in my continuing quest for last making knowledge). It is not that I am a snoot or too good for them, obviously they are well designed. For me, I can't relax and just use them for I don't understand what the operator was thinking. If you shape your own, you know what you were thinking and how you want the cubiod stream and the scaphoid stream to behave. As a last maker, you have the ability to at least try to control the foot pair into a healthy stride.
Call me nuts; originally, my teacher did, until he saw its value. If you sculpt the intended last pair before you make the actual, last you can figure out the planes and controls. What I mean is, carve it out of an additive subtractive substance so you can see and watch what you are doing come to life. Once you have attained this intended shape, then carve it out of wood or go through a mould making process to duplicate it in plastic. This is a more artisans' fine art approach than a lastmaking approach but it works for me. Although Fine art in its upscale impression, is always figured out with drawings, doodles, and if intended sculptured clay before the final bronze is made. It is not the easiest or fastest way to model a last but it is a way to control the "dials" before sculpting the last. As one gets more attuned to last making, they can see these planes and dial them out of an empty blank slate, wood, bronze, mud, marble if you will, or even a commercial last...what ever floats your boat. This is what the master's eye learned. How to tune with out sculpting twice. However, I still teach sculpting twice, or sculpt once, mould once. It has more control than hacking up a hunk of wood and then asking,..what happened????.
I will agree that some masters were very, very good, and paid attention to the foot and mechanics of which to go on to shaping a last comfortably. However, from the 1800's as indicated from historical articles and the like, what I have found is that it was the straight last vs. the foot last argument. Trying to utilize a foot, as a last is not a new concept. In fact, in the paper Ellis wrote, he indicates strongly that the foot should be the last. Frank Plunket wrote a book Introduction to boot and shoe manufacturing. In it, he indicates that some utilize a foot cast as a last. However, the factories showed that a foot could not be a last, but swinging a last to accommodate the foot, was a better design. Many of us 100 years or more later disparage footwear manufacturing. But it is they who perfected last design and continue to strive to do so. However, at the start of the industrial revolution factories had to make shoes that people would buy. A book called heavenly soles, it indicates that during this time, women were coming of age in fashion where they no longer wanted to be the "weaker sex" held back by their feet, thus they demanded more comfortable shoes. Orthopedists where slamming the manufactures for the state of feet in that time and many medical peoples were against the factories, yet the sales of shoes rose. (Quite honestly, it is not the factories fault that people insist on cramming their feet into an unhealthy shape. The person does that all on their own). The convenience to be able to simply buy a pair out weighed the factors of healthy feet. No more, wait time for shoes, or if the footwear maker didn't like you, making you wait. Therefore as a completive edge, research continued to learn how to "dial a last" for manufacturing and create comfortable footwear. Those that did, won, by having higher sales, Brown shoe company, one of the oldest survived as a manufacturers in the 20th century, for they did pay attention to both comfort and design. Those that kept to the "old methods" lost. So I am not saying that the old timers didn't know all, but "Your honor", I suggest, that there were not as many " that knew" as we pay homage to or that they knew any more than we do. Human knowledge is collective. It comes from many sources. The knowledge is in books, it's in doing, it's in many of the B/S makers hands, if one thought about it. The masters made lasts AND footwear, thus, I believe they were controlling their outcome, "dialing" into how they wanted the footwear to behave on the foot pair. You have to remember that the last was the nuisance labor that the footwear maker "had" to do in order to get his work out. Like the dress form, it was not regarded as valuble process simply an arduous task that "lost "the maker 7-8 hours of work time. We go on and on trying to prove why the mechanisms of the lasts are there. They simply wanted to get their work done and out so they could get paid.
Still each had their theories based on their clientele as DW pointed out earlier. " We are our best footwear guinea pigs" and critics I might add, we make shoes for others and ourselves and we develop our own style based on what we believe is right for our style of making. As a result, our lasts reflect this.
Therefore, my point is, Al, I think that your knowledge is vast and that you about know what the masters knew too. I think many of the B/S makers of some several years and experience can look at what they do to remodel a last for a specific client and in what they do, is the knowledge. I think many of you skillful footwear makers take confidence that you do know and stop pounding yourselves worshiping an unknown mystery. But, of course, that is simply my opinion.
marlietta
Lastmakingschool.com
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