Tools of the Trade

[dearbone]

Jon,

DW tips are very valuable especially to start feeding from a "point", even the 16 inch fortuna sas i was using today likes to be fed from a narrow start and there is my own unorthodox and maybe controversial way of making it easy for the splitter,I have found out that if i split a mellow sole leather,it is much easier than to split dry sole leather,Make sure there is no water in the leather,if socked in water today,it is good to split the next day and even than you might need to wipe dry the blade.

Nasser

[dw]

Nasser,

Yes, I have been told many times to split sole leather while it was in a tempered state. And I have done it that way several times.

The only thing that I don't like about it is that mulled leather expands and then splitting accurately becomes a bit problematic.

I have my currant splitter calibrated pretty closely. But a 10 iron outsole will swell to 11 iron and a 6 iron split becomes a 5 iron after drying.

If you keep that in mind, however, I think it could be worked around.

[hr][/hr]
Without "good," there is no "better," without "better," no "best."
And without the recognition that there is a hierarchy of excellence in all things, nothing rises above the level of mundane.

Tight Stitches
DWFII--HCC Member

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

[dearbone]

DW,

All things considered,your observation is right on,leather does swells some when tempered, you are a great man for details,I would have turned out a much better man (a wiser shoemaker)if i had you as my growing up neighbor.

Regards
Nasser

[dw]

Pffft! Now you're just schmoozing me.

I'm a detail guy alright but it just makes you crazy, that's all.

[hr][/hr]
Without "good," there is no "better," without "better," no "best."
And without the recognition that there is a hierarchy of excellence in all things, nothing rises above the level of mundane.

Tight Stitches
DWFII--HCC Member

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

[johnl]

There is a Landis Skiver/splitter on EBay
Look up number is 25087951845

[amuckart]

I recently got two of the Japanese shoemaker's knives from www.goodsjapan.jp after I was reminded about them watching videos on riverfield shoes' Youtube channel. Watching the maker channeling an insole with the same knife he uses to shape the heel and trim the sole, which is the same as the clicker used is quite neat. The ones in the video are obviously well used and extremely sharp.

I got the 32mm and 24mm wide ones. Both are laminated construction with a thin piece of fine steel welded to an iron or mild steel back.

The 24mm knife was the sharpest factory edge I've ever seen on a knife. I could have comfortably shaved with it, and it was a fairly good skiving edge. A very small amount of truing and honing with 3M microfinishing sheets on glass working 15u through 0.5u (about 60,000 grit equivalent) and it's now the sharpest knife I've ever handled. Skiving with it is easy but the geometry is completely different to the knife I taught myself to skive with so it takes a little getting used to.

Cutting, it glides through everything from book leather right up to 5mm outsole. Only the outsole slowed it down appreciably. I plan on getting the other shapes as well because even with the limited use I've given this one I can see them being handy.

The 32mm is the handmade version, which is quite a bit more expensive, and a little disappointing but I'm waiting for feedback from the site owner before I decide whether mine's an anomaly or not.

It wasn't sharp out of the box - there were actual flats on the edge reflecting light - and it took a lot of work to grind the back of the blade flat to put a good edge on it. I had to start at 200 grit wet/dry and do quite a lot of work to get a consistent flat on the back. I'd have gone to 120 but the blade is really thin at the edge.

The blade is a lot more tapered than the narrower knife but it's quite asymmetrical, being about half a mm thinner on one side than the other, and very slightly twisted. 0.5mm might not seem like much but for a blade that's only 1.5mm thick that's quite a bit. I'd be interested to know how this geometry compares to the factory made one.

The most disappointing thing about the 32mm knife though is that there's a cold shut in the weld near the edge which has resulted in a crack right through the steel portion of the blade. The steel also seems to be over-hard and even at about a 30 degree angle the corner chips off the edge with just gentle use but I'm not going to exclude operator error on that one just yet though.

I'm going to send pictures of the cracked blade to the site owner and see what they say about it. I like the shape of these knives a lot, the way they're used is very different to western clicking knives but it appeals to me.

[courtney]

Alasdair, I couldnt find any riverfield shoes channel. got a link?

Courtney

[amuckart]

Hi Courtney,

You can find the channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/riverfieldshoes

All of their videos are worth watching, but the first and the third ones are my favourites for the sheer number of operations carried out with the single knife. It's used for everything from clicking out the uppers to channeling the insole to skiving the counters and trimming the outsole.

Note how when he's prepping the insole for filler he flips the knife bevel up or down depending on the kind of cut he's making.

[amuckart]

I just thought I'd follow up my comments above about the goodsjapan.jp knives. I emailed Simon at goodsjapan about the knife yesterday and got an extremely positive response back saying it did sound like the knife was defective and offering me a replacement from the new supplier he is organising, without any need to return the one I'm having trouble with, which I thought was an exellent response.

[john_ralston]

Has anyone ever seen a burnishing tool like the one used in this video at the 1:40 mark? It looks to be some type of electric burnisher that is placed into the bowl of wax and then onto the surface of the leather.

burnishing tool

If you know what it is, where would I find one?


(Message edited by john ralston on September 21, 2011)

[rosesj]

There is a Japanese shoe making video in which the polisher uses a similar tool. An electric burnishing iron. I believe that Marcel has one as well, at least it appears he does on his blog post image. http://handmadeshoes.wordpress.com/ 8/28/2001 posting.

I have cursorily looked online, because I was curious as well. I have not found any mention of them.

(Message edited by rosesj on September 21, 2011)

(Message edited by rosesj on September 21, 2011)

(Message edited by rosesj on September 21, 2011)

[rosesj]

Heh... I'm obviously going to have to practice posting images in the practice section.

(Message edited by rosesj on September 21, 2011)

(Message edited by rosesj on September 21, 2011)

[paul]

I sure enjoyed watching that again, this time with the sound on.

What I'd like a lead on is the foil used for the gold trim at about 2:36.

Does anyone have a lead? or more importantly, the apellation of the foil, so that I might do my own search.
I have an inquiery about a leather desk top with such trim.

Thanks,
Paul

[elfn]

It's gold leaf. You can get it from art supply places.

Nori

[john_ralston]

Gold Leaf Ribbon

Now...I found that for you...find me the Iron

[1947redhed]

That foil is usually used in the bookbinding trade. Google Talas in New York, ultimate supplier of boodbinding stuff.
Georgene

[tomo]

Who would've believed they still made them like that. I've got some of those foil embossing wheels. the wheels on mine are about 3" in diameter. But there is another sort with a end that's sort of grooved (pattern) and you use it like a big saddler's single crease. I've never used them... One day I guess. You can get the foil in different colours too. I had some blue, gold and I think red... Nice Video, Thanks John,
T.

[1947redhed]

Since this gold embossing will be exposed to the elements and not covered with a protective coating, you need to use real gold. The leaf that is marked "composition" will tarnish as it is largely brass based.

[rosesj]

Thought this was interesting...

I know Dick, (and others) make a gimping tool for the sewing machine. However, I was watching this Youtube clip and saw that not only was this maker using a tool for machine gimping, but he installed his broguing punch in his machine, and was using it as well. He wasn't specifically 'sewing' his brogue holes... he was positioning by hand, and simply using the machine as his punch source.

You can see it at time 1:00 and a little bit after. He also has an interesting way to Welt these shoes... and his shoe box puts my closet to shame.

Handmade beskope Bentivegna Shoes - Piergiacomi Shoes - Top Quality

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odBLBIFuImM&NR=1

(Message edited by rosesj on October 06, 2011)

[romango]

It didn't seem to be a big advantage to punch the brogue holes by machine. Maybe on straight runs he can just let the machine position the punch.

The pre-punched welt holes was interesting too. And I sure wish we had better access to crust leather and and the dyes and knowledge of dying that is shown.

[rosesj]

DW,

I saw on the Carreducker blog, that you spoke with Ducker about his use of what appears to be 'shrink wrap' during his shoe making process in order to protect delicate leathers while finishing, soling, etc. I know he said they have a local supplier for the bags.

My question is, however, do they put the entire lasted shoe in the bag and then welt/outsole over it? I see the plastic appearing to go completely under the welt on several pictures, however, simply 'cutting' the bag off would mean leaving a plastic film between the insole and outsole.

I saw, somewhere, that you were going to present on the subject of using shrinkwrap in shoe making, but I don't remember where or when I saw this posting.

Could you go over it here? Even in a cursory manner, it would be beneficial. Or point me in a direction with more instruction, should you know of a place.

Protecting some finishes and delicate leather would certainly allow me to be a little more confident.

Thank you

Shane

[admin]

Shane,

I will be doing a presentation at the AGM on Sunday the 23 of October. I believe it will be videotaped.

I don't want to spoil the presentation for people attending AGM, so if you ask again next week or later, I will try to talk you through it.

That said, the short answer is that yes, the film covers the entire shoe and inseaming is done through the film. And yes, a thin piece of film is left between the welt and the vamp.

This is a very common practice in the premier shoe factories in Northampton. And yes, it does protect very delicate leathers and white leathers and there is no other solution that is quite as effective.

The factories and the industry in Europe have developed a "system" and a dedicated product (pre-formed?) for this purpose. But what I've come up with can be done by the bespoke maker using 'off-the-shelf' products. And the result is nearly identical. With a little ingenuity, you can even create a barrier that will prevent "denting" of the vamp that occurs when you sew the welt by hand.

Tight Stitches
DWFII--HCC Member

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

[idris_nowell]

I would like to share with you a tool that I made to make threads. I've found that getting hold of thread in the right size, right material and right colour is quite problematic for me. To solve this on my first pair of shoes I spent hours twisting each thread, both for sewing the upper and the inseam/outseam, by hand, from what I had available in the right colour(40wt bonded nylon). In the end I became so sick of rolling threads by hand I made a machine to replicate the process, and make a few improvements while I was at it.

This is the machine:

14154.jpg

Each of the hooks (there are 18) is geared to a handle so that 100 turns on the handle will produce 536 turns on the inner 6 hooks and 1400 turns on the outer 12.

14155.jpg

All the outer hooks turn in the same direction and all the inner hooks turn the opposite way, the plan being to be able to make threads with a core and an outer winding. I haven't tried this yet though.

14156.jpg

The machine is set up with the desired number of strands on the correct hooks. I have tried up to 24 strands on the outer hooks sucessfully. This picture shows 12 strands of sewing polyester, the type that goes through a domestic sewing machine and which can be bought in a huge range of colours almost anywhere. I've used blue and white here to show the winding more easily.

14157.jpg

At the other end of the machine (the "tail" ) the strands pass thorough a separator plate and onto a hook that's tied with elastic to a separate gearing system with a handle.

14158.jpg

After putting about 100 turns on the handle (1400 into each strand) I start turning the handle at the "tail" end of the machine and the strands start forming into a single thread.

14159.jpg

As I'm turning the "tail" handle I move the separator plate towards the "head" and the thread forms. Once the separator plate reaches the "head" I unhook the strands from the hook, unthread it from the separator plate and tie it off. The final result looks like this:

14160.jpg

This machine has shaved hours of my thread making time, it now takes me only a minute or two to make a thread seven feet long and I can, in fact, make two threads, on needles, at the same time.

This one was a prototype and was very cheaply made, I have plans for a second one that would be motorised and automatically perform the "tail" winding as it goes.

Anyway, I hope someone finds this useful, or interesting at least.

Idris

(Message edited by Idris Nowell on December 02, 2011)

[gshoes]

Nice rope making machine!

[tomo]

Unbelieveable! I made amachine similar years ago Idris for making pigging strings. Could you not get the thread you want by mail order Idris.....? Amazing how industrius some people are