Tackling the heel

[dw]

Rick,

Splitter set for one half the thickness of the leather (setting 6)...Vibram heel lift material is the same thickness as the Belgium chestnut tannage....and a half inch wide straight-edge and a razor sharp knife.

Kind of cool, isn't it?

Meant to show you that yesterday but forgot.

Tight Stitches
DWFII--HCC Member

[kevin_l]

I like the lamination of leather glue rubber glue leather. Nice structure for strength. Not really a rabbett at that length more a laminate.

Why the cant from the breast angle?

[dw]

Kevin,

Yes, and the brass nails go through both the leather and the rubber.

I am not sure what you're referring to with

the cant from the breast angle

??

If you mean why is the rubber in the lateral corner rather than straight across...that's where most people wear their heels first and hardest. And I've seen that configuration for so many years it just wouldn't look right or as refined to do it any other way.

Most really high end shoes use some variation of this arrangement even if they are buying them from a third party.

Tight Stitches
DWFII--HCC Member

[courtney]

After putting the heels on my new boots they sat fairly level front to back,

but after removing the lasts, the one I put a full length forefoot rocker lift outsole (to correct lld) is alot higher off the ground at the seat than the breast.

Do you think I should build up the seat so its level, even though it would be a different height than the other or try and skive down toward the breast on the outsole or something different?

Thanks,
Courtney

[artzend]

Courtney

As with the last reply. Post photos. It's really difficult to advise without seeing what you are talking about.

Tim

[courtney]

14116.jpg

14117.jpg

these show both heels, you can see the tapered wedge I made between the midsole and heel.

This seemed to level it O.K. before I put the sole on, both heels could be leveled more but you can see the one with the lift is alot worse.

[artzend]

Courtney

The top piece needs to sit parallel to the surface of the bench.

By adding a midsole you have changed the pitch of the heel, that's all.

A bit more grinding and levelling will sort it.

Tim

[courtney]

Tim, I dont understand, but I really want to!
If I try and grind or build up from where I am now, wont I be changing the heel height, and make the two boots different?

Courtney

[artzend]

Courtney

Your heel heights are different anyway. What you need is to get the top pieces flat to the floor.

Tim

[courtney]

O.K., but how does the midsole change the pitch?

and if I am trying to make one boot 1/2" higher than the other isnt it going to change that by adding to the back of the heel?

Do you think its o.k. to level it from the top piece or should I take it apart and do it from the midsole?

Thanks,
Courtney

[artzend]

The thickness of the midsole has raised the heel as well as the forepart of your last so you need to add a bit to fill the space between the top of the top piece and the bottom of the midsole.

If you can remove your top piece easily then do so and re level the heel area with a tapered wedge shaped insert.

If you have to you can grind the front off the top piece. This is not the preferred option though.

Tim

[tjburr]

This question is mostly directed to the group, but I also had a question for Coutney.

I have wondered in the past about the proper way to provide lifts. The only time I have performed this was two times when a pediatrist directly gave me instructions for his own shoes. For both pairs (boots and shoes) these were flat soled, and I was not sure how universal this technique was.

The technique was basically applying a fixed thickness addition, call it an extra thick mid-sole.

Is this the general technique that should be used.

The question to Courtney is if this is the technique she used. Specifically the image below shows the piece I was discussing in the picture and an image of what I am referring to as to the technique.

14121.png

Courtney; if this is what you are doing, the following image shows what may be happening, or at least the type of problem I have encountered when trying to thicken the soles of both shoes. I don't like messing with differences between legs and with the exception of the above mentioned case have avoided it. However, I did have one person that wanted a little extra height; and if anyone is interested it was a female that wanted to look even more like an amazon than the 6'+ that she already was.

14122.png

Terry

[gshoes]

So what is the solution? Can you just sit the whole shoe on the belt sander and press down until all of the surfaces are flat? LOL. Or is there a better way?

Geri

[artzend]

Geri

You have to add an insert in between the top piece and the midsole and shape that so the top piece sits flat to the surface. Adding a midsole changes the angle of the heel as well as it's heel height, if you want to keep your toe spring.

You don't take anything off the wearing surface of the top piece, the earlier preparation must allow the top piece to sit flat.

Tim

[courtney]

Terry, I am a male, just for the record.
That is pretty much what I did except I tapered the lift from the ball joint to a little before the toe.

It's wierd though because last pair I made didnt have as much of a pitch and it was the same lasts,

I wonder if construction and materials have anything to do with it? last pair was cement and thin leather these were welted with heavy leather uppers.

I'm also wondering if the last maker measured the 1/2" heel hieght from the seat and not the breast because if I put a 3/8 height at the breast on the last there is alot less pitch.

I dont want my heels to have much of an angle, I kept thinking I wish they could be like Clarks desert boot heels, just a 1/2' chunk at the back,

Well, this weekend I loooked at some Clarks and they had at least 3/8" of the back of the heels just floating off the table!

Courtney
"A boy named Sue"

[courtney]

Also, I was looking in Thornton on pg.270 and he's talking about if you want a 1 1/8" heel and after subtracting the thickness of the welt, seat lift, the sole and piece sole and top piece, you would require another 5/8" for the heel.

I'm not tottally sure what all that means, but it sounds like he's saying anything added to the bottom of the shoe would be figured in as part of the heel height?

Courtney

[tjburr]

Courtney,

Sorry about the mistake.

I must be honest your questions have exceeded the limit of my experience.

I did check my copy of Thornton, since I was curious about the reference, and it must be a slightly different page since page 270 did not seem to have this wording. I will have to read the section again when I get a chance.

Terry

[andre]

Courtney,
you could also try to reduce the length of the lift, may be 5-10mm shorter. If you say, it came out well before, that might could be the reason. My two cents on building up heel: A friend of mine, who is an experienced sole maker, advised me to fit the first lift with full material on waist and skive to about 2/3 material down to the seat, the next heel start with full material from the seat to waist and now skive it to level even. He feels to have more control for the balancing. I have tried it once and I felt quite comfortable this way, it was all together lesser skiving work for me. But I'm certainly in no way an expert in building heels, may be it's a good way for a beginner.

[courtney]

Terry, I looked in the digital copy and its on pg.242. I would be curious what others make of what he is saying. My hard copy is from 1964, I wonder what else is different.

D.W., on pg. 572 it shows a last that says R. Whiton, is that the SES last? It dosent look like you could make a cowboy boot on that, but do you think a lace up boot would be fine?

Andre, thanks for the advice. I dont know if that would help me or not, but its something I could try.

Courtney

[homeboy]

Being the big "tight-wad" I am, I have a box of old heels I have pulled off of boots I've repaired throughout the years, with the good intention of finding a way to "re-use" the leather or complete heel. I've tried to pull the individual layers apart after cutting off the protruding pegs, but never with any great success.

I've been reading some shoemaking blogs with great interest. Some build their heels with rubber cement and nails. Purpose being, they can remove the layers carefully and reconstruct the heel after the repair.

Question: has anyone here tried building heels one layer at a time with rubber cement with any great success?

Any comments would be appreciated.

(Message edited by homeboy on January 06, 2012)

[dearbone]

Greetings to you Jake,

Not being from the south,i think i understand what you mean by a "tight-wad",i am too, my teacher collected every little piece of leather because he has seen world war 1 and 2 when leather became very hard to find,now as for separating glued heel layers some glue thinner will help loosen some of the cement,if they are pegged as well as cemented than good luck to you and your muscles, i have to say i do recycle/reuse the leather i use fro fitters.

Naaser

[johnl]

I am far from being any kind of an expert, but if I was going to try reusing heels, I would get the 1st 1 or two layers of leather heel on the boot like you usually do. Sand and grind to level. One more layer on the boot. This time with nails driven through the layer heads toward the boot, sharp points facing away from the boot. Peg this piece to boot. Then take the used heel, trim to height with bandsaw or hack saw or whatever, apply glue and pound in place. Would not that work? John L

[homeboy]

Hey Nasser,

Hope the New Year is starting off right for you. Is it cold yet? We're getting a warm spell at the moment. It's NICE!

Not too interested in wollering around in thinner. You are right....pulling apart well cemented lifts sure does test your muscles. Anyway, I've got boxes of "scrap" leather throughout the shop. Just hate to throw away a good piece of leather!

John,

Bingo! I've thought about your very suggestion. Just might give it a try! Thanks for the input!

[dearbone]

Jake, send some of that warm weather my way ,Today is first sunny and mild day for some time,only once i had to shovel snow and only few days of bone chill -15 and under, for days like that i buy what i need and hunker down in the shop.
It is a good starting year,I am training a young helper how to bottom shoes and is going near well on his first inseaming and sole stitching,doing the whole shoe/boot from pattern making to closing to making and finishing is a long process as you know and not good for business.

Nasser

[dw]

Jake, Nasser, et al,

I offer this as a possible solution...my teacher, Mike Ives, built heels from tempered lifts. This forced him to level them with a sharp knife--a very credible technique in skilled hands and/or in the absence of a finisher.

Such lifts, because they are tempered, will conform to any irregularity in the preceding layer and to whatever curve that the outsole and/or succeeding layers demand. A close fit between layers should not be a problem...at least not due to leather wanting to pull away from previous layers.

So...use Hirschkleber for the adhesive and peg the tempered layers into place.

Hammering the tempered layers will also firm them up. And you should end up with a firm, solid, heel with no gaps in the stack. Obviously this will take some little bit of practice and experience to reach perfection but it can be done.

And when the heel stack is salvaged and needs to be re-built, the layers will come apart easily. Pegs may need to be cut--I have a sharpened heel-pry that I use for cutting both embedded pegs and nails.

I've never done it this way but before the advent of contact cements some variation of this technique must have been in common use.

Just an idea.

Tight Stitches
DWFII--HCC Member