Lace Boots – Lasting & Welting

I have really been looking forward to lasting my boots and breaking in my new beautiful lasting nails. It might seem a bit geeky to obsess about the aesthetics of something as practical as nails, and actually it wasn’t until I saw these copper plated lasting nails on Instagram, I realized that I would not be able to live without fabulous nails. Blackbird is a series of products, specially develoved for hand shoemaking and other creative purposes. I have acquired a selection of their many different nails, in various metals and shapes, that I am just waiting to find a purpose for using. My first experience with the slender lasting nails is really positive. They are easy to work with as they have a good length without bending too easy. And did I mention how beautiful they look?

Lace Boots - Lasting and Welting I prepare the welt by skiving the edge at one side and cutting a groove on the other. They are left to soak in water for a couple of hours to soften them.

Lace Boots - Lasting and Welting The holes in the holdfast are refreshed with a curved awl, at the same time making a hole in the upper and the welt. All parts are sewn together using two curved needles.

Finished welting. It was a tough job, but I am very satisfied. I kept getting better along the way, so I think my second boot will be a little bit easier.

Lace Boots – Toe Cap

Lace Boots - Toe cap Now that the uppers are sewn and the insoles prepared, it is time for the first lasting. The upper is moistened to make the leather more flexible, and using the shoemakers pliers, it is pulled in shape over the instep, heel and toe. This will be the first and roughest of the lastings, so the nails are placed a little bit further apart than I intend to do on the final. The boots are then left to dry until next day.

The outer leather is carefully pulled back while the lining stays on the last. Placement marks for the toe caps are made on the lining. The toe cap is made of vegetable tanned leather, skived to nothing at the edges and sanded down with sand paper. It is soaked in homemade shoemakers paste and lasted on the toe. Finally it is compressed with a shoemakers hammer to obtain stability of the leather.

Here is the lasted toe cap, now left to dry before the next process. The heel cap is done in the same way.

Lace Boots – Preparing insole

Lace Boots - Preparing insole My first pair of shoes were made with a cemented rand tape and sole, which was a fairly big challenge, not having received any kind of introduction to shoemaking. This time I will obviously push my own limits once again, trying out the much more durable welted construction. A template is sketched onto the bottom of the insole. This is cut out as shown in the picture below, leaving an edge for sewing on the upper.

Then holes for sewing are made with a curved awl. It takes a very sharp awl, a lot of bees wax and hard work. Halfway through the first sole, I was so unlucky, (read: uncareful) the awl slipped into my own left hand! It gave me a few weeks break from shoemaking and I started thinking of new alternative ways for this task. I just bought a new tool, a Dremel 3000, which I am hoping will do the job of drilling the holes. Besides, it is a very clever tool for many other creative projects on which I promise to make a post or two in the future. First of all, I am hoping it will solve this job for me, maybe in combination with the curved awl…

Lace boots – Stitching upper

Inden sammensyning limes delene sammen. Her ligger de og tørrer, holdt sammen med klemmer.

The pieces are glued together before stitching. Here it is left to dry, fixed with clamps.

Lynlåsen, yderlæderet, underfald og foer syes sammen med én enkel søm.

The zipper, outer leather, facing and lining are stiched together in one single stitch.

Til sidst syes overkanten sammen med belægning og foer. Støvleoverdelen er nu klar til at blive læstet.

Finally the upper edge is stitched together with the facing and lining. The boot uppers are ready to be lasted.

Lace boots – Crimping

Støvlemageriet åbner op for en ny udfordring for mig som autodidakt skomagerlærling. Før støvlens overdel sammensyes, er det nødvendigt at udblokke overlæderet for at få den rigtige kurve over vristen. Endnu en gang kunne jeg godt have ønsket mig at der lå en butik med skomagerartikler lige om hjørnet. Men jeg må jo nok erkende at jeg er en af få der leger med denne hobby herhjemme, så markedet er nok ikke så stort. Heldigvis har jeg en meget handy kollega der var så venlig at snedkerere et par “crimping boards” til mig. Overlæderet gennemvædes og trækkes i form henover vristbuen. Det kræver en del tålmodighed og hårdt arbejde, men gradvist giver læderet sig mere og mere og ligger til sidst helt glat. Det skal derefter tørre inden sømmene tages ud og overlæderet kan tages af skabelonerne.

Bootmaking introduces a whole new challenge for me in my autodidact shoemaking apprenticeship. Before stitching together the upper, it is necessary to crimp the vamp to get the right curve at the wrist. Once again, I wish there was a local shoemakers store nearby. But I think I need to realise that there aren’t many hobby shoemakers like me here in Denmark, so I guess the market is a bit too small. Luckily my very handy colleague kindly crafted me a pair of crimping boards. The vamps are soaked in water and then pulled over the curve. It requires some patience and hard work, but gradually the leather begins to take shape and finally lies smoothly at the curve. The leather is left to dry before the nails are pulled out and the vamps can be removed from the boards.

Lace boots – Design

Så har jeg kastet mig ud i et nyt skomagerprojekt. Denne gang et par korte støvler med lynlås. På skaftet vil jeg lave et blondelignende hulmønster. Herover ses en skitse fra min designproces.

I am off to a new shoemaking project. This time it is a pair of short zipper boots. On the shaft I will be making a lacelike brogue pattern. Above is a sketch from my design process.

Læsten er tapet, mønsterdelene optegnet og skåret og her arbejder jeg med placering af hulmønsteret. For en mere detaljeret beskrivelse af udviklingen af et skomønster, kan du se dette tidligere indlæg.

The last has been taped, the pattern is drawn on and cut out. Here I am working on the placement of the hole pattern. For a more detailed description on the development of a shoe pattern, see this former post.

Mønsterdelene lægges på skindet og skæres ud. Jeg har valgt et lækkert, kraftigt men blødt sort koskind med masser af struktur og charmerende uregelmæssigheder.

The pieces are placed on the hide and cut out. For these boots I have chosen a nice, heavy yet soft black cow leather with lots of grain structure and charming irregularities.

Hulmønsteret udstanses… et noget langvarigt projekt, men jeg tror det bliver anstrengelserne værd.

Lace broguing… a somewhat time consuming task, but I believe it will be worth my while.

Shoemaking 5.1 – Finishing oxford shoes

Jeg gjorde det sgu! Nu er der kun de sidste detaljer tilbage før jeg har bestået den kreative prøve, jeg har sat mig selv på. Det har været en kæmpe udfordring, men dermed også tilsvarende en stor personlig sejr for mig, at det er lykkedes mig at lave et par helt gennemført håndlavede sko alene baseret på egen research på nettet. Jeg har uden tvivl brugt længere tid på, at undersøge teknikkerne end faktisk at lave skoene. Jeg er ovenud tilfreds med resultatet. Efter at have taget læsterne ud, har jeg lavet en indersål af et tyndt lag kork, dækket med foerlæder. Og for den sidste finish har skoene fået en grundig omgang skocreme. Med lidt brun narvsværte har jeg fremhævet hulmønsterdetaljen og sømmene.

I did it! Only a few finishing touches left to do before I have passed the creative test I have put on myself. It has been a great challenge, thus an equally great personal victory for me to have managed to make my own genuinely handmade shoes, based on research on the internet alone. No doubt, I have spent more hours researching than actually working on the shoes. I am very satisfied with the result. After removing the lasts, I made an insole of cork covered with lining leather. For the fininshing touches, the shoes have been given a clear polish and the seams and brogue details are enhanced with a small amount of brown leather dye.

De færdige sko!

The finished shoes!

Og til sidst lige et billede fra en stolt første dag i nye hjemmelavede sko. Til min store glæde har de vist sig at være fantastisk behagelige at gå i. Det bliver helt sikkert ikke det sidste par sko fra disse spæde skomagerhænder.

And finally a picture from a proud first day wearing new homemade shoes. I was very happy to find that they are very comfortable to wear. These shoes will definitely not be the last from these rookie shoemaker hands.

Shoemaking 5.0 – Cemented sole

Det er nu blevet tid til at lave sålerne på mine oxford sko. Et stykke sålelæder skæres til, så det er lidt større end skoens bund. Inden sålen limes på med kontaktlim, slibes begge sider med sandpapir.

It is time for making the soles of my oxford shoes. A piece of sole leather is cut a little bigger than the bottom of the shoe. Before the soles is glued on with contact cement, both sides are sanded down.

Sålen skæres til langs randbåndet.

The sole is cut along the rand tape.

Sålens nederste kant afrundes med en kantskærer.

The bottom edge of the sole is rounded off with an edge bevelling tool.

Tre hælstykker skæres til hver sko.

Three heel pieces are cut for each shoe.

Hældelene limes på én af gangen og skæres til i kanten.

The heel parts are glued on one at a time, and cut to fit.

Færdig med opbygningen af hælens lag.

Finished building the heel.

Til sidst fugtes hælen med vand og glattes med et træværktøj. Nu mangler jeg bare den sidste finish inden jeg kan vise de færdige sko frem til verden.

Finally the heel is moisted with water and smoothed with a wooden tool. Now there are only a few finishing touches before I can show the world my finished shoes.

Shoemaking 4.2 – Rand

Randbåndet er nu syet med vokset tråd og indfarvet med mørkebrun narvsværte. Kanterne er derefter afrundet ved at gnide dem med træskaftet på et læderværktøj.

The rand tape is sewn with waxed thread and dyed dark Brown. The edges are rounded off by rubbing it with a wooden shaft on a leather tool.

Båndet limes på langs kanten, begyndende ved indersiden af svangen. Det skæres til så længden passer, men først optrævles en trådende der bruges til hæftning.

The tape is glued on along the feather edge, beginning at the inside. The length is cut to fit, leaving a thread end for closing.

Der hæftes ved at sy et sting henover samlingen. Alle spidserne skærfes og kanten files for at limen til sålen hæfter bedre.

A stitch across the gathering closes it off. All the pointed ends are skived and the edge is rasped to make the glue stick better when the sole is attached.

Shoemaking 4.1 – Rand tape

Til dette første par “rigtige” sko jeg laver, har jeg valgt en limet sålkonstruktion. Den mere avancerede randsyede version vil jeg helt sikkert prøve kræfter med senere, men man skal jo starte et sted. Til dette kan man købe færdiglavet randbånd i metermål, men jeg har lavet dem selv, primært fordi jeg ikke kunne finde det andre steder end i amerikanske eller australske webshops, og havde ikke tålmodighed til at vente på det. Der skæres hakker langs den ene kan på en strimmel af tyndt læder. Dette gør, at båndet er fleksibelt nok til at kunne limes langs buen på tå og hæl.

For this first “real” pair of shoes I am making, I have chosen a cemented construction. I am sure I will be trying my luck with the more advanced goodyear welted version later on, but one has to begin somewhere. It is possible to buy premade rand tape by the inch, but I made my own, primarily because I could only find them in Australian and American webshops, and didn’t have the patience to wait for it to arrive. The edge of a thin leatherstrap is cut to make it flexible enough to be glued along the curve of the heel and toe.

Der skæres en rille i en smallere læderstrimmel.

A groove is cut in a narrower leather strap.

Der markeres til syhuller.

Marking for stitch holes.

De to færdige strimler limes sammen.

The two finished straps are glued together.

Sømhuller laves med en syl. I næste indlæg vil jeg vise hvordan randen monteres efter at være blevet syet og indfarvet.

Stitch holes are made with an awl. Next time I will show how to fix the rand after sewing and dyeing.