YouTube video by Andi’s Workshop
Notes
Lastmaking
- foot casting with plaster bandages
- last cast in plaster, all the way up the leg to the shaft height
- placed inside another mold with negative space around toe
- shaped with Surform and sading blocks
- plaster mold
- “hard foam” poured into mold
- amber color
- expands with air bubbles as it cures
- 20 minutes to cure
- sanded
- marks design lines on the last
- tapes over the design lines
- traces the final lines onto the tape
- moves tape pieces to pattern paper
Clicking
- cuts by hand
- silver pen to mark allowances
Skiving
- stones and strop
- over marble countertop
- folds edges with glue and bone folder
- decorative buckle straps glued
- interlining behind eyelet stays
- handcrank cylinder sewing machine
Closing
- backseam stitch marked with overstitch wheel, pre-pierced with stitching chisel, sewn saddle stitch in a stitching pony
- hammers backseam flat over the last
- lays on backstrap over the last
- sets hooks by hand with punch-style setter
- fully lined
- lining is sewn on oversized, then trimmed with scissors
- paints the edges of the lining with a black marker
- stitch lines marked with white pen
- zig-zag stitch on electric machine between lining pieces
- felt tongue pad sewn beneath lining
- forms over the last
- glues quarter to vamp starting at the tab
- sets eyelets by hand with punch-style setter
Last
- divides in two
- stairstep cut on bandsaw up from the heel breast, then forward to the vamp point
- secures together with long screw through leg
Bottom Stuff
- JR leather
- cased
- wraps to the bottom of the last with a fabric wrap
- blocks freehand with a chisel-like push knife
- pulls insole off the last to carve
- feather knife
- channel free hand with knives
- refers to the holdfast as a “comb” in subtitles
- pre-pierces with a curved awl
Stiffeners
- cases submerged in water
- skives toe puff with Super Skiver, knife, and chisel over marble
- hammers heel counters into a concave carved piece of wood to start shaping
- stretches over the back of the last
- staples at topline, then lasts with mostly staples and some tacks
- staples toe puff all the way across the top, then lasts with wire nails
- lets dry
- sands top of toe puff with sandpaper
- removes
- 11:41 cuts away the lasting allowance with scissors
Lasting
- remounts the insoles to the lasts
- pastes in heel counter, then inserts the last
- hammers the upper over the counter
- lasts the lining first, secures with staples
- trims the lining
- glues side linings onto lining
- skives to shape transition to toe puff
- hammers and sands toe puff
- wets the upper
- drafts with tacks
- small Schein lasting pliers
- paste on top of toe puff
- toe lasting
Welting
- calls the welt a “leather frame” in subtitles
- Strap cutter, from JR leather
- gouge to cut a channel in the welt
- skives with a knife
- dyes black
- starts welting from the outside heel breast
- saddle stitch
- proceeds backwards toward the heel
- welts all the way around
- wets the welt and pulls it up with pliers
- trims the upper lasting allowance
Bottoming
- [apparently filled the bottom off-camera]
- uses a contour gauge to take the profile of the filled insole
- uses the gauge to mark wood to make a beech shank
- calls the shank a “spring” in subtitles
- uses tape to make a bottom paper-like pattern for the shape of the shank
- cuts on a bandsaw and sands on a belt sander
- the wood shank covers the entire cavity from the heel seat toward the joints
- cork filling over forepart, shaped with rasp
- cements on a leather midsole and hammers down
- uses flat-jawed pliers to squeeze the welt to the midsole
- marks lines on the bottom of the midsole for a channel
- incises the channel from the inside out, as if for a holdfast
- turns the lip up with a bone folder
- curved awl to poke holes for the outseam
- saddle stitches
- rubs the lip down with the peen, again and hammers
- whittles by hand with the chisel-like push knife
- sandpaper on the edges by hand
Heeling
- scores the heel breast with the chisel
- skives the heel seat flat up to the scored mark
- whittles heel lifts by hand from JR leather with a hooked Stanley knife
- high heel
- cements all lifts together to make a heel block
- squeezes the block together in a vise
- sands the very top lift to the last degree
- mounts the block with three screws, one in back, two in front
- shapes the back of the heel with the chisel knife
- 18:42 cements a shank coverlike piece of leather to the underside of the sole under the waist and shapes it
- Vibram half-lugged half soles and top lifts glued on
- trims with the hooked Stanley knife again
- sands the heel stack
- applies some kind of white coating to the edges
- rubs with beeswax and melts with heat gun
- burnishes with cloth
Delasting
- leg piece comes easily
- foot piece rocked back and forth
Finishing
- sock liner
- parachute cord pull loops thread through loops at the backs of the quarters