Bill Bird Lasting Up a Derby Shoe Series

YouTube video series by Bill Bird showing and explaining the lasting process

Part 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4axYE-KEZs

• insole already done
• took the insole off and traced it for the sock lining

Heel Stiffener

• cut out from pattern
• matches the quarter pattern
• notched orientation mark for medial side
• lateral side is lower than medial due to ankle bones
• 40 mm versus 46 mm topline heights
• back height 1/5 of last length, not including the insole
• add 3mm for shrinkage
• 2:14 skiving
  • sharpened the knife already
  • about 2.5 mm thick to start, done on skiving machine [2.5 mm is between 6 oz and 7 oz]
  • full thickness in the middle
  • soaked for about half an hour in water, stored between newspaper [AKA cased]
  • top skive
    • flesh side
    • straight taper on top skives
    • don’t want to feel bumps or lumps on the foot
    • fine feather edge at top
    • [skiving over a small marble block]
    • feel for bumps and ridges with fingers
    • to end up below the topline by about 3mm
    • hammers to the bottom of the last to find excess below featherline
    • then marks the hammered line with a pen
    • about 6mm longer than featherline on the medial side
  • bottom skive
    • twists the blade so it’s cupped, rather than straight
    • still skiving the flesh side
    • cupping helps wrap around the bottom of last, make flat seat
    • want full thickness at the bottom of the heel cup
• marks side length end points behind joints with thumbnail, then cuts

Knives

• have to be ground thin
• from Algeos [???]

Rivets [Lasting Tacks]

• 1 inch
• 18 gauge (1.2)
• specifically designed for lasting
• white box marked “IVI”

Inserting

• maroon, chestnut-grain calf
• Dutch orthopedic linings
• some pig lining at heel
• suede-backing counter from upper leather
• open up, check that stiffener will fit
• pull the stiffener hard lengthwise
• put midline down the seam
• check that no interference
• tuck up behind the tabs of the derby quarters
• snug fit
• Tommy Simons would add loose stitches to stop the stiffener falling down as it’s lasted

Shoemakers’ Paste

• best: Metrotex 047
• from Algeos
• pastes often a kind of white glue
• in a pinch, make up wallpaper paste, or white flour and water

Pasting

• paste between stiffener and upper, quite generous
• create a “laminate shell”
  • upper, stiffener, and lining
  • very firm
• “long-medium stiffener”
• don’t see long stiffeners in manufactured shoes due to cost, costs 3-4 times as much
• paste between stiffener and lining
• always paste to the outside, since easier

Part 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bactM8RpY0

Powdering

• later on will use contact glues
• don’t want to glue the shoe onto the last
• make it easy to get the last out
• from plastic bottle with perforated lid

Laying On

• final check that notch on the medial side
• can’t switch sides once shaped
• leave the back height of the topline above the cone [in preparation for hoisting]
• want a lot of tension
  • make it conform
  • want a strong bond between stiffener, upper, lining, force the paste through
• upper has silver lines down the middle for alignment
• [using Swedish-style lasting pliers, look like Schein, handles wrapped in what looks like black eletrical tape]
• pull the toe lining first
  • more tension on lining than upper
  • tack down, bend the tack over
  • might come down further now than it will be in the end
• next: pull the outside joint, then the inside and tack it
• will pull these tacks out [drafting]
• more tension on lining than upper
• working on lap, so can turn the shoe over and check it
• if apron and walled last, might need more adjustment to sit right

Hoisting

• pulls down to back height pen mark
• really important: strong tension on the clip
• mirror-faced hammer over the clip

  • I’ve got my strop, I’ve got my knife, and I’ve got my mirror face, and I can shave.

  • never use a hammer that doesn’t have a mirror face on leather

  • marks the leather
• single rivet to make sure it doesn’t slide down
• tiny hole through lining shows that has been hand-lasted
• bone folder to mold the stiffener while it’s mellow
• leave a piece of lining up above the tongue so can tug it
• tacks it to the top of the cone
• about an hour to make a pattern for each last
• if you pull the last out and the upper creases or twists, you had to pull it around the last to get the shape

Heel Lasting

• pull on lining slightly tighter than upper so it curves over
• pulling on the upper pulls it away from the last
• get tension on lining, then lay the upper down
• not a lot of tension on the upper
• rivets at the back, about 6mm behind the featherline to let the leather lie flat
• “rivet” versus “tack”:
  • long enough to hit without hammering your fingers
  • long enough to lift it up and get glue under
  • Bending puts more tension on the leather
• “gather the pucker with each rivet so that it’s so small that if flattens out”
• until about 20 years ago, could get pure-iron rivets that bent more easily
• compressing the leather
• neat featherline
• does one side for a few tacks, then the other, to avoid an imbalance
• flip the shoe so the toe’s toward or away, depending on your dominant hand
• glue allergies: shoemakers pastes just starch
• will use neoprene, since dries quicker
• shank
  • for a narrow waist, like a ladies’ court show, want to stay well in toward the midline
  • doing a square-waisted derby, so doing 6mm in
  • rivets not so close, since “not turning a corner”
  • really snug lining under the arch
  • press rivet with finger and won’t slip before you can hit it
  • later: side linings
• trims the excess leather, stiffener, and lining all together
  • strops on paddle strop
  • 6-8 mm in from the rivets
• gluing down
  • use bone folder or heel of shoe knife to lift up the lasted material for gluing
  • neoprene
    • from Renia
    • non-toxic, so no fume extractor
    • longer opening time
    • more difficult to use “which is why they make the toxic one”
    • “if you do it properly it’s just as strong”
  • heat gun for a few seconds to dry it quickly
  • flattens the lining down with back of the knife
  • uses the peen of hammer (calls it the “wedge bit of the hammer”)
  • stiffener has paste on it already, so doesn’t neoeprene it, too
  • more neoprene between stiffener and upper
• rivets
  • through the waist and straighter parts, takes the rivets out, keeping them straight for reuse, hammers the material down
  • bends rivets down at heel and toe with hammer face of the lasting pliers (not the mirror face of the hammer)
  • “like a little cage”
  • pulling the upper as they bend
  • “little ridge” between rivets
  • [splitting pleats] at the heel seat
  • check that the topline hasn’t been pulled down at the heel
• hammering the stiffener
  • hammer the vamp-quarter seam into the stiffener
  • feel with hands for bumps
  • working the paste into the material
  • hammering the featherline around the seat so it’s flat

Part 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMPxmXKGrDc

• uses electrical-style side cutters to remove rivets
• sort straight and bent ones
• lasting the other shoe
• peel back upper over toe
• too much tension on lining “creates a drum” over the toe box
• “just get it to lie down”
• upper takes on “saddle shape”
• hard to do if you’re “working on a peg” [i.e. stand lasting or working on a lapjack]
• next rivets halfway between toe tip and joints
• “only need to get it flat in those first six millimeters”
• can wiggle the leather around with the lasting pliers until there’s no crease
• get a feeling for it
• Tommy Simons registered blind when learned from him
• move to other side before continuing would twist the upper on the last

• Particularly if you’re doing a big run, the patterns would be cut so you didn’t have nearly as much skirt [i.e. lasting allowance], because that’s quite a lot of leather to waste. But when you’re doing a one-off it’s better to have the extra leather, because you don’t know how much it’s all going to stretch.

• leave about 8 mm
• with toluene, would be “floatin’ around lookin’ down on myself from the ceiling by now”
• “take you off to cloud cuckoo land”
• [while pulling and sorting rivets:] “now they’re not making steel in Redcar, we might run out of steel”
• don’t want lots of tension on lining at toe, might pull away from toe puff
• toe puff
  • cut from belly
  • have standard patterns, made in bulk
  • come back 2-3/8” or 62mm for a size 10 (UK)
  • same on both sides
  • too far back: throw a crease on top of the big toe
  • too short: better, but don’t have enough toe puff
  • 50-55 mm for small shoe
  • skiving
    • same was as stiffener
    • flat skive
    • don’t want a visible ridge where the puff ends
    • zero skive
  • stretch over the last
  • tap over the featherline to imprint a line
  • add 8 mm to 1 cm as lasting allowance
  • long piece of wood for a cutting board
  • apprenticing: 8 guys in a tiny room in the middle of SoHo
  • concave skive
    • large thin surface to bond
    • but thick right near the edge
  • can fine-tun shape with leather
  • paints paste on the lining, a little on the puff
  • stretch it in place with thumbs at side edges
  • lots of paste on the lasting allowance
  • using paste because it’s very wet
  • while wet, easier to last
  • 2.5 mm thick on the edge, but skived so it settles into place
  • down to .8 or .9
  • shape with hammer
  • ideal moisture
    • too wet: dents
    • ideal: mellow, workable
  • if leaving to dry overnight, pull the upper down so it doesn’t crease

Part 4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFADOzrc30Q

• toe shaping
  • about 2 hours or an hour and a half drying
  • toe puff dry, but still mellow
  • hammer or bone folder to mold
  • too wet: bounces back
  • too dry: doesn’t move at all
• side linings
  • from stiffener to toe puff along the edge of the wall
  • thicker on sides than top forces creasing to happen on top
  • skive the hair side for a good gluing surface
  • versus toe puff: not a laminate shell, sits loose between lining and upper
  • lays onto the lining, shapes by hand
• flipping down vamp
  • paste toe cap, edges of side linings where they overlap the cap and heel counter
  • make sure you don’t crease the side linings
• make sure the caps are the same
  • draft the second shoe so it’s under tension
  • tape measure from featherline to stitch line
  • adjusts the second to match the first by pulling harder
  • check the measurements a couple times during lasting
• 10:38 splitting pleats on the second shoe

  • the one [rivet] that goes between the two [previous set ones] just flattens the little ridge, and then when the leather’s dry, you’ve got a nice, flat surface to sew your welt onto

• leave on lasts for a week, at least 3 or 4 days