book by Paul N. Hasluck
published by Cassell and Company, Limited, London
1. Repairing Heels and Half-soling
2. Patching Boots and Shoes
3. Re-welting and Re-soling
4. Boot Making
5. Lasting the Upper
6. Sewing and Stitching
7. Making the Heel
8. Knifing and Finishing
9. Making Riveted Boots and Shoes
Recipes
[begin on page 154]
Shoemaker’s Wax
Take 4 ozs. of pitch, 1 oz. of resin, and about a ¼ oz. of good tallow, and heat them well on a slow fire in a pipkin or old saucepan. Be very careful they do not take fire, as they are very combustible. Stir this admixture till the resin has melted and mixed well with the other ingredients ; then pour the whole into a pail of cold water, and when it has got sufficiently cool to handle, put one hand underneath, and with the other turn the edges over to the centre, to make the mixture into one ball. Take it out, and make it into a roll. Take one end in each hand, and pull it out as long as you can without breaking it. Double it, and pull out again and again ; the more it is pulled (or worked), the better and brighter it will be. This done, lay it out on a slab, seeing it does not stick. Roll it out, cut it into strips about 1 in. wide, and cut the strips into pieces about 1 ½ in. long ; each piece is called a ball. Wax has to be made hard in warm weather, and soft in cold. To make it softer, add more tallow ; to make hard, use more resin. It is best to make it hard, as it can easily be made soft without being again heated—simply by working a little tallow into it. The balls of wax should always be kept in water, to prevent their sticking to anything or to each other. [Page 155]