Many specialized knives have been made for carving insoles for handwelting, under many different names.
Insoles knives usually include a sharp, chisel-like edge for push cutting, as well as a small fence, depth stop, or both, to help the knife follow any precut slit or channel and prevent cutting too deeply into the insole.
Handwelt insole preparation can be and is done without a specialized tool, using more general-purpose shoemaking or utility knives.
Examples
- TINA No. 285 (per shoemakercraft, for a roughly 2.0mm cut)
- Barnsley Feathering Knife
- Listed by shoemakercraft as of February 24, 2024:
- R.Hess Magstadt
- Joseph Münch
- H. Dürr
- Postbüschel Wien
- Eduard Brinkmann
See Also
-
James Ducker (carréducker) blog post
- "As you can see it is a very specific shape. Its main advantage over the knife for cutting the feather is that it has a depth gauge section (on the right of the picture above) which makes you cut a very even depth all the way round the feather/holdfast."
- "Most people when they are starting to make shoes are a bit tentative with the depth and leads to a weak holdfast."