SWR Handwerkunst Lastmaking Video

YouTube video showing Helge Baumeister‘s lastmaking process for a new children’s last

• bandsaw

Finding a Starting Point

• last archive
• project: children’s last
• harder to work children’s lasts since smaller and harder to hold
• model sizes: men’s 42, women’s 37, children: by manufacturer
• model last for every third size to avoid grading distortions
• [using a high-heel last as a doorstop]
• 3D scanner to copy selected model

Wood

• keeps a cubic meter of spokes in stock
• uses hornbeam
  • extremely hard
  • short fibers for heel and toe work
  • easily sanded
  • kiln-dried
  • low moisture
  • layer of wax on top

Rough Shaping

• cuts on bandsaw
• CNC lathe to turn to the 3D shape found on computer
  • 8 passes, 6mm each time
  • accurate to millimeter
  • remove holding points at toe and heel
  • rough turn
• heel profile
  • paper patterns of “heel arches”—profiles of backparts
  • describes good clip
  • traces the pattern onto the rough turn
  • bandsaw and finishing machine

Fine Shaping

• two hours’ work with hand rasp
• Aside: Work Biography
  • trained as a model maker after school
  • specialized in wood
  • worked at an Audi supplier as a modelmaker
  • came to Pirmasens for the shoe industry in the late 1990s

Last Fixture

• 9:03
• mounts the last over a cotton pillow covered with leather
• a foot strap connected to a foot pedal holds the last down
• bodyweight on the foot pedal tensions
• copied from company where worked [Fagus?]
• no pressure points, but stable
• built it himself

• So actually this is really our main workplace.

• checks the heel profile against the template
• checks the bottom against a bottom paper
• builds up with a pink putty polyester filler [looks a bit like Bondo]

Aside: Complain About Another Last

• complaint: toe pinching
• measuring toe height
  • [seems to be determining where to measure toe height based on standard last length offset from the toe point]
• millimeter or millimeter and a half too short
• also: adjust the width
• also: pinching instep
• measures toe height with calipers
• bandsaw cuts into the toe from the front, parallel to the featherline, then down from the top near the vamp point to separate the top of the toe box
• uses wood wedges to expand the saw kerf
• polyester putty again to cover the cut
• not concerned about durability, since the manufacturer will use plastic copies
• for a Pirmasens men’s shoe company customer, customer for 20 years

Back to Children’s Last

• putty dry
• rasps putty smooth
• last for size 20
• one to one and a half years
• “walking shoes”
• tape measurement
• “The layperson hardly sees any difference.”
• finishing: sandpaper
• can use coarse abrasives on hard wood
• pressure determines fineness of finish
• glassing to bring out contours of bottom
• prefers the rasp
• several rasps on the bench
• small pieces of sandpaper to get in curves
• designer drawing on the bench
• [workshop sign probably “Wir sind hier nicht bei wünsch-Dir-was sondern bei SO ISSES!”, from a TV gameshow]
• proportion problem

Industry

• fashion changes

• Fashion also thrives on participation. And somehow everything is constantly changing.

• likes looking through women’s newspapers

Finishing

• glassing
• brushes glass on rasp to nick it, then breaks off in hands
• swipes the scraping edge of the glass on the rasp before using
• glass work great with fibers
• one edge sharp, one edge dull
• taking off rasp marks
• glass like a sickle
• holds the last in hand against the pillow
• likes thicker glass, maybe 1.5mm thick, to avoid breaking
• about 15 minutes

Measuring Marks

• places on a last trap
• golden ration: 2/3, 1/3
• machine calculates the measuring point based on a percentage of length
• makes the marks with a hammer
• [based on how he holds the tape, it appears he’s marking points to measure ball girth, possibly angled ball girth]
• measuring tape
  • centimeters and millimeters on one side
  • other side has English and French size units, for measuring length
• drives nails into the measuring points
  • one on instep [looks like vamp point]
  • one at each joint
• checks the measurements again

Heel Pitch

• mounts on heel pitch machine with moving heel riser
  • adjustable for height from the ground plane
  • rotates on a pin, indicating degree
• machine plate says

  FAGUS-WERK Karl BENSCHEDIT ALFELD/LEINE W-Germany [Fagus script logo]

• reference plate on side:

  30	13	+1°
  35	12½	+2°
  40	12	+3°
  45	11½	+4°
  50	11	+5°
  55	10½	+6°
  60	10	+7°
  [...]

• checks how it stands by eye
• this last almost 5mm high
• always have some heel pitch

Assembling

• wood box with handles
• design sheets and other papers into the box
• for digitization
• couldn’t design on computer
• important to send shape quickly, especially to factories in Asia
• computer specialist, Matthias Peddinghaus
• more than 10 years at the company
• 3D scanner
  • on a tripod
  • rotating table
  • purple grid projected
• create toe templates, heel templates, data sheets, customer guidelines
• biography
  • trained as a shoemaker
  • still does a little bit of it
  • computer stuff takes more and more time
  • now rarely gets away from computer when busy
• three templates
  • insole [bottom paper]
  • toe profile
  • heel profile

Shoe Fit

• It should be perfect. Shoes should not pinch, hurt, or burn. Those times are through.

• Even a pair of pumps have to be comfortable these days.

Prototyping

• milled in green plastic from a rough turn
• CNC lathe
• rough turn already contains a last mechanism
• shows a tendo hinge, breaks it on a lasting jack
• slides an upper over and pops it back

Business

• employs four
• Jonas Faust labels the finished last with ink stamps
• burns the ink on with a torch
• packed with peanuts for shipping
• lastmaking no longer an apprenticeship available
• need more
• fashion industry still growing

Prototype Shoes

• mailing to Austrian children’s shoe maker
• best case, shoe comes back in two days
• boxes say superfit
• have the lasts inside the shoes
• prototypes
• brown hook and loop sports shoes