Brompton, Yorkshire, England-based bespoke orthopedic shoemaker
organizer of independent shoemakers conferences
Biography
- friend’s father was a shoemaker
- began with a Saturday job making handmade threads for shoemakers
- started at Crispin House in Leeds
- worked for HW Poole and Sons
- helped secure the contract for the Queens Household Cavalry
- went out on his own when the contract at the company he was working for went to another company
- didn’t want to move to the other city
- spent a year traveling up and down England developing contacts
- shoemakers’ conference every year
- mainly word of mouth and website
- typical bespoke: London businessman wants truly handmade, not touched by machine
- can make something that you bought before but that isn’t made anymore
- grades of handmade
- fed onto a machine by hand
- bespoke: don’t touch a machine
- picking up and putting down
- last in a day
- couple hours to sew welts
- stitching soles couple hours
- boning soles for color can take several days
- let leather dry out before finishing
- Baker insoles
- Baker leather stiffeners
- heels built with Baker’s
Insole Carving
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnHfphMU9G4
Stropping
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teBjsAZ-rAw&t=55s
- “waxed cavalry boot leather”
- loose piece stapled to end of bench
- holds the loose end with hand
- four alternating pairs of strokes
- “if you don’t use this [the strop], you’ll constantly, constantly have to sharpen this [the knife]”
- strops before and after skiving a heel stiffener
- flat steel knife with very acute point, hanger hole, plastic-looking handle-cover