Tony Slinger Insole Video

YouTube video by Tony Slinger showing the whittling carving of an insole for handwelt construction

Notes

Tony does everything with a European shoe knife and edge beveler. No feather plow, welt knife, or other specialized tool.

• roughly whittles an insole with a bare knife, off the last
• tacks to the last over a footbed spacer with the back of a rasp
• finely whittles the insole on the last with the knife, pulling backhand
• when done whittling, he runs the spine of his blade around the whittled edge
• 2:04 runs an edge beveler around the top of the insole under the featherline
• 2:36 marks lines with a blue Bic pen
  • uses the body of a pen to gauge heel length and mark the concave heel breast on the insole
  • then marks the ball points on inside and outside
  • line for feather, using middle finger as a depth stop
  • line for channel, same technique
  • [holdfast looks pretty thin]
  • marks where the feather crosses the heel breast
  • freehands the contours of the waist with the pen
• 3:21 cuts the feather
  • bevels away the feather at about 45° with the knife
  • short, sawing strokes
  • deeper in the waist
• carving the channel
  • 4:08 incises the line holding his knife straight up and down like a pen
  • 4:39 carves away the trench at an angle, pulling his knife backward in short strokes
  • removes a single strip of waste, pulling up on it the whole way around
• carving the waist
  • 5:10 incises lines
  • 5:29 pares away strips, like the channel
  • makes second passes with the knife on both sides to clean up
• 6:03 wets with a brush
• 6:09 burnishes feather and channel with a flat stick