Shoemaking

“ See that all nails are clinched. With a level bottom, smooth joints and edges, the shoe can be made to look like a new shoe and yet feel like an old one.
On account of the heel being more directly under the body and the first part to strike the ground, it generally wears out first. For this reason in repairing a heel great care must be taken to see that good [170] leather and solid work are put into it. Pull off the worn top piece and see that what is left is hammered down solidly. Next split a piece of solid, easy-cutting, scrap sole leather, so that two pieces can be made out of one. ”

“ The soles and other parts that are needed for a shoe are put up in different qualities and grades, and a manufacturer can buy any grade of sole he wants, so that it is considered an advantage to buy some parts, instead of cutting them. In a side of sole [108] leather there are twenty-five or more different qualities and grades of soles, and very few manufacturers, especially in the women’s trade, can use all of these. The greater variety of shoes a manufacturer turns out, the more advantageous it is for him to cut his own sole leather, and prepare all parts in his own factory. ”

“ Much of the style of a shoe depends upon the wooden last over which the upper is shaped before being attached to the sole. To find a substitute for the human hand in fitting the shoe to the last and pulling the leather over its delicate lines and curves seemed for a long time impossible. ”

“ The shoe manufacturer, after cutting his soles and taps, is obliged to skive them to get the particular iron he needs. This leaves what is known as a “flesh sole shape,” also a “tap shape.” These skivings are pasted together by another class of trade and again used for inner soling and taps in the cheaper grades of shoes. Smaller skivings, or waste, after sorting out the sole and tap shapes, are sold to the leather board trade. This eventually comes back to the shoe trade in the shape of leather board and is cut into heel lifts. ”

“ Counters and toe boxes (stiffening which is placed between the heel and toe cap and the vamp of shoe) are prepared in the same room with the heels. After they are made, they are sent to the making or bottoming room, where the shoe upper is awaiting them. As the counter is an important feature in the life of a shoe, much depends upon the quality of leather that goes into it.
The sole is next fed to a “splitting machine,” which reduces it to an absolutely even thickness. ”

“ The shoemaker provides for this, first, by allowing sufficient length of sole to extend beyond the termination of the toe, and second, by the fit of the upper and the preparation of the sole. In this way, if the toe of the shoe strikes against a hard substance, the big toe of the foot will remain untouched.
Seventy-five per cent of the people have more or less trouble with their feet. Some of these troubles are caused by the manufacturer putting on the market shoes whose [82] lines look handsome and attractive to the eye, but are lacking in any other good features. ”

“ The wax thread or “end,” as it is called, should never be made longer than is necessary to sew a shoe. Experience shows that if a portion of an end left after sewing one shoe is used on the second shoe, it is never as strong as a new end. ”

“ The McKay shoe displaced only the coarser grades. The hand-sewed shoe remained the favorite of wealth and fashion, and was worn [264] exclusively by those who cared for comfort and could afford the price. In sewing a shoe by hand, a thin and narrow strip of leather, called a welt, is first sewed to the insole and upper, and the heavy outsole is sewed to this welt, so that the stitches come outside and do not touch the foot, the insole being left entirely smooth. It is a delicate operation by hand, and many years elapsed before a machine was contrived by which it could be done. ”

“ In shoe materials there is at present an astonishing diversity and variety. Every known leather is used from kid to cowhide, and textile fabrics have developed rapidly, especially in the making of women’s and children’s shoes. ”

“ There are other uppers that are treed, [142] such as wax calf, for instance, and split uppers, which are used in heavy shoes. The main idea of treeing a shoe is to give it a smooth and finished appearance and a good “feel.” In the regular treeing operation they use liquid preparations, often called composition, and these are worked into the upper, filling it to some extent. French chalk is used a great deal in some uppers, and oil or some form of grease or gum is also used, all of which make the upper as it was when first put on the cutting board of the shoe factory. ”

“ The brush now smooths the surface of the sole, filling in all small holes with wax and leaving the sole absolutely perfect. Finally, the shoe is placed against a rapidly revolving brush which finishes the uppers with a luster that would make any ordinary boot-black green with envy. Another operation that fully completes the process is the hardening of the edges with hot steel, which ends in producing an edge that is as hard as iron. When it is polished with a black dye, it looks exactly like a new sole. ”

“ We have practically now a roughly formed shoe ready for the finishing room.
Here the heel slugs are ground down, heel and sole buffed by sandpaper rolls on a scouring machine, wet down, stained, or blacked, as case may be, finished on bristle brushes, placed to dry, polished by a polishing machine, bottom stamped with [139] the trademark, and passed to an operator whose duty it is to see that no tacks are left inside the shoes. Generally girls are hired to do this, as their hands are smaller and it is very important that no tacks are left, which might cause a great deal of trouble. ”

“ All work done in this room is intended to give leather its original luster, which has been lost to a certain extent in going through the different rooms and in being handled so much.
There are still other uppers that may not be treed or ironed but merely cleaned and polished to give luster. Some of these may be dressed. To dress a shoe means to put on a liquid dressing. In some cases two coats of dressing are put on and in other [143] cases one coat. A shoe can have a dull dressing or a bright dressing, according to how the buyer prefers to have his shoes look. ”

“ The soles and some of the heavier pieces are dried out by the machine, and the heels are made by a special machine, but by far the greater part is done by wonderfully skilled hands. All of these parts which go to make a shoe, or the twenty-three parts which go into a boot, are collected and sent to the making department, which, in most factories, is a large room containing several hundred operatives, each working by herself, and bringing the many separate parts into the fully finished footwear. ”

“ The thread grows weaker and weaker as it is used. When the thread is well waxed, it is cemented to the shoe.
After the shoe is sewed, the shoemaker pares off inequalities and levels the bottoms, by filling up the depressed part in the center with pieces of tarred felt. The shoes are now ready for the outsoles. The fibers of the leather to be used for the soles are thoroughly condensed by hammering on the lapstone. Then they are fastened through the insole with steel tacks, their sides are pared, and a narrow channel is cut round their edges. ”

“ Hot irons are often used on black shanks and bottoms to give added hardness and luster to the finish.
The turned or turn shoe is a woman’s fine shoe that is made wrong side out, then turned right side out. The sole is fastened to the last, and the upper is twisted over, the wrong side out. Then the two are sewed together, the thread catching through a channel or shoulder cut in the edge of the sole. The seam does not come through to the bottom of the sole, nor to any part inside where it would chafe the foot. ”

“ The ones called the upper calenders form sheets of rubber stock for the upper part of the shoe. The soling calenders form the stock for the sole or bottom part of the shoe; other calender machines are used to coat a layer of gum on one side of the fabrics used for lining and various strips, fillers, toe, and heel pieces. The gum sheets are sent to the cutting room.
Generally, linings for nine pairs of shoes are cut at once. The linings are cut both by hand and by machine. Men who cut with dies, by hand, stand at the bench and use iron mallets, like those used in cutting heels. ”

“ The rolls move automatically back and forth and from side to side, doing the work that the shoemaker used to do on his lap with a hammer and stone, but doing it better and more quickly. It practically levels off the bottom of the soles. ”

“ A man’s heavy lace shoe, with gusset, blucher cut.
Creole. A heavy congress work shoe. This shoe, the creedmore, and brogans are usually made of oil grains, kip, or split leather, sometimes pegged, sometimes “stitched down.”
[188]
Crimping. Shaping any part of the upper so that it will conform to the last better.
Cushion Sole. An elastic inner sole.
Cut-off Vamp. One cut off at tip for economy when tip is to be covered by a cap.
Dieing. Cutting soles to fit the last, outsoles, insoles, heel lifts, counters, or half soles, with a machine and a die. ”

“ Cross Section of McKay Sewed Shoe.
Cross Section of Goodyear Welt Shoe.
Oxford. A low-cut shoe no higher than [201] the instep lace, button, or goring, made in men’s, women’s, and children’s sizes.
Packer Hides. Hides taken off in the large slaughterhouses. They are rated slightly higher in price, because great care and skill are used in taking them off.
Packing. Placing a pair of shoes in a carton.
Pacs. Coverings for the feet made of good quality calfskin, similar in form and appearance to the Indian moccasin. They do not have sole leather bottoms. If properly made, they are waterproof. ”

“ Besides good, tough iron for the shoe, we need an anvil with a round horn and a small hole at one end, a round-headed turning-hammer, a round sledge, a stamping hammer, a pritchel of good steel, and, if a fullered shoe is to be made, a round fuller. Bodily activity and, above all else, a good eye for measurement are not only desirable, but necessary. A shoe should be made thoughtfully, but yet quickly enough to make the most of the heat. ”

“ Machinery has lightened the labour of shoe-making in two ways—by supplying various patterns of grooved and bevelled iron in bars, which only require cutting into lengths and turning round to form a shoe, and also by making shoes all ready to be fitted to the foot. Machinery has not yet turned out a shoe as good and durable and well finished as the best workman can produce by hand, but it can produce many forms of shoes as good for all practical purposes, and it has this advantage—all are alike. ”

“ Tremendous vanity, that one man should allow the mouth of another to be applied to his feet that he may have them trimly set out! The shoemaker unfolds the heel, turns round with the shoeing skin in his hand, and begins to fit the second part of the shoe upon the foot. He desires the gallant to put the end of the foot down, and the gallant does as he is desired. He draws the shoe towards him with such force that the person who is thus being shoed is compressed in an unseemly manner between the shoemaker's body and the back of the chair. ”

“ Did you ever stop to think how many different qualities you expect in a shoe? You want the sole to be hard and firm so as to protect your feet in rough walking; and also soft and yielding so as to feel springy and not board-like. You want the upper leather to keep the cold air from coming in; and also porous enough to let the perspiration out. Your feet are not exactly like those of any one else; and yet you expect to find at any shoe store a comfortable shoe ready-made. ”

“ The shoe is rolled without a heel calk, so that the frog-pressure may be readily secured without heating and drawing the iron:—the nail holes are punched so that the nail furnished by us with the shoe may be driven, without the use of the pritchel to punch out the holes. The shoe, being made of the best quality of iron, may be bent cold to adapt it to the shape of the hoof. ”

“ He takes the shoes off the last with as much difficulty as if he were skinning the lasts. The gallant seats himself upon a chair; the shoemaker kneels down, and takes possession of one foot, which he handles as if he were sent there to administer the torture. He puts one shoeing skin [1] in the heel of the shoe, fits the other upon the point of the foot, and then begins to guide the shoe over the shoeing skin. Scarcely has it got farther than the toes when it is found necessary to draw it on with pincers, and even then it is hard work. ”

“ The solidity of hot shoeing (or fitting) being greater than that of cold, the workman having more facility for the former than the latter, and also owing to its requiring less time, we are of opinion that in the army, as everywhere else, the preference must be given to the ferrure à chaud.'
Lafosse, Bourgelat, Chabert, Gohier, Rainard, Reynal, Delafond, Renault, Bouley, and Rey—in fact, all the most distinguished veterinary professors or practitioners who have studied the subject—have unhesitatingly given the preference to the mode of fitting the shoe while hot. ”

“ In the common system of shoeing, to avoid slipping in winter upon the ice, and in the cities upon the wet, slimy surface of pavement, or to assist draft, it is customary to weld a calk upon the toe of a shoe, and to turn up the heels to correspond. ”