Sole leather

“ Leather prices have been tending upward all round. Heavy sole leather, which did not recede nearly as much as lighter grades in the slump of last winter, are now nearly back to the high point of early last fall. ”

“ On the right shoe of each was a sole made from a chrome combination, and on the left was the best oak sole obtainable. On the average, two oak soles wore through and the men were on the third before the chrome combination saw its finish.
With the price of leather constantly going up and the supply of hides not sufficient to meet the demand, the time is soon coming when we shall be forced to produce sole leather possessing a greater degree of wearing quality. ”

“ However, the great thickness of the skin upon the sole of their unshod feet accounts in some measure for their ability to perform this "miracle." In all respects natural sole leather is superior to that provided by the "leather trust." ”

“ Oak sole leather, the foreman said, was often considered preferable for soling shoes because its close fibre rendered it waterproof, and it seldom cracked. Much of the fine English leather imported into this country was, Peter learned, oak tanned. Since oaks grew so plentifully in Great Britain the bark was much less expensive there than here.
Hemlock leather—so deep red in color—was, on the other hand, used largely for heavy, stiff [Pg 194] soles to common shoes for men and boys, since it made up in wear what it lacked in flexibility. ”

“ Each tanner uses the process that will help to give the leather the qualities that it should have, such as softness and pliability for shoe and glove leather, or firmness and solidity for sole and belting leather. This is one of the most important in the series of tannery processes, and if the hides are not unhaired properly and not prepared for tanning as they should be, the leather will not be right when it is tanned and finished. ”

“ Taking into account the development of leather trades chemistry, it is not surprising that the problem of reducing the time required to complete the old processes of tanning has received much attention. The results have been successful in some instances and have certainly proved that very good sole leather can be made without leaving the hides in the pits for a year or longer. ”

“ When a shipment arrives the skins are sorted: the cowhides and those to be tanned in chrome coming here, and the heavy skins and those to be tanned in oak or hemlock being sent on to Elmwood, where all the sole leather is made. The hides vary in weight, ranging from twenty-five to sixty pounds. There are skins of steers, horses, buffaloes, walrus, bulls, and oxen. The strongest and most perfect ones are made into belting to run the machinery of factories. Leather for this purpose, as you can easily see, must be of equal strength in every part to withstand the great strain put upon it. ”

“ If we examine our shoes, we will find that the different parts are composed of material called leather. The bottom of the shoe is of hard leather, while the part above the sole is of a softer, more pliable leather. This leather is nothing more than the hides of different animals treated in such a way as to remove the fat and the hair. ”

“ In the next reign the French use of the semis or powder, a single small stamp, of a fleur-de-lys, a thistle, a crown, or the like, impressed in rows all over the cover, was increasingly imitated in England, very unsuccessfully, and, save for a few traces of the style of Day, the leather bindings of the first third of the century deserve the worst epithets which can be given them.
Until, however, French fashions came into vogue after the Restoration, English binders had never been content to regard leather as the sole material in which they could work. ”

“ A good shoemaker could average two pairs of shoes, welted, turned, or stitched in a twelve-hour working day. In any shoe the sole would be heaviest cow or ox hide, cut from that part of the hide over the animal’s hind quarters called the “bend.” Uppers would usually be of calfskin, sometimes of goat, sheep, or dogskin. Women’s shoes with leather soles very often had uppers of fabric, such as calimanco, ticking, silk, damask, satin, or poplin. ”

“ The uppers of heavy leather, machine sewed or riveted, are fitted closely to the groove around the sole, and a thin piece of leather-binding is nailed on all round the edges, the nails being placed very close, so as to give a firm durable fastening. ”

“ Various finishes are given to leather, such as seal grain, buff, glove grain, oil grain, satin calf, russet, plain shoe, etc.
Upper leathers are blacked by rubbing with a mixture of lampblack and oil or tallow, or with a solution of copperas and logwood.
No tanning process, no matter how good or thorough, can make firm, serviceable, [39] wear-resisting leather out of all portions of any hide, because nature made some parts of every hide porous, spongy, and lacking in fibrous strength. ”

“ Currying of the Lighter Leathers.—The duty of the currier is not solely directed towards heavier leathers; he is also entrusted with the dressing and fitting of the lighter leathers for the shoemaker, coachbuilder, saddler, &c. He has to pare the leather down and reduce inequalities in thickness, to impregnate it with fatty matter in order to render it soft and pliable, and to give it such a surface dressing, colour and finish as will please the eye and suit the purposes of its consumers. ”

“ Gambier and myrobalans form the main body of the tannage, together with a little quebracho extract, mimosa bark, sumach and extracts.
Upper Leather.—Under the head of upper leather are included the thin, soft and pliable leathers, which find their principal, but by no means exclusive, application in making the uppers of boots and shoes, which may be taken as a type of a class of leathers. They are made from such skins as East Indian kips, light cow and horse hides, thin split hides, such as those described under dressing leather, but split rather thinner, and calf. ”

“ With certain soft leathers, if the colour has not sunk in deeply, rubbing with the finger alone will give it great brilliancy; with other leathers the rubbing will produce an effect in proportion to the degree of porosity of the skin. It should always be done before the colour is dry, but not until it has penetrated sufficiently into the leather not to return to the surface with the pressure. ”

“ He would never have tolerated in his house leather on which he had not worked himself. Besides, they were too beautiful—the pair of pumps, so inexpressibly slim, the patent leathers with cloth tops, making water come into one’s mouth, the tall brown riding boots with marvellous sooty glow, as if, though new, they had been worn a hundred years. ”

“ A castor kid is a Persian lambskin finished the same as a suede, and is used in making very soft, fine-appearing leather—like glove leather. The skin is of such a very light weight that it has to be “backed up” before being made into shoes.
Fancy leathers are used extensively for toppings of shoes having patent leather vamps. Facings are selected from fancy leathers to make the inside of a shoe attractive and to increase its wearing quality. [52] Leathers of dull or glazed finish are used in typical shoe colors. ”

“ Leather can be stiff as bone or supple as silk, nearly as waterproof as rubber or capable of sopping up water like a sponge, tough and unyielding or resilient and stretchy, smooth and translucent as paper, deeply grained in many patterns, or softly napped. ”

“ In Wet Weather wear Shoes with double upper-leathers—- two thin leathers will keep you much drier than one thick one, and are more pliable—the Currier’s Dubbing is the best nourisher of Leather—and renders it as soft as satin, and impervious to Water. ”

“ The skins which form the staple of leather manufacture are those of the ox, cow, calf, buffalo, horse, sheep, lamb, goat, kid, deer, dog, seal, hog, walrus, kangaroo, and alligator. The term pelt is applied to all skins before they are converted into leather. When simply made into leather in the state we find in shoe-soles, it is called rough leather; but if in addition it is submitted to the process of currying, it is called dressed leather. Hides are the skins of large animals, as horses, cows, and oxen. The complete hides when rounded, with the cheeks, shank, etc., cut off, are called butts ”

“ It is not easy, except by long experience, to tell good leather at a glance. One authority says that good leather should "be solid, but not hard; mellow, but not soft." The black leather in a harness should have a smooth surface, close texture, and when bent between the hands should not show minute cracks. ”

“ This leather, in the hands of an ordinary workman, would make a clumsy covering upon account of its great thickness; for it cannot be shaved down by a skin-dresser without destroying the natural grain of the leather, and, with it, its velvet-like richness and beauty; and yet, under the manipulations of these French artists, it becomes one of the most plastic of materials; rare volumes of the smallest dimensions, containing but one or two sheets, are not only covered on the exterior, but the interior of the boards, and even the joints are of Levant morocco. ”

“ No other leather possesses the same closeness of texture, smoothness of surface, and elasticity. From being employed as rough waist-coats for seamen, and hairy coverings for trunks, it is now in its stratified state applied to the most delicate artistic purposes. ”

“ I am journeying far to find a certain kind of leather. This morning I shot my arrow at a tree, but it glanced, and tore a big hole in the wizard shoemaker’s leather apron. I must mend this, or he will do me harm, and to do it I must have a certain kind of leather which neither man can give me, nor woman can give me ”

“ Currying—whatever it may have meant to Homer (or to Alexander Pope) —is not a method of preparing hides and 6 skins from fresh-slaughtered animals, but a complex of processes for treating leather already tanned. These processes include smoothing the leather, paring it down to even thickness overall, especially working fatty matter into it for pliancy and water resistance, and giving it whatever surface dressing, color, and finish its intended use calls for. Prominent among such uses in the eighteenth century were shoe uppers, harness and saddlery, upholstery, trunkmaking, and bookbinding. ”

“ Royal kid is a black chrome calfskin, dull finished with a smooth, natural grain of fine texture, soft and pliable. It is used for vamps and whole shoes of the highest grades for men and women, and is a very popular material for the fall and winter shoe. The desirable qualities of fine calf leather are making the demand for it grow faster than the supply of raw material increases.
Tan royal is a tan color, chrome calf leather, smooth finish, fine grain, excellent cutting qualities, uniform, of medium rich tan shades. Tan calf leather is very attractive and the tan shoe is now a staple product. ”

“ In cut decoration a better effect can be obtained with this leather than with thinner skins, and being very firm, it is equally suitable for modelling.
Morocco leather, which is mostly of the kind called “Cape morocco,” is goat-skin with a grained surface produced by pressing hard seeds upon the skin while it is still damp from the tanning. For bookbinding and similar purposes this grain is crushed by pressing hot plates heavily on the surface. The only way of decorating leather so treated is by an inlay (or literally onlay) of skins of other colours, and is known as Leather Mosaic. ”

“ It is very simple, just two round pieces of leather and three of chamois. The top piece of leather has the design shown in Fig. 80 worked on it in beads of a colour that will look well with the leather you have chosen. Black and crystal beads will harmonise [170] with red leather or dark-green crystal and opaque white. If the leather is not so bright a colour, the beads may be more gay. Work the design with the stitch described in the directions for making an Indian beaded shirt in Chapter V., bringing the strings of beads farther apart at the outer edge of the circle than on the inside. ”

“ This is the more true because the skin is valued for its wool as well as for its pelt; indeed, the wool is often considered of primary importance, and receives first consideration in fellmongering. Unfortunately for the light leather trade, sheepskins, though most numerous, do not give the best class of light leather, the quality being easily surpassed in strength, beauty and durability by the leather from goat or seal skins. ”

“ I must here be understood to confine my approbation to the articles manufactured from leather tanned in a regular manner, and not that paltry brown-paper-like rubbish manufactured in pots and pans by indigent natives, who often work up a skin within the third or fourth day after its being stripped from some starved sheep, or goat; but which leather may always be distinguished by a narrow streak of white, that is, of raw hide, remaining in the middle of its thickness. ”

“ Some American shoemakers overcome this difficulty by pasting a piece of cloth on the back of the skin. In fairness to the buyer, the boots made of such leather should be specially marked, as the wearing quality of a backed thin leather is not to be compared with one naturally stout. ”