Everybody finished stitching the soles and we started making the split lifts (rands to some of you). This is the first part of the heel, a semi circle of lifting leather.
In this picture, after finishing the stitching, they flattened the stitches with the sleeking bone; smooted down the channel flap; hammered the edge of the sole to compress it and finally glue it in place with contact cement.
Here the split lift is being skived, prior to hammering it into a horseshoe shape.
Here it is being nailed on with 20mm nails and paste.
Once the rand is on, they trimmed the excess and peened the edges with the French shape hammer. This compresses the edge into one solid entity.
Heels tomorrow, can't wait. Until then, happy shoemaking.
