Everybody finished off stitching their soles and, after squashing down the stitches with the sleeking bone, they glued down the channel with contact adhesive.
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The final stage was to smooth the sole surface with a polished chair leg and a strap. This is done to get rid of all the lumps and bumps created by hammering the sole.
And so to heel building. First comes the split lift or rand. This, as the name suggests, is a partial lift which starts the process of flattening the heel area. First we glassed the skin side.
Then we skived about half the width to nothing.
Next we cut 5 small nothces in it to help make it heel shaped. We then wet it and beat it on a lap iron to make a horseshoe shape and to condense the leather.
Finally we put paste on the heel area and then nailed the split lift in place with a few millimetres overhang. This is trimmed and peened with the French shape hammer to start the heel building process.
The last task is to skive the top side of the split lift flat, ready for the first full lift.
The class has moved on very quickly today and we are well on target to finish by Saturday. I am going to be demanding perfection from now on!
Until tomorrow, happy shoemaking!
