Carreducker Intensive Shoemaking Course August 14 - Days 7, 8 and 9

And so we move into the second week and our intrepid students have finished the welting and moved onto the soles. Their shoes are really looking like shoes now!

Monday saw them finish any welting not done on the rest day and get their shanks and cork filler in.

After shaping the shanks and cork to achieve a gently domed surface, the students trimmed their welts in preparation for attaching the soles.

These were glued on and trimmed in readiness for stitching by hand.

Of course before this was attempted, the channel (which hides the stitches on the underside) had to be cut. Much fun was had by all!

After much hard work and effort, everyone finished the soles and we moved on to heel building.

First off we made the split lift or rand.

Hammering the split lift into a horseshoe shape

Skiving the plit lift.

Today saw us attaching the split lifts and the two heel lifts; shaping the heel with the knife; peening with the French hammer; cutting the seats and, for some of them, cutting the heel breasts.

You will see how the heels progress in the final exciting installment of our coverage of the 2014 August Intensive Shoemaking Course.

Until then, happy shoemaking!