Shoemaking Tools - The Feathering Knife

Greetings, once more, dear shoe folk of the world. Another week, another welt.

We are always amazed at how this blog reaches people and helps them realise their dreams of making shoes. Just this week, a man from South Africa called Heinrich came in to say hello and to tell us about his shoemaking exploits. He basically does everything from scratch with very limited resources in terms of tools and materials, but he says the blog has taught him so much. That is marvellous and we hope this is true of many other aspiring cordwainers around the world.
A slight word of caution here though, feet are complex pieces of kit and shoes have the ability to damage them, so we recommend that people always try to get some kind of teaching if they want to make shoes - it is easy to get into bad habits

During our course we had two interesting visitors. One was Rachel Garwood of the University of Northampton Institute of Creative Leather Technologies who gave the students (plus a couple from the weekly class) a talk about leather itself, its structure, properties and tanning. It was really interesting and a great addition to the course.

The other visitor was Lucie Muir of the Financial Times who is doing a piece about shoemaking courses. She came in and did a bit of lasting, a few welt stitches and asked the students some pertinent questions. We look forward to seeing the finished article.

And so to shoemaking. This week we wanted to look at a tool which is specific to shoemaking, but is not one of those tools which is absolutely necessary because you can use your knife for the job.

The other thing about them is that they are quite hard to find. Ours was given to us by our good friend Marcell Mrsan and I think he sells them on his tool site (not 100% sure about this). It is a marvellous tool and very good quality, so thank you Marcell.
I think Minke in Germany also sell them but I have never seen one of theirs so cannot say whether they are any good or not.
One more thing, they are either right or left handed so make sure you get the right one.

We are talking about the feathering knife. And below are a few images.

As you can see it is a very specific shape. Its main advantage over the knife for cutting the feather is that it has a depth gauge section (on the right of the picture above) which makes you cut a very even depth all the way round the feather/holdfast. This is essential to achieve a flat, even welt with no wobbles or bulges.
Another advantage is that it makes you cut the feather to the correct depth. Most people when they are starting to make shoes are a bit tentative with the depth and leads to a weak holdfast.

Mark out your feather/holdfast as normal.

Cut the outside line with the tip of your knife, wet it and open the groove with your screwdriver.

Now comes the feathering knife. Holding the gauge part tight into the groove you have made, push the knife through the leather. Push forward but also apply downward pressure to make the sure the knife runs evenly inside the groove and the cut is even all the way round the feather.

It should look totally uniform like this. This is very important achieve a flat welt on the finished shoe.

You might need to treat the waist a little differently depending on the construction you have chosen.

On the inside line, we always cut it at a 45 degree angle like this.

And open the groove like before with a screwdriver.

Because of the angle of the cut, it's easier to cut this part of the holdfast with the knife. Plus, the inside cut of the holdfast does not affect the final look of the welt - it is entirely internal.

Note the angle of this cut

This is how the finished holdfast should look - deep and even.

The correct depth makes for a strong feather. Here it is with the hole made, ready for welting.

One slightly tricky thing is to sharpen it. I use the edge of the strop and the flat of it, but you basically have to find a way. The good thing about it is that you don't use it very often so it does not go blunt very quickly.

And that is about it for this week. We hope you found the post interesting and we welcome any comments or feedback.
Plus, if you are a regular reader, please become a follower. Thank you!

Until next week, happy shoemaking!

Restoring Old Tools

Welcome back, dear shoe people. We hope you have had a wonderful week

We have two courses starting on Monday. Our first October Intensive Shoemaking Course and our Modular Shoemaking Course returns after a long summer break. So one of us, has eleven hours of teaching on Monday. A seemingly unfair division of labour, but one of us has tickets for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Priorities!

Anyway, back to shoemaking.

So, you buy some old tools on eBay. You really need an edge iron, but they look quite old and rusty.

Can this lovely old edge iron ever be used again?

Never fear, you can restore it to its former glory. There is a limit to what you can do, but this one is well worth repairing.

You will need some fine metal files. Fine! The triangular ones with flat surfaces are good.

Various aluminium oxide papers, 120, 240, 400 and 1600.
A junior hacksaw blade

First off, you will need to flatten it with a hammer on a metal surface. We use a lap iron. Use the edge of it though because the hacksaw blade can leave little marks on the iron. The reason you do this is because the blade has serrations like a normal saw but the edge is not flat, it waves from side to side. Hard to see from previous pic but if you look at one in the flesh it will be obvious. The effect of this is to make a wide cut mark which is no good for what we want to do with it. we need a narrow cut mark, hence the flattening process.

Start by filing away the worst of the black pitting. This is due to oxidation and the steel oxidises unevenly, leaving a pitted surface. The pits are not deep but you need to file the surface back to get rid of the black bits.
If you have a vice that is perfect, but you can do it in your hands. It is more difficult but possible.

It should look something like this.

Now you need to polish the surface of the iron to make it smooth enough to finish the edges of your soles.

Wrap the coarsest paper around the file and polish. Use progressively finer grades until you get a very smooth, shiny surface.

Now for the grooves at the sides of the iron. These are important. This is where the junior hacksaw blade comes in. If you hadn't flattened the blade, the groove it would cut would be too wide and you would ruin the iron. But having flattened it, you get a nice, narrow groove. It needs to be about 0.8mm deep. Do both grooves, but I wouldn't recommend doing the second of the double grooves on one side. The hacksaw can slip and scratch the iron.

And this is how it should look. I wouldn't worry too much about the black at the sides, it won't affect the finish you get on the edges.

And that's all folks. Until next week, happy shoemaking!

The Tools I Use 2

Another week flies by. Where does the time go? Just realised that our New York shoemaking course starts in 2 weeks! Really looking forward to it. Deborah is teaching the first week and I am there to do the second week. We have a full house of 7 students and a good mix of men and women, so all in, it should be fun.
We will do our regular daily posts during the course to document what we do for those of you who might be thinking of doing it in the future.

First off, great piece in milanstyle.co.uk featuring us

http://www.milanstyle.co.uk/blog/mr-hare-shoesnob-carreducker/

Last week's post about tools proved very popular, so I am going to continue with it this week. I showed you last week the basics of a peripatetic shoemaker's tool kit, but without describing in any detail each tool.
So this week I am going make more detailed descriptions and give useful tips for those of you who are trying to create your own shoemaker's tool kit.

First up is the rest of my edge irons. As I said, I travel with a basic set, but have all the intermediate sizes and the very large and very small ones on a box, along with some extreme sized seat wheels - only brought out on the odd occasion.

So, some specifics. This is my fudge wheel. I bought this when I lived in Spain. Two things to look out for. One, the teeth on the wheel should be sharp and defined. Very old fudge wheels become worn and do not mark the stitches so well. Sharp teeth give a very defined mark on the welt. The other thing is the size. Most fudge wheels have the number of stitches to the inch marked.

Remember to look at the front edge too. New ones can be very sharp and will scratch the upper when you run it round the welt. If you have a sharp one, grind it a little with aluminium oxide paper to take the sharpness off.

What I love about my Spanish one is that it has two other different interchangeable wheels, so it is like three in one. Mine do 9, 12 and 15 stitches to the inch.

Ok, next is the plough, used for taking the lip off the insole and the welt after finishing, before you set the edges. Important to keep it sharp. I use the strop.

This is similar to the plough but is called a feathering knife and is used specifically for cutting the feather or holdfast. That 90 degree step part creates an even cut which is great for the welt to sit in.
PS Thank you to Marcell Mrsan who generously gave me this tool.

But, with both the plough and the feathering knife, you can do the same jobs with your knife. People spend endless amounts of money and energy collecting every tool under the sun, which, if that is what you are into, is fine, but lots of times, it is a total distraction. Your energy would be better spent making shoes and improving your skills. Using the knife well is the core skill of shoemaking and you are better getting good with it than spending time and money on the search for tools which often aren't available and, if they are, are of inferior quality. New tools don't cut it a lot of the time.


Next up is my very favourite Japanese rasp. These puppies really are the Rolls Royce of rasps. Small teeth which last for years. I've been using mine for at least 5 years and it is still amazing. Again, other new rasps I have found are rubbish!

Next up is the daddy, the knife. Nurture it, pour your love into it and keep it sharp! It is your best friend and sometimes, when blunt, your worst enemy.
We always put a leather sheath on it for comfort and to stop your hands getting black.
BIG TIP for those black fingers from the knife. It is water from your hands and the leather oxidising the steel. The answer is lemon juice or, even better, citric acid - it is like magic, honest!

Broken awl sharpened to make the groove in the channel for the stitches to sit in. Very important to stop the stitches showing through the sole.

From left to right, the seat wheel. Purely cosmetic little lines around the seat. Old ones are best. When they are cold, the wheel does not move, but warm them on the burner and it should start turning. If you have an old one, try taking out the screw, cleaning it and putting a drop of oil, then replacing it. Should do the trick. Note the position of thhe wheel before you start this process.

Next is the edge iron for setting the edges. Should be smooth and clean. There is a double lipped edge for the welt and a single lipped edge for the sole.

Last, a single lipped iron for setting the edges of the heel. I ground a regular edge iron on a grinding machine to make mine.

Waist irons for bevelled waists. Don't even go there unless you have someone there to teach you.

Right, you want to make shoes and you are buying old irons from Ebay, for example. Quite often,they will have been sitting in a garage or shed for years going rusty, like the ones below, so what do you do? They are salvageable.

Get some aluminium oxide paper and start polishing the surface - gently! Start with something like a 120 grit and work up to about a 240 or finer. Aim for a glassy, flawless finish.

Once the surface is clean and smooth, you need to work on the grooves - very important to get a good edge.
You will need a junior hacksaw blade like the one below. These are great for sorting out the grooves on the edge iron. Before you start though, you will need to flatten the blade on a lap iron because it has a zig zag form which will make the groove too wide. So just take the blade and hammer it on the flat surface of the iron. Then run it in the grooves and they will become smooth and deep - perfect!

Junior Hacksaw

Junior Hacksaw Blade

Lap Iron

Hammer On This Surface

The lap iron is an important piece of kit and we use it for hammering the sole before stitching it to make it dense and long lasting, and we use it to make the split lift/rand. Easy to find at flea markets and Ebay.

And that is it for this week. Hope you enjoyed the post and look forward to more next Friday when we will be looking at other tools in the workshop . Until then, happy shoemaking!

The Tools I Use

Greetings again, fellow shoemakers (both actual and aspiring) of the world. Considering that many of you read this blog on a regular basis, we wanted to say a huge thank you to you all for making it such a success. When we started it in 2008, we had no idea that it would grow and reach so many people in so many countries. We get a lot of correspondence from all round the world and it is a great pleasure for us to find so many readers who are interested in our wonderful craft. We really enjoy sharing our knowledge with you all.


For most of my life as a shoemaker, I worked in one workshop and had all my tools and equipment in one place. I imagine this is the case for the vast majority of shoemakers around the world. But since we opened our workshop at Gieves and Hawkes on Savile Row, we have had to start making shoes in two locations. Now this presents a few problems. If I was a cabinet maker or a jeweller, for example, I could simply have bought a new set of tools and equipped the new workshop with a second set.
But, as with all things shoemaking, it is not that simple. Shoemaking tools were once cheap and easy to find because there was a shoemaker in every town (almost). But as the trade has shrunk to its present niche size, the availability of tools has become ever more scarce.
Most shoemakers starting out now spend a lot of time scouring the world and Ebay for old tools. One, because new ones are often not available and two, because the new tools you can find are often inferior to the old ones.
I spent most of my apprenticeship collecting a decent set of tools, particularly edge irons. John Lobb helped enormously with this because they have a collection of old tools especially for this purpose, but I also went to old shoemakers, car boot sales and flea markets trying to complete the set.

When the two workshop conundrum arose, we decided that the simplest solution was to buy tool rolls and travel between the two with our tools. You might think that we could simply have split our tool kits and used each other's tools but it does not work like that. You get very used to your own tools and your making develops to in line with the tools that you use, so that changing tools is not easy. This might sound very fussy, but it is absolutely true. I even take a simple nail hammer with me because I like the way it sits in my hand and the weight of it. Other hammers just don't feel the same - weird huh?

So below are images of what I take. I think it is illustrative of what you would need as a basic tool kit. There are some tools not here which we had duplicates of and have at both places.

Tool Roll One

Contents of Tool Roll One from left to right

Welting awl
Sleeking bone
Dividers
Stitching awl
Broken awl with sharpened tip for making a groove in the channel
Feathering knife very kindly given to me by Marcell Mrsan
Plough
Fudge wheel
My favourite Japanese rasp
My flat paring knife which is the most important and most often used tool I have.

Tool Roll Two

This tool roll has all my edge irons and two seat wheels. As you can see, they are all antique and very precious. Contents from left to right

2 seat wheels, a big one and a fine one
3/8" edge iron
Full 5/16" edge iron
Light 5/16" edge iron
1/4" edge iron
Single lipped iron
Full 3/16" edge iron
Light 3/16" edge iron


This is enough for most soles that we make, but we have more irons for other sizes too.

Tool Roll Three

Tool roll three has a variety of miscellaneous tools ( all essential and much loved of course). Contents from left to right.

Sharpening stone
Lasting pliers
Welt beater
Small screwdriver
1/8" waist iron
3/16" waist iron
1/4" waist iron
5/16" waist iron

Last, but very much not least, are the tools too big to go in a roll. These travel in a bag with the rolls. And they are from left to right

Leather mitt for welting
Nail hammer
French shape hammer
Heel iron
Deer bone
Nippers
Nail puller

Next week, I will start going through all these with a description of what they are used for and other useful, interesting or amusing information.

We hope you found this interesting and or useful.

Until next week, happy shoemaking!