BespokeOnly

Like what was said above the Horween cordovan shell and their chromexcel are grade A all the way. Smoother grained leather will help you get that mirror finish you see on toe caps, less holes for the polish to fill. Though I've seen Russian reindeer uppers shine up nice too, and that has a very noticeable grain.

Anton, I've bought my sole bends locally here in the USA before at Tandy leather, sometimes they don't have the thickness I need though. Some of their sole bends were from a tannery out of Mexico. Don't know about the quality compared to the "old world" UK or German stuff. You guys in Europe have a lot more access to certain stuff IMO; vice versa. It's practically impossible to walk in a store and buy lasts over here. Guy out of London can walk up the road, buy a set of shoe burnishing irons, Hirschkleber craft paste, French Saphir beeswax polish, and some hand carved wooden last all in the same trip. lol At any rate, here's some links to what I usually buy so you can see some pictures. http://www.theleatherguy.org/catalogsearch/result/?cat=0&q=sole+bend http://www.theleatherguy.org/catalogsearch/result/?cat=0&q=shoulder Remember you will need to take a flat faced hammer to compress the soles to make them last longer before you put them on. Take note of your grain orientation when you cut the soles out of the bend. Happy shoe making

Difference between an "open front" and a "closed front" or the Balmoral aka Oxford and the Derby is the postion of the eyelets; that being they are under or ontop of the vamp. But since it's a whole cut I don't know what they're called TBH. At any rate, Marcell Mrsan(Koronya) just blogged about sewing a whole upper cut a few days ago. Check it out, I love his finishing work. Edit BTW Andrew Wrigley's tutorials on pegging the heels was pretty good for those who don't want the cement lines between your heel stacks. Though I still can't find those lemon wood pegs he used.

Your uppers look great, however, for heel building and the outsole you'll ideally want sole bend(9-10.2 iron) at around 5 to 5.5mm thick. Small single cut shoulder(5-9 iron) for the insole as it will flex a lilttle better than the bend will. Problem is that you probably have to buy the whole bend or the single bend from your source. Veg tan bend is like wood and will sand like wood. After some really fine grit sandpaper you can shelac(natural) the heel just like you would wood and sand it again with the finer 600 grit. Then move on to dying etc.. edit Where did you buy your lasts? And which model?