Aven

Rabbit holes are just so tempting. You never know what bit of arcane knowledge you might find. Yeah you might never actually be able to put it to use, but you know it. I'm a magpie in that sense, I love collecting knowledge. Thanks for the link I will check it out.

Boar bristles, linen thread, hand wax (coad) definitely old school. Enjoy the rabbit hole lol!

Steel bristles might be easier to start with. And you can buy a single guitar string size in bulk. Or you can hit up your musician friends for the E string when they change their strings. The boar bristle has to be split just right down to a certain point. The thread is laid in the split and then the hard part begins, doing the magical incantations and hand movements to get the tread and the bristle to be come one. I still can't find the video on threading onto the boar bristle.

Here are a couple of videos to add onto the loafer one. Steel Bristles Lisa Sorrell's Its a Boot Life Start at 4:30. Its a Boot Life Hand Stitching Start at 6:00

They are still used, but not like they once were. Now monofilament or split steel is the use for the needles. I had a bookmark of someone going through the whole process of waxing the individual linen threads together, tapering the bundle, which is what you have there, and then winding a bundle onto a needle, but I can't find it. If you go to about 29:45 you can see him using the inseaming awl and then the needles with the thread attached. Looks like monofilament to me. At 29:50 he using the awl again and you can see the tail of the thread on the right side of the screen. That's the "needle". Because the needle is the same thickness as the thread, it doesn't require a large hole to get the works through. Loafers Made by a traditional method

They look like what shoemakers used to attach the uppers to the sole. They didn't use needles. The end is tapered so a boar's bristle could be wound on to it and used as the needle.

It looks like it is linen. Is it in about 6 foot lengths?

I've made something similar for bike riders with long hair. Their hair got wrapped in one of these after it got braided. It needed to be a bit stretchy to grip the braid tightly. I went with snaps because of the thought of hair getting caught up in the velcro and getting damaged. No everyone is blessed with thick healthy hair.

Thank you for the link! Much appreciated. I'll dig into tomorrow.

Cool Beans. Thanks for your insight. I also got the rail system so warning taken. Right now, according to the tracking number, they have been handed over to the Canadian Post and but haven't crossed the boarder yet. I figure I will get them in hand by the end of next week.

I am not an expert by any means. I have only made unlasted shoes. But if I was making shoes for someone with high arches, I wouldn't adjust the last. I feel its going to be easier to put inserts in the shoes and tweak them than it is to adjust the shoes and last. How do you like the lasts from podohub? I just ordered a pair and I'm a bit excited to try lasted shoes.

Shoot me a PM when you get back into it. I'm always happy to talk about shoes.

Work, that evil necessity that can take us way from what we want to be doing. If you want to chat about it, you know where I hang out.

That is a good combo. Yeah, I defiantly have to work on my photography skills. They are actually a darker chocolate brown and a lighter Signal Corps orange thread. I see another rabbit hole to fall down.

I hope you find the spark to go and do it. The worst thing that can happen is that it didn't work out the way you wanted, but even then you will learn something and you'll be better prepared for the next attempt.