What Are These Tools Used For? What Are They Called?

[Softanvil]

Turns out my great-grandfather was an amateur cordwainer! Someone had kept his shoemaking tools in a wooden box and recently gave them to me. A complete and very happy surprise!

I believe the tools come from a mail-order kit in the early 1900s.

Most of the stuff I know from shoemaking youtubes. However, I have no idea what some of these tools are or what they are used for. I'd be very grateful if somebody could help me name them.

I numbered the tools I couldn't figure out.

#1 could possibly be a wood-working tool and not for shoes? Some kind of spoon-shaped knife?

Tool #2 doesn't turn, it seems to be some kind of knife edge in the slit.

#3 is a some kind of fudging wheel, but what type?

#4 and #5 are for treating the sides of soles right?

#6 no idea, some kind of punch?

#7 is some kind of planer, but what's its use for leather?

#8 no idea. For hitting the cobblers apprentice on the head?

#9 slits of different dimensions and some holes at the end. Again, no idea.

#10 is a quick drill of course, but does it have any use in shoemaking?

[bruce johnson]

#2 is a circular welt knife I use them to true up edges sometimes, fun tool and plenty safe.. #3 is a fudge wheel. #4 and #5 are irons - used to slick. #7 looks like a peg float/rasp. rasps down shoe pegs. #9 looks like a saw wrest - unrelated to leather. The scraper and drill are woodworking tools but still could have been used for some applications in leather work.

[Softanvil]

Thanks! Which one is the scraper?

And how do you use a circular welt knife? Is the welt supposed to fit into the slit somehow?

[Softanvil]

And by the way, what type of tool is this? It looks like some type of serrated tracing wheel with an adjustable distance keeping guide like on a sewing machine presser foot?

Or do you heat it to impress a pattern onto the leather, like a fudge wheel?

Or to make a guide for stitching?

Or attach it to the heel of your cowboy boots to annoy horses?

Edited November 15, 2013 by Softanvil

[bruce johnson]

The circular welt knife has just a bit of a gap that allows you to control how deep you cut. I use it trim oversize linings or layers to true up the edge. Most of them can look pretty rough but clean up and if you don't cook the blade sharpening have a good lasting edge. The last tool looks like the end of a carriage with a guide. If there is a threaded cap on the handle end, there may be more wheels in there.

[Softanvil]

Sorry, I still don't understand how you use it. Maybe it will become obvious once I try it on some leather. But you use it to cut the welt "gem" strip?

The last tool just has a straight wooden handle with no further wheels. I tried googling for a "shoemaking carriage" but got nothing.

[Softanvil]

Had a look at your tools page, and I now believe the last tool is a pricking wheel with an edge guide. (although the pins on the wheel look like they are spaced very narrowly together, for a very short tack length?)

Still no idea about the chisel though.

Edited November 16, 2013 by Softanvil

[Tannin]

#1 looks like a hook knife used for making spoons, etc. to me too. Was your great grandfather Scandinavian or Welsh? [Alternatively but less likely, it might be a crook knife if you have some native American ancestory - although I think they usually use longer more shaped handles as their tool is held & used differently.]

As a carving tool, I suppose it might have some application to shoe/clogg making - e.g. perhaps to clean out the inside of a clog (was your great grandfather Dutch/French/Northern English/Welsh?) or perhaps curving the upper side of a wooden foot-shaped former? But perhaps, like many of us today, he just liked to make stuff - whether it be from wood or leather.

#7 is a spoke shave. Spoke shaves are normally used for woodworking but can be used for skiving leather - I think there might even be some made specifically for leather working (but perhaps I dreamt it!). There is a website that suggests some modification to a regular Stanley spoke shave to make it better suited for leatherwork but I have found that unnecessary, I have several old spoke shaves and they work rather well on leather without any modification.

#10 yes a drill. I have made several items with 3 layers of 5mm saddle leather: while it is possible to do this using an English/French-style pricking iron, marking each layer, and then using an awl to line them up & open the slots out I find that technically quite difficult and time-consuming. Instead, what I do now is to mark my stitch locations with a pricking iron (a wheel could be used instead) and then drill it with a tiny Dremel-style drill: much quicker, simpler & tidier (for me). Sole leather is, I believe, chosen for its toughness & some shoes/boots use fairly thick leathers - perhaps your great grandfather was thinking along similar lines?

Edited July 13, 2015 by Tannin