Jazznow

Hi folks, i finished my first shoe last weekend and wanted to show it off. It's not very beautiful and i made a lot of mistakes, but it is all done by myself, so i'm quiet proud of it The only ressourcee i had were aa book written by laszlo vass (i think"bespoke Shoemaking" is the english title) I did this first shoe to see if i'm able to build a shoe all by myself, so i used leather that i had at hand and that was cheap (it was for free indeed, since it was leather from an gym device, tha got new leather). First mistake: This leather was much to thick and much to old. It ripped several time, when i lasted it. I didn't want to have to much work with building the upper, so i made a pattern, that onlye needed stitching at the back and to join lining and upper. Second mistake: Quiet hard to make thick leather with a pattern like that lay around the last smoothly. I only had a last, that was 1 european shoe size to small for my feet. I thought, that wont matter, because i just wanted to see if i can do this and if it makes sense to invest more money. Third mistake: I like this shoe so much i want to make the second and wear it at least at home :D I could continue to list my mistakes, but i think, nobody wants to read them all :D But i have a few questions to the experienced shoemakers: 1.) Is there anything apart from cork to fill the room between inner sole and edge of the welt? 2.) Do i have to cut off any excess length of the lining, when lasting or is it just the same length as the upper? 3.) after adding the heel and toe stiffeners, i have to make them flat by grinding it down. is that correct? 4.) how close should the sewing channel be to the edge of the inner sole. Its something around 1cm (0.4 inch) on this shoe and it seems too far away for me. 5.) when sewing the sole to the welt i have a stitching channel at the sole, that is closed after sewing. When making the holes with the awl from the top, its har for me to "meet" the sewing channel. On the other hand, making the holes from the bottom makes it difficult to get an even look at the top. Any suggestions? 6.) I have no idea, how to finis the sole edge. I think it's made with a special stain (that stink like foul eggs, i have been told), a special wax and a heating iron. I have none of these and would like to know, if there are any other ways. I know, that are a lot of questions. But maybe some of you have the patience to answer a few of them. As always i am open to criticism and suggestion that are not related to the questions above. I wish you a wonderful weekend. Many thanks, Jonathan

Very cool stuff Ray. Like them very much and the will fit nicely into your other products. Could imagine you will sell lots of these Greetings. Jonathan

got an email from my dad this day. The machine is a 30-1 There is another number stamped into the body of the machine. Is this a serial number? Can i learn anything from it about the age of the machine? The number is 34035. Already found a shop with parts for that machine Greetings, Jonathan

thanks for your quick reply. Sadly i can't ask my father for the next two weeks, what the brass plate says about model no. because he's on a business trip. I guess i'll have to wait till i got the machine, to get further information. When it is a shoe repair machine, i think i can't sew heavy leather with it, can i? I dont want to do real heavy stuff. I think 10mm is the maximum i would sew. Can i do this on that machine or will i break it? I have so many questions but i will start to google around a little bit, so that you don't have to answer them all Many Thanks, Jonathan

Hi folks, hadn't much time to post anything for a while, but i need your help once again. Relative found the old adler sewing machine, my grandgrandfather used decades ago (he was a shoemaker). My father managed to get this machine and will bring it to me in november, so it will be used again. He send me two pics of it via email the other day. I will attach them to this post and hope that you can give me information about this machine: Type, age, where to get parts and needles, manuals, what leather i can sew with it and so on and so on. I would be happy about every bit of information, you can give me. Many Greetings Jonathan

Thanks for your Kind wird's!

Hey all, just wanted to show off the stuff i did in the past few weeks. It will be the last stuff i can do for a while since my apprenticeship as an orthopaedic shoemaker started on September, 1st. That means lots of cleaning up, cutting sole rubber, give glue to sole parts and so on for the next weeks until i can do more complex stuff. But it leaves me with nearly zero energy at the evening. After spending a great time with Ray from barefootleather (UKRay) this summer, i followed his advice to do always more than one piece at a time with the handbags in the following pics. I made three handbags at a time. two with border decorations and one with a carving of a celtic knot on the flap. Later bags of that style will have another way to close them because the strap overlaps the carving realized that too late^^ This belt pouch ist the prototype for the handbags above. I wanted to make it from leather i had lying aroung before making it from my good veg tan. Since i haad not enough leather to make a shoulder strap, i did a belt pouch first. The black handbag is a prototype too. I will make more of those in differengt sizes some day, since i like it very much. Those damn cicle pouches really pi**ed me off (sorry for the strong language) . I did almost 60 of them ann its no fun at all after doing 5^^. It was a fight to make 2 or 3 every day but finally i finished them Thanks for looking at my stuff. Any constructive critique is welcome Best wishes, Jonathan

great job on that. would take it to my roleplay sessions immediatly

thanks for your advice

I hope it's ok, when i add another question to this thread: Do you have any advice on storing the olive oil (fridge or not)? The stuff in my fridge becomes hard at the edges after a month or something. it's not rancid, there are just this deposits (that word may describe it best). Can i still use it on leather? Is there a way to stop the oil doing that? Maybe you have some hints Jonathan

Hi Rouven, nice to see your work. YOu did a great job on coloring on those seats. I like it! Keep on showing your work. Greetings, Jonathan, another german Leathercrafter

I always wanted one of your dads beautiful mauls, but never had enough $ Now you come here and youre mauls are looking as fine as the ones of your dad. I guess i have to get one of your mauls too some day. I would love to see more of your work. Greetings, Jonathan

i like that stuff. Very impressive, thank you for showing!

if report covers are those plastic bags to put documents in, it could work as long as you find a thick one. I used a report cover for my wallet. I wanted a window, where my train ticket is in, because that is checked so often here in germany. Since i have a long time ticket (i can drive half a year with one ticket), i changed it only 3 or 4 times since i have the wallet, so the material wasn't stressed very much. But it holds very well until now. Things to consider: Glue the stuff to your case before stitching. Let enoug room between your stitching line and the edge of the window material. Don't make the stitches to small and use a thick thread, so the holes wont ripp fast. Hope that helps. Jonathan

Thats a really cool design. The "scars" are looking great. Thumbs up...

cats aren't a very good dye applicator, as is experienced yesterday. when i painted my new stamp rack. My Cats found that plastic film, that i used to cover the floor for protection, very itneresting and played with it. They didn't bother about the freshly painted tool racks on the floor and now i have cat hair all over them. Sometime cats just are annoying Jonathan

Little buckle or a small sam brown stud? Just an idea

What a Great piece of Art and craftmanshop. Like it so much.

Hi, Ukray just gave me an old issue of shoptalk (March 2010). On page 32 there is a Short article on different tannages. It says that tanners and Shops often confuse their customers by calling something Oil leather because it can actually Be either oil tanned leather or chrome tanned leather with an Oil coat. Real Oil Tanned leather has the grain removed because the tanning Oil could not go deep enough into the leather with the grain still on it. Don't know if that helps, but i found this article quite interesting. Greetings, Jonathan

i like both very much They look really great.

really nice! I guess, i have to become a father :D

cool idea sadly it's to small to make a makers stamp out of it^^

i dont have any experience, but i would try to heat it on a propan flame and put it into the arbor press. Be sure to wear some thick gloves when touching the hot iron...

Hi Ray, i hope you did'nt do that for my visit. I pretty slender and don't need a lot of room Your workhop looks really fine. Everything got's its place Greetings, Jonathan P.S. will send you a pm in the next days. I'm just finishing my master thesis, which is my priority right now

i think, yu don't have to hammer the surface of your workpiece. Use a piece of scrap leather and hammer that. Glue it in like a liner, when finish. Thats, what i would do (but i do stupid things very often ) Greetings Jonathan