Turnshoes with rubber soles?

[MedievalMisha]

Hi folks, I'm new here and fairly new to making medieval-style turnshoes. So far I have been making shoes with 4mm vegtan soles and thinned uppers. I'm interested in putting thin rubber soles (also 4mm) onto the leather. I have experimented a little with cementing rubber on the vegtan with no stitiching after I've already made and turned the shoes, but I'm having some trouble because the sole is curved at that point and it's hard to press/clamp the whole sole flat. Does anyone here have experience with this? I would really appreciate any tips or pointers to resources. Thank you!

[fredk]

Plenty of good contact adhesive, rough up the contact areas on both the rubber sole and the leather. Consider using a rubber sole much smaller than needed. I used to use a small woman's size rubber sole just on the main area of a man's shoe. Just where his foot was in contact with the ground. I have a couple of cast iron tri-lasts. The shoe with the sole glued on was bulked out and clamped to that for at least 24 hours. Sometimes it took more than one attempt to get the sole to stick down completely

[MedievalMisha]

This is helpful - thank you! What are tri-lasts? I'm not familiar and google isn't helping me.

[fredk]

This is one of mine. At the lower front is a mans size, top is a womans size and bottom right is a child/toddler size. It seems these were as popular as a teapot throughout Ireland. Here they can often be picked up for the taking away although fancy interior decorating shops are selling them for as much as £150

With one of these you/I can move a shoe around for the best job, eg the mans size is good for the main sole, but the child size is good to get into the heel

[JSLeathercraft]

I agree with fredk.  You might search for triple anvil, cobbler's anvil, or shoe anvil here in the states.  Dragon is a brand you can search for.  They are always on ebay.   

You can usually find old cast iron anvil stands with the different sizes to go on it at antique shops.  I'd grab a couple of those and you could do both shoes at once if you're going to clamp them for longer periods. 

[Aven]

When gluing, two thin coats are better than one thick.  Apply a thin coat, allow to dry and then apply the second coat. 

I've made two pairs of turn shoes in Jason Horvatter's classes. One pair we sewed a piece of thick suede, to the sole of the shoe so that when the shoe was put together and turned this other piece was attached to the outside of the sole, but not along the edges.  This allowed for a rubber sole to be glued and stitched.  When you are sewing the two together, you sew enough so that the outer piece is secure to the shoe sole, but you have still have enough room to use a needle against the shoe without fighting too much.  I hope that makes sense. 

You can get an anvil.  Make sure you always hit flat on the top.  If you wonder off on to the edge and strike, you could cut through the upper leather.  If you are looking for a cheaper, quicker solution, you can cut a board to fit inside your shoes. You can pound on the bottom of your shoes or you can clamp it down.  I'm a beater myself, thought I will admit to eyeing the shoe press that Lisa Sorrell has on her Sorrell Notions site.  I haven't pulled the plug yet because we have move again into a smaller place so my shop is in boxes at the moment while shop space gets sorted.

[MedievalMisha]

These are all phenomenally helpful answers. Thank you folks! I'll looks into getting a tri-last. It looks useful.

[JSLeathercraft]

On 4/7/2023 at 10:58 AM, Aven said:

I'm a beater myself, thought I will admit to eyeing the shoe press that Lisa Sorrell has on her Sorrell Notions site.  I haven't pulled the plug yet because we have move again into a smaller place so my shop is in boxes at the moment while shop space gets sorted.

I'm a beater as well.  LOL!   Thanks for mentioning the press.  I haven't been on her site in awhile but now I have something else to add to my list of tools I crave but don't really use enough to justify the cost of.  HA!

[Aven]

2 hours ago, JSLeathercraft said:

I'm a beater as well.  LOL!   Thanks for mentioning the press.  I haven't been on her site in awhile but now I have something else to add to my list of tools I crave but don't really use enough to justify the cost of.  HA!

LOL!  I do what I can. 

  Do you have a 5in1?    I really like it for setting the glued welt on a stitch down shoe.  It also works a treat cutting thick, hard material.