How do I treat leather straps to conform to foot

[deboardp]

1 hour ago, fredk said:

It seems to me that you are cutting the straps straight and forcing them to conform whereas  they should be cut to shape and wet formed to final shape

No. Two of the straps will have s- curves to reduce their width and only the third strap will be the same width for its entire length. I'm trying to induce bulges at the tops of the two "balls of the feet", which I am calling the knuckles of the big toe and the little toe.  In this picture the tip of my index finger is on the ball of my foot. 

And in this picture my finger is on the knuckle of my big toe, which is the top half of the ball of my foot. 

I simply want that strap to be slightly rounded, to conform to the roundness of the knuckle, for foot comfort. The strap over that knuckle will be wide, depending on the size of the foot. A big man might have a width over that knuckle of 1 and 3/4" (1-3/4"). I will cut an S curve in the front edge of the strap to reduce the strap width to about 1" for that man over his little toe knuckle. There is a ball under that knuckle, you can feel it under your little toe knuckle. I want the strap to mold to that knuckle, too. It's just details, what makes a sandal world class rather than ordinary. I'm not being arrogant, I'm stating my goal in sandal making. I'm too old to make ordinary things. 

The 1" end of the front strap will pass through a channel in the midsoleand come out behind the big toe knuckle and will have a smaller S- curve on the front edge to reduce the strap to 3/4". The third strap will come out of the top sole behind the little toe knuckle strap and will be a regular 3/4"strap. There will be loops at the ankle bones to hold the straps low, to anchor the heel. It's hard to see a picture from words. I'll have a pair made, more or less, in about a week, Lord willing, and will post a Pic then. 

Edited November 25, 2023 by deboardp

[deboardp]

My 2015 stroke pretty much destroyed my memory functions, so I don't remember who started it, but there's a thread on this site that mentions leather stretching and how stitches affect that. The consensus was that stitching - specifically the needle poking all those holes through the leather - contributes to more stretching, and most threads used by people are nylon or polyester, which themselves stretch.  Accordingly, I have decided to not stitch my strap edges. I've also been manipulating some samples of my strap leather sides - I have two sides for straps, an Italian luxury veg tan 6/7 ounce, and a utility veg tan 7/8 ounce - and both of them are resilient and somewhat stretchy to being poked with my fingers.  I think they will conform to the knuckles just fine without soaking them. In fact, I read in one of my new sources of information about sandal making - again, I don't remember the specifics of who wrote it - that wetting the leather should be avoided at first. I'm thinking that might be because the thin leather is already wanting to stretch and form itself to the foot. So I'll not worry about it. 50 years ago I used horsehide for straps, and it was dense, hard, and smooth. I don't remember the weight I used. I think I used shoulder for the top and bend for the bottom. I think maybe those weights were something like 10 ounce and 12 ounce, but am not certain. To begin, I soaked both soles and formed them and let them dry in the sun for conformity to the foot and especially the arch.  I cobbled throughout the arch to help it keep its shape. It seemed to be effective. My first shop was in the student union of a major university, in the summer, and in a six week period I made 8 pairs of sandals a day (12 hours each day), six days a week, almost 300 pairs in all, before moving to a permanent location in a nearby arts and crafts cooperative. This time around I'm not going to do anything to support the arches, because I don't think there's a problem with arches. They are complicated by design, and they work. I mean, people walk into the shop, right? So obviously their arches work. The sandals will simply protect them from stepping on painful rocks.