First pair of sandals underway

[Mablung]

4 hours ago, deboardp said:

Uh, sheesh, it looks like I've been doing it all wrong. I just watched a video by Kevin and Denny of Springfield Leather Company. Denny is an old saddle maker. The video is about how to sharpen a head knife, aka round knife. He says that a circular motion is alternating between making sharp and making dull, that the motion cannot be pushing the knife edge into the stone, because that dulls the knife. It has to be all pulling the edge away from the stone. He shows how. click here to see Kevin owns SLC, Denny works there.

My poor head knife! I'm headed to the stones and strops and see what I can do with these two knives of mine. (I have another round knife, from TAndy, soft steel,  I prefer the custom one, of better steel, and harder to sharpen. But then, I've been doing it wrong the whole time... Sheesh!

He says that, but I don’t think that’s true of necessity. I’ve gotten some frighteningly sharp edges by pushing the edge forward. He also does by pulling it backward. Just be consistent and you’ll be fine. German bladesmiths used to sharpen straight razors with a circular motion; done properly, it works. Denny’s argument has some truth to it, but it’s not the definitive guide to sharpening. 

Edited January 21, 2024 by Mablung

[deboardp]

16 hours ago, Mablung said:

Denny’s argument has some truth to it, but it’s not the definitive guide to sharpening. 

Others say the same as you, including my friend @chuck123wapati, who is never wrong, haha. However, I worked on my head and trim knives just a little, using the drag away from the stone method, and I noticed that it's quicker and it made both knives noticeably sharper. I never got to the second stone or the second strop. 

I finished my slots and am gluing the strap dead ends. The little trim knife cuts more precisely with tiny back and forth motions, otherwise if I just exert pressure, it can cut beyond the slot. Woops. 

Edited January 21, 2024 by deboardp

[Mablung]

40 minutes ago, deboardp said:

Others say the same as you, including my friend @chuck123wapati, who is never wrong, haha. However, I worked on my head and trim knives just a little, using the drag away from the stone method, and I noticed that it's quicker and it made both knives noticeably sharper. I never got to the second stone or the second strop. 

I finished my slots and am gluing the strap dead ends. The little trim knife cuts more precisely with tiny back and forth motions, otherwise if I just exert pressure, it can cut beyond the slot. Woops. 

As I like to say, "Whatever floats your goat"—and if that's using the pull method, go for it.  I've tried it a bit and found it interesting.  It does upend a bit of the other prevalent advice about checking for the burr, etc., or at least it seems to me that it does, so that will take some readjusting.  I could be wrong about that, though, so test it out and see what works for you.

[deboardp]

2 minutes ago, Mablung said:

It does upend a bit of the other prevalent advice about checking for the burr, etc., or at least it seems to me that it does, so that will take some readjusting. 

I noticed that there was no burr when I checked. To me that means I'm not losing that bit of metal. That's okay with me. These knives are not cheap. Plus that trim knife is now sharp enough to cut leather in tight places, so I'm happy with this method and will advance to the finer stones now. 

 

[Mablung]

30 minutes ago, deboardp said:

I noticed that there was no burr when I checked. To me that means I'm not losing that bit of metal. That's okay with me. These knives are not cheap. Plus that trim knife is now sharp enough to cut leather in tight places, so I'm happy with this method and will advance to the finer stones now. 

 

Hm, sounds promising. That technique might have more currency than I thought. 

[deboardp]

On 1/21/2024 at 3:50 PM, Mablung said:

Hm, sounds promising. That technique might have more currency than I thought

I used it on my kitchen knife and the results were that the process was quick, simple, and extraordinary. Never had that knife that sharp, and the effort was minimal, as well as the time. 

In other news, now that I have and can make them sharp, I can work on building footwear. Yesterday I worked 5 hours in the shop. I cut, made channels, waxed, glued, pressed. Today I plan to sand, burnish, and sew. 

 

[deboardp]

The dark brown is melted wax on the flesh side of the topsole, after I glued the middle onto it. I'm not sure it's a good idea to do that. I rubbed a candle end on the other contact surface. It takes up too much space in the channel. I'll see how it behaves after I grease it up. 

[deboardp]

One shoe, three soles, all 7/8 oz veg tan. To and bottom are firm Hermann Oak, the center is more supple veg tan for straps cuts from belt of the side for the midsole (channel sole).

This is the glued soles ready for positioning against the alignment brads. I messed up the channel sole. I roughed up the grain side after I had cut the channels out, and the length of the sole stretched, the straps and channels were slightly misaligned and it took delicate knife work to remove more leather from the channel so the straps would fit. 

 

[deboardp]

Today I'll sand the three layer edge, burnish it, mark a stitch line, and see if I can follow it. I wonder if I should wet the leather before stitching so the thread sinks in a little below the surface of the grain. Or maybe do the greasing of the leather. 

 

[deboardp]

On 1/19/2024 at 5:15 PM, deboardp said:

The Tandy Pro Knife came this week and I was able to finish the corners of the slots on one top sole today. The blades that come with the knife are not very sharp and the steel is very hard, so I spent about a half hour with the coarse stone trying to make it sharp enough to cut leather with little back and forth motions. I managed with some difficulty to finish the task, but will definitely want that knife sharper for the second topsole. 

Notice the angles of the dead ends. They have to equal the angles on the other side of the leather sole. 

I found out this is wrong, at least the wide side of the front strap. It doesn't grab the knuckle with that angle. It flares away from the foot, creating a gap. I cut the glued and pressed joint with my round knife and reset it at a simple 90 degrees. The Barge tore the leather apart when I tried to separate that glue joint so I basically skived the glue off the leather strap. 

The pic shows my ink line of the original position. 

I'm still figuring out my procedure to make sandals in 2024, with operations I didn't use in 1970-1978. The work is therefore a bit sloppy. It's visible in this Pic how I had to remove leather from the slots because the midsole stretched during rough up. Sloppy!! Actually, what's visible is how the channels have a bit of a gap on the heel side of the channels, from the midsole being stretched lengthwise. 

Edited January 23, 2024 by deboardp