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Smooth-on has casting resins that are solid when cured. From what I read in the forum you listed they used a soft silicone resin, which I wouldn't use either. Smooth-on also just acquired a prosthetics company, and is offering their resins now as well as their own. With Smooth-on type molding capabilities you could cast a foot out of any material capable of being poured- even cement. A cement shaped foot would not make a good shoe last, but it would make a lasting foot :rolleyes:

Casts are great for people like orthoticists and prosthetic engineers who are making a very specific formed surface to fit a part of the body, but not so great for lasts, because lasts aren't a model of a foot, they're are a model of the inside of a shoe which is quite different and very not-foot shaped in a lot of ways. You can take a foot cast and turn it into a passable last but it's not the best way to go.

Feet are complicated mechanical structures that move and change shape and volume as you walk on them a shoe needs to accommodate that movement, either by stretching or by having space in the right places inside the shoe to let the foot move while conforming tightly to the parts of the foot that move less and that the shoe hangs from. If you made a shoe over a cast of the foot it wouldn't fit and would be quite painful to walk in unless it were made of lycra. It'd be like building a machine with absolute zero tolerances between moving parts. It wouldn't move.

Pretty much everyone I've talked to, and every expert shoemaker I've read treats foot measuring and last making as an art more than a science. Golding and Koleff quantified the art and came up with general rules but there are subtleties in the exact tools a given maker uses and the exact way they use them that have flow on effects in how they make the patterns, shape the last and build the footwear. You can apply computer modelling and CNC technologies to making lasts but without someone driving those technologies who has a really profound understanding of the way a last relates to a foot the result won't be much good - as evidenced by the vast bulk of factory-made footwear today which in its attempt to fit everyone generally fits no-one, or "fits" by being so padded as to be useless (and bad for your knees, to boot).

Most cordwainers don't make lasts from scratch - last making is a separate highly skilled trade in itself - but they do modify stock lasts to precisely fit given feet and the good ones at least will have a deep understanding of how a last shape relates to a given foot shape. Poor buggers like me who are learning to make 16th century shoes have to figure out how to make lasts themselves because there's no stock ones to modify bawling.gif

-- Al.

Medieval Stuff: http://wherearetheelves.net

Non-Medieval, including my machines: http://alasdair.muckart.net

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Posted

Wow never thought this thread would get this much response. hahaha

Chris

Just a man, a shop, and a long list of unfinished projects.....

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Posted

Hi Chris,

It gets so much response because lasts are not only near and dear to the shoe/bootmaker, but because good ones are so hard to find. Most lasts today, except Jones and Vining Custom Division (and precious few more) are made for production machines and the ease of making production shoes. The custom shoe/bootmaker does not want to make production shoes, there is just no way to justify the price for a pair of production kicks. Custom makers have to deal with hammer toes, fronts of feet bent at odd angles, heels that don't fit length (too narrow or wide), heel to ball doesn't fit length or width or both, duck feet (short and wide), EEEEEEEE (can I say more), flying buttresses for arches, you name it. Somehow a shoe has to be made that has some vague appearance of style while being comfortable. This is why this topic gets so much response.

The other reason is that almost all shoemakers are pocket philosophers, and can go on and on about anything, especially lasts and fitting.

Art

Wow never thought this thread would get this much response. hahaha

Chris

For heaven's sakes pilgrim, make yourself a strop!

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Posted

Amuckart, I definitely know about feet swelling. I always tried boots on in the evening hours after my feet had swelled. My wristwatch had a velcro strap that I would loosen throughout the day as my wrists grew.

Art, by your response I would think in those tough cases a casting would be a good starting point. Now I am not talking about a casing out of something soft like silicone, but a much harder material such as a high Durometer urethane, or some other stiff material that extra material could be added to to make up for the sock , swelling, etc allowances. As I was driving from work today-I have a 103 mile drive home, so I have time to think, I was thinking that a casting over a release agent soaked sock would be even better to start with. Hmmmm, I will have to do some research into this whole last making business to see what goes into making a traditional last. Don't mind me, as I have always been one to ask WHY? Like in this case, why does it have to be done that way? No intentional pot stirring, or trolling being done, just some natural inquisitiveness.

You laugh at me because I am different. I laugh at you because you are all the same.

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Posted

One would think logically that a mold or impression of the foot would be a good thing to make a shoe, I would agree on the shoe, however it would make a terrible last. The exact replica of the foot would make a shoe that wouldn't feel good or look good. The last has to provide some semblance of style while making a comfortable shoe. The thing a cast of the feet gives you is a model of the foot you can go back to for additional measurements or even to just rethink things. Almost as good as a cast is a really good set of measurements and an imprint or trace drawing of the foot AND a load bearing impression of the foot. With all of the information, the customer can select a style and the shoe/bootmaker can bubble, buildup, or grind down a pair of lasts to provide a good comfortable fit AND a little style.

Art

Amuckart, I definitely know about feet swelling. I always tried boots on in the evening hours after my feet had swelled. My wristwatch had a velcro strap that I would loosen throughout the day as my wrists grew.

Art, by your response I would think in those tough cases a casting would be a good starting point. Now I am not talking about a casing out of something soft like silicone, but a much harder material such as a high Durometer urethane, or some other stiff material that extra material could be added to to make up for the sock , swelling, etc allowances. As I was driving from work today-I have a 103 mile drive home, so I have time to think, I was thinking that a casting over a release agent soaked sock would be even better to start with. Hmmmm, I will have to do some research into this whole last making business to see what goes into making a traditional last. Don't mind me, as I have always been one to ask WHY? Like in this case, why does it have to be done that way? No intentional pot stirring, or trolling being done, just some natural inquisitiveness.

For heaven's sakes pilgrim, make yourself a strop!

  • 4 months later...
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Posted

I would think that a cast made from a standing foot would allow you to use clay or some other pliable material to form a model of the last. You would have accurate arches and spread at the ball, and you could use the clay to set the form and the toe gap. recast your model and you would have an accurate last in whatever style you chose. Just my 2 cents anyway

Posted

OK Wiztoo. I'll bite for the sake of conversation ( or maybe conservation).

If you made the cast of the static foot with the heel raised, as desired, AND then allowed a spring lift to the toe so as not to stub it with every step, and allowed extra, in certain places for side and forward slip for flex while in motion..... Then a cast would be equal to a last.

Why reinvent a wheel that has taken centuries to get to the modern last,

That is what we area after. The shape of a shoe or boot. NOT THE SHAPE OF THE STATIC FOOT.

Sorry but I want to move in my boot.

Just a thought

Kevin

Once believed in GOD and the DOllAR...... Hello God!

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Posted

Errr wasn't trying to incite anything man just thought about it and figured you could make it work. Making a last is a completely different skill set from making the boot or shoe. But if you have an understanding of where things need to be, by using a cast and adding to it for form and fit I would think someone who was not specificaly a last maker could make a decent one specific to the wearer. If nothing else this experiment on ones self would teach you alot about lasts... and it would be fun

Personally I love to reinvent the wheel. Making something by following a set of instructions or a formula only allows you to follow in someone elses foot steps. Gathering general information and doing it yourself probalbly wont yield nearly as good results.... but ... you can honestly say you made it, and if you enjoyed it you have learned and can improve it...and its fun

Hobbies should be fun.... if they are not .... find another hobby

  • 1 month later...
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Posted

Smooth-on.com has casting supplies that I think one could use to make an exact replica of a foot. Why calculate, when you can have an exact replica?

I was just looking at their site. What compound is best to replicate lasts? And can you nail into it like you do a last?

Cheers,

JesseLee

  • 2 months later...

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