Shoe Construction, Step By Step

[electrathon]

A few weeks ago I made my first set of shoes in a class I went to in Southern Oregon. I want to get started on making a second set fixing some if the issues with the first set and keeping my memory active to do the process again. There are a lot of steps in the construction and I by no means want to imply I am anything but a beginner. Shoe construction seems to be a lost art/no mans land so hopefully this may inspire others to undertaking making a pair. If I say something improper or I need to be steered back on course please speak up. To start with shoes are formed over a "Last". A last is not shaped the same as your foot. It is formed to support your foot and be removable from the shoe after it is stretched over it. My situation is unique and this is one of the reasons I wanted to make shoes in the first place. I was hurt pretty bad as a youth, leaving me with a messed up left foot/leg. Normally whatever you do on the right shoe you will do identically on the left. The left last has been modified to add a little extra height for me. This will be hidden inside the finished shoe, so hopefully it will not be too obvious when done. The right last was widened a little also, this is just part of normal last alteration/shoe fit.

[Dwight]

Sometimes stuff just seems to fall into place as you need it.

Been kicking around for a year or so about trying my hand on a pair of shoes, . . . then I want to do a pair of boots.

I have a nerve condition that the local foot doctor wants to fix "her" way, . . . and that just ain't happening. Been experimenting for a little over a year with different sized & shaped inserts, . . . getting close, . . . but my shoe will have to be about an 11 EEEEE, . . . or something like that.

Thanks for bringing this up, . . . maybe others will chime in, . . . and who knows, . . . more than one foot might be helped.

May God bless,

Dwight

[electrathon]

One thing I forgot to mention about the lasts. If you are going to buy a set the shape of your finished shoe will be dependant on the last you buy. This seems self evidant, but lasts can be hard to buy as an individual and when they show up it is hard to find your size. Let alone one with the proper visual shape. The main differance you will find with lasts is the toe shape. Long pointed toes, square toes and round toes, all are available. Heal height can also be an issue. More so on womens shoes and cowboy boots than "normal" shoes. Many lasts you find for sale are from the hay-day of the shoe industry, 40 years or so ago. Shoe styles do change, so remember that as you are searching Ebay for lasts.

I keep looking at the lift "shape" on the shoes, I am going to round off the part a little more under the ball of the food. I have it nearly flat and shoes have a slight radious inside under the ball area.

[electrathon]

Here is what I am dealing with.

leg.pdf

[WScott]

Slightly on topic, this is a good watch if you have a spare 10 min. My favorite shoes

[Dwight]

Here is what I am dealing with.

Far worse than mine, . . . that's for sure. Mine is just nasty, ugly, pain, . . . not crippling, . . . just aggravating pain.

I keep getting a little closer each new insert I make or change (most of the time). I'm hoping when I get it right, . . . I can use that shape for the bottom of a pair of shoes that won't hurt my feet.

On the one last, . . . it looks like you built it up a lot, . . . did I see that correctly?

May God bless,

Dwight

[electrathon]

Dwight,

I am familiar with the pain issue. I have nerve pain that is constant and agrivating. There is also pain from the arthritis and failed fusion issue, but the constant nerve pain really is tiring.

The bottom on the L side is built up about an inch. The leg is shorter than that but there is no movement in the L foot or ancle so if it was built up all the way I would have other issues. I have also learned to walk with it shorter too, so I am used to it.

If you are building your own orthotics you need to look uo "Birko cork". It is moldable cork and glue that becomes pliable when heated. I have never made my own orthotics yet, but I will be making my next set.

Aaron

[electrathon]

Slightly on topic, this is a good watch if you have a spare 10 min. My favorite shoes

jJust got the time to watch the video. Very cool. Same thing as I am doing but I see machines they are using that can do in seconds that will take me hours. Nice to see one of the few remaining shoe factories.

[Feraud]

electrathon I applaud your attempt to produce what a dwindling group of modern high end shoe companies are doing. This art of hand-made footwear is slowly fading away in the face of cheap imports.

Keep up the amazing work!!

[electrathon]

Finally took another visible step forward. It seems like it should be easy to get work done, I have either been at the Dr all week, or sitting on the couch. I have the energy drained out of me so I just have been watching movies. But I got a little motivation!

The lasts have been covered with tape to get a pattern. I seems no stores are selling tan masking tape any more. I first used blue and could not see my pen marks on it so I went over it in yellow. The lines are where there will be seams. I wanted them to be as simple as possible, both out of preference and simplicity of construction.

The pattern is normally identical on both shoes. Also for some reason the left shoe is the one that is commonly used to draw up the design on. Not sure why, just what was explained to me. My left and right will be a little different, but as much as possible I want to make them look similar. I will have two separate but similar patterns for this reason.

[BondoBobCustomSaddles]

This is a really interesting subject, especially from the perspective of someone who had a special interest in it. I have often thought that I would like to make my own shoes, just never got past saddles, (my first love). Please keep us posted on your progress. Bob

[Jazznow]

Hi electrathon

Is there any chance you can visit an orthopedic shoemaker in your area? He could give give you some hints on different aspects of the shoe you need to get a less painful walk. I'm an apprentice in orthopedic shoemaking, so by no means an Expert, but I do know there are some methods to make walking easier when the ankle is unmovable because of operation or illness.

[electrathon]

Hi electrathon

Is there any chance you can visit an orthopedic shoemaker in your area? He could give give you some hints on different aspects of the shoe you need to get a less painful walk. I'm an apprentice in orthopedic shoemaking, so by no means an Expert, but I do know there are some methods to make walking easier when the ankle is unmovable because of operation or illness.

I have thought of that but it is often difficult to get past the front door ad into the back where the real answers are. After I make a couple sets I will likely try to do it, at least see if I can get input. A lot of the orthopedic shoes I see look like they have two coats of ugly spread on them, I am trying to avoid that. If you have any input I am open to it, weather for this set or the next time.

[electrathon]

Slightly off track but I got back from picking this up:

[electrathon]

Did little more. Pulled the tape off the lasts and split them so they will lay flat. You can see that the left an the right are a little different, but similar. The tape is cut s tat it will lay flat. The amount that it changes the shape is no big deal, the next step will change it even more.

Edited August 11, 2013 by electrathon

[Jazznow]

That machine looks absolutely beautiful.

Will you do a cemented construction or a welted? I would recommend a cemented construction until you have one design that fits your needs perfectly, since it's just so much faster to do. When you have a good shoe ou can redo that one in welted construction.

Btw. I'm just writing a pm for you

[Jazznow]

As you mentioned in the pm, this may be of interest for other people too, so I will post it here again.

Just to make it absolutely clear, the craft skills needed to do this kind of stuff and the theoretical background knowledge are completly different from what a normal leatherwork knows. If you try stuff like this to do yourself you do this at your own risk. You can make things worse when trying to make an orthopedic shoe and have no clue what your are doing

Ok so here ya go,

There are basically three places where you can adjust a shoe to orthopedic needs. 

First is the front and heel stiffeners. Do you have problem with your toes (I.e. are they moving sideways or bending up or down). If not don't care about. You can make a normal toe stiffener. If yes, there are a few variation of the toe stiffener that fit different needs. The heel stiffener is not important when you have a normal last. Special heal stiffeners need usually a leg last which means the last represent the foot and a part of the leg. With a last like that you make boots that have special formed heal stiffeners.

For example: The X-ray of your leg looked as if you cant move your ankle joint at all. If this is the case the heel stiffeners are not important at all. If you have a little movement left in your ankle, this movement will most likely cause pain when walking. In this case you would make a boot over an leg last with a heel stiffener that is at least 20cm in height and that goes over both of your ankles. This stiffener would make your ankle completly unmovable. Which reduces pain but makes walking difficult but that will be handled at another point. 

Second thing you can adjust is the insole. Here I need to explain in detail a little more. As far as I know, in english you use the word insole for both the sole that is attached the last (where the welt will be attached) and those soles that you can put into a normal shoe, that support your arches. The one that I'm talking about is a little different. It can support the arches and reduce the force of impact when the heel hits the ground. Its possible to give the heel more stability too and a few other things If you are interested in this just let me know then I will explain in more detail but basically you build up this insole at the bottom of your last by putting cork under it. You need eight millimeter normal cork and eight millimeter soft cork (or sometimes called microcork). This is a special cork that is soft and thermoplastic. It's of a lighter color than normal cork and the cork particles are much finer. If you are interested in this I will describe the process of building up this kind of insole in more detail. Nice thing about this insoles is that you can add the height difference of your legs to them as you did now permanently under one of your lasts. 

Last thing you can adjust to your need is the bottom of your shoe. I.e. the sole and heel. There are different things you can do with a normal sole to make it fot different needs. Lets look at your leg again as an example.

Since your ankle can't move your foot, you won't Be able to bend down and raise it like a healthy foot which is important for walking. When I walk I have the foot raised just before the heel touches the floor. Then I lower the foot until the Balls touch the ground. Then I lower it more and bent it down over the big toe to get the force that I need to do the next step. If I am right you are not able to walk this way without problem so you need to make your shoes In a way that helps you doing this.

You can achieve that by using the leverage effect. Take a look at your last. Lift it up a little at the back as if there would be a heel. Now look from the side.Your last touches the ground at the point where the balls are (more or less) and rise from this point to the toes.

Before you attach the last sole to your shoe, the walking sole, you can now add a layer of material 0.8-1 centimeter to your shoe. This additional material you will grind on a belt sander in a way that the point where the shoe touches the ground is not the balls anymore but lies 1-2 centimeter behind the balls. From that point to the front you try to get a slightly curve. You know you got the curve right when you press your shoe down at the front with a finger and it rolls very smoothly to the most front part Of your shoe. After that you attach your normal walking sole. This replaces the force you need to bend down your foot and lift it in the air to make the next step. Of course you need to add the same amount of material to the heel to make your shoe stand right. In addition you can slightly round of the back part of your heel before attaching the last heel piece.  You always do this on both shoes.

Here is a picture of the sole to make it more clear

http://www.grifka.de...id=40&Itemid=82

And one of the rounded heel

http://www.grifka.de...id=40&Itemid=82

Best wishes

[electrathon]

Jazznow graciously offered some info that he initially sent me in a PM. I asked him to post in the min thread hoping possibly others may get a better understanding of what needs to be done in certain unique shoe/foot situations. expresses concern that possibly the information may be misinterpreted, so please use anything he says with care.

I got out of the hospital today. I had surgery to remove the upper plate in my leg. I have been on a lot of medication the last few day so have not got much done. I hope to be back to work on this tomorrow.

[electrathon]

I finally got the next step done. The patterns are pulled off the lasts, flattened and transferred onto paper. I hope to cut the pattern apart tomorrow and sew them together. This step basically ends up with a "flat" shoe.

[Ken Cook]

I haven't checked this thread in a while.

So how are these shoes coming?

[electrathon]

I have the pattern made and the initial pieces cut. I got sidetracked and stopped making progress. I am hoping to begin again soon as a fee of life issues slow down.

[artisan1]

Hi all, just thought this might be worth mentioning. I also make shoes, have done for 40 years or so on and off. my speciality at one time was orthopedic issues and I found it was necessary to mould many last of the clients feet although some what time consuming, it a is a very simple process using latex for the feet and Alginate for the finished last there are step by step guides on youtube for the production of how to mould feet hands etc I hope this is of some use to anyone who might need specialist footwear out there