Deerskin Moccasins by markman8

The Sole The sole consists of two separate parts.  The crepe sole which is attached to the lower leather part of the shoe and the rubber sole which will be glued underneath the crepe sole and which supposed to be interchangeable when worn out.  The rubber sole comes to protect the stitches done between the crepe sole and the lower leather part of the shoe. Ken Diamond here does more than one line of stitches.  I chose not to do so.  Ken does not use rubber sole at all in his version.  I chose not to do so not only for the reason of the extra rubber sole but because stitches are done by hand and stitching the crepe sole with the lower leather part is quite difficult.  It is the most difficult part of the whole project indeed.  I suppose that Ken has the luxury of using sewing machines which I do not. Use the blueprint of your foot outline.  Sole is the one that will determine the whole look of the shoe.  If you choose to follow it exactly then it will more likely look like the design do

 A very important part of the shoe is the sole.  Design it so it fits your foot.  Native American Indians did this according to the Craft Manual of North American Indian Footwear book. Place your foot on a piece of paper and  outline the circumference/perimeter of your left or right foot on it.  You might choose to include the foot arch in your drawing or not.  Keep in mind that if not the shoe might become loose over time with wear. Also note that the design of the sole will reflect the design and look and feel of the whole shoe.  Make your choice wisely. I used Crepe sole for the middle part of the sole and rubber sole for the outer layer.  The layer that will come in contact with the earth.  Crepe is 4mm thick and rubber 1.8mm. Crepe is made of bee's wax and has this honey colour.  The rubber is the black one in the pictures.  I chose a cheap one and I know that this might be a bad choice later on (if the rest of the shoe is still in one piece) where I will need to replace it ea

  There is no need to spend your expensive leather for testing designs each and every time.  Use some fake leather or otherwise.  It is much cheaper from original leather and does pretty nicely the job. On the next picture one can see from left to right, first the paper used for all the blueprints.  In the middle the fake leather used to test and construct the first testing shoe, and on the right a roll of industrial floor cover used to make a more permanent type of blueprints (just copied the paper ones to those plastic ones form this roll) Tests will be frequent and wasting lots of paper for start and fake leather material is a fact.  I thought myself that by just having this experience of my previous construction of moccasins that this one would be a straightforward case.  Which was not.  I guess that is for every project done from now on, on moccasins and true enough for every different foot trace.  Thus if someone asks me what to do with those blueprints for another size foot, tru

 Most of the tools and all of the leather were bought from  DICTUM.com Germany.  A very scecialized store for specific work to be done.  It concerns mostly handcrafted work from leather-craft to instruments making/construction. I particularly used for this project Reindeer leather and Sheep leather for lining.  Reindeer leather at a thickness of approximately 0.8mm (  https://www.dictum.com/en/leather-ch/reindeer-leather-whole-hide-10-11-sq-ft-831603 ) and Sheep leather of thickness roughly 1.2mm (  https://www.dictum.com/en/leather-ch/rhubarb-tanned-sheep ) Reindeer is a very soft leather and can be processed easily. From DICTUM's site it reads: Leather made from the hides of polar reindeer is particularly soft yet highly durable and shapeable at the same time.  This makes it ideal for making shoes, gloves, hats and other articles of clothing as well as for a variety of other leather-working projects. Whole hides, red-brown.   For the Seep leather it reads respectively: This le

 Tools used I have used simple tools for constructing my moccasins.   From left to right: Wax for waxing the stitching thread.  This is not the ideal as it is hard wax.  A proper one contains fat from animals in combination to bee's wax.  I already ordered a proper wax from DICTUM.com Eyelets 5.6mm in diameter 7.1mm in length.  I might need to order shorter ones though... Waxed thread Rotring trio-pen with three different in diameter graphite noses Stitching needle/s for stitching already prepared leather (opened holes) Rotary leather hole opener (from 2mm up to and including 4.5mm) Dividers and calipers Stitching needles Thread scissors Leather pricking/marking rotary tool with interchangeable wheels Johnas Kallioniemi Puucko custom knife Cutting blade Awl Rotary cutting blade Brushes for cement glue application Copper wire brush for leather roughening Using each tool in the same sequence described above: Wax the threads before stitching.  It strengthens the thread as well as maki

  Custom Leather Stamp Imprinting my logo onto the leather was a separate project to be done.  I have used a 20mm diameter steel rod to do so.  Mild steel. One has to choose from the beginning if this stamp is to be used imprinting using a hammer or a press.  This will determine the length of the steel rod.  I have chosen to use it with a hammer given the space and tools I have at home.  Doing so the length of the rod is about 80mm which makes it quite voluminous having a large mass and thus inertia.  Has to be used with a medium sized hammer.  Small hammers will bounce back at this rod mass so keep that in mind. A Dremel 300 tool was used with variant rotary tools for engraving the cat’s paw. From stone tools to metal ones (which were almost destroyed in the process. I did not hold any tungsten tools. Generally the process is only to bring in contact the rotary tool at high speeds and make the contact with the metal rod only brief and firm. Thus no high temperatures occur. This

The native Americans footwear This is a project for creating specific type of Native American non decorative yet practical shoes.  It is a combination between the CRAFT MANUAL Northern American Indian Footwear and Ken Diamond’s shoes. The Blog This Blog is about making leather moccasins describing most of the process and tools used.  Some videos will also be provided on the way to create them. This is a kind of tutorial based on my experience on shoe making and information from the book described and the internet.  References found round the web will be linked in this blog site to keep track of all the information as we go along.  Most of the tools are bought from DICTUM.com Germany.  Leathers are also bought from DICTUM.com.  There are cheaper stores specially in Athens Psiri where lots of leathers and types can be found.  Personally I do not have direct access to Athens stores (since I live and work in Crete) so I tried Dictum's leathers for start. Kangaroo leather is the best fo