Construction Process III

 The Inner Leather Sole

As the lining of the shoe is made from sheep skin leather I decided to use an inner sole from the same leather that the outer shoe is made.  Deerskin.  More specifically Reindeer skin leather.  This will make the area where I step onto the shoe more durable and will last more I suppose.

Making and cutting the inner reindeer leather is done with the same technique as the rest of the leather is done.  Using chalk for marking and the roller cutter for cutting the leather.

And bellow fitted on the lower leather part (lining side) as if will be glued and later stitched together with the crepe sole.

Ken Diamond here makes three rows of stitches.  Stitches that will last long hold the inner leather sole with the lower part and the crepe sole.  Though he does not use an outer rubber sole for protecting those stitches in some of his shoe designs so I suppose this technique is a must.

Stitching as we will see later on those parts together  is the most difficult part as far as strength and patience is required for this project.  I do only one peripheral row of stitches.  This is done by hand.  I suppose again that Ken uses a stitching machine do to the job.  It is quite difficult and requires quite a technique during stitching using the awl and the needles.  It will be also described and demonstrated via video later on.

Bonding the crepe with the lower leather part of the shoe

This is where one has to put a lot of effort as far as concentration needed in order to make a good bonding.  Doing it wrongly, thus when the cement is applied in both surfaces crepe and leather and misplaced will ruin the shoe.  Do not try to rise the two parts glued together.  It will make worse the matter as they are already.  Only if a small part of the misplaced area is in contact can be come apart and make another try.

It is so essential to mark the crepe sole onto the reindeer outer lower part of the shoe.  I use the marking pen for this purpose as chalk will introduce dust and probably prevent a proper cement bonding.  The marker I use is designed for non permanent marking.  I hope that they keep their description promise.  It is on an area that is visible on the finished product.

Before going any further with the cement application, both surfaces, the crepe and the reindeer leather have to be roughened out.  Use a 60grade sandpaper for that purpose.  The copper or the steel brush wont do anything on the crepe sole.  Be gentle with the reindeer leather and be brutal with the crepe sole.

Crepe will show almost no markings after sanding it out.  Use a fresh brush (not one that has already been used for gluing/applying cement) to brush both areas for dust or sandpaper remains.

Applying cement has to be done very but very carefully.  Just after the area were you have marked this will be visible to the finished product.  That means that any badly placed cement will ruin your project or decrease its quality.

In all the construction process one has to be aware each time which side he is working with.  This is a must.  I did not mentioned it before but you need to always keep a mental map in your head on which side left or right foot you are working with.  It is very easy specially in the beginning to confuse those two and make mistakes.

Apply the cement first on the difficult area which is the leather and then onto the crepe which takes almost no time and you do not have to worry about the edges.  Keep an eye not to apply any cement accidentally onto your working surface as this will might come in contact later on with the leather.  After applying on both surfaces leave for about 5min for the cement to cure and then very but very carefully bring in contact the two surfaces.

Use a rolling pin applying relatively small pressure and do that both sides of the glued together parts.

When satisfied with the result of bonding (the wavy surface of the crepe should appear onto the lining) use a heavy weight to clamp down the bonded now one piece.  On the video I did not show that but I added some extra weight (books) onto the metal box shown.  Leave at least 3-4h before going any further with the process.

There are customised rolling pins made from metal that could do the same thing as the classical kitchen's rolling pin.  For this case it did the job just fine.

Inner leather sole preparation and Gluing

This next step is also important before starting the stitching process which will guarantee that the crepe sole will stay onto the rest of the shoe.  It is important because the inner leather reindeer sole will have to be placed exact onto the lining as far as the crepe bellow position is concerned.

Misplaced and the stitches will not be equally spaced across the edge.

This step is not too difficult as the previous one but is of high importance as well.

Marking on the crepe sole are impossible using the prinking/marking tool so all markings should take place on the inner reindeer sole.

First prepare the two surfaces, the lining and the inner side of the reindeer sole by roughing the sheep leather using the 60grade sandpaper (be very gentle as sheep leather is delicate) and the copper brush for the reindeer sole.

Here marking the position of the inner reindeer sole is crucial.  You can feel the crepe sole or even see it on the lining but still you have to be exact.  I used the non permanent marker for my markings.  It will not bee visible anyway.  Chalk will not do the job as dust will downgrade the quality of bonding.

Applying here cement will also can compensate mistakes.  This is an area that will not be visible later on.  It is a good for practice reasons though to be exact.

Here is a picture of how the area will look like after they have been roughed out each with its own roughing tool/mean.  Note that the reindeer leather from the inside has not changed almost at all though fibbers are disturbed such that the cement can penetrate them and make a wider area of contact.