THE SHOEMAKER.

WORKSHOP.

The trade of the Shoemaker naturally follows that of the tanner, since leather is the material principally employed in making coverings for the feet; the tough hides of animals being used for the same purpose in countries where the art of tanning is either unknown or not practised. Scarcelyany handicraft employment engages the attention of so many persons in this country as boot and shoe making. From the fashionable bootmaker to the poor cobbler, who crouches in a stall under a house in some narrow street, is a wide interval, and this interval is filled up by numerous grades. At Northampton boots and shoes are made on a very large scale for the London markets; they include chiefly the cheap varieties, but at some of the recent exhibitions of manufactures the Northampton bootmakers have exhibited specimens of workmanship which are considered to be quite equal to those of London or Paris. At Edenbridge, in Kent, and at other places, the strong coarse “hob-nailed” shoes are made, which are so much worn by waggoners and others.

The London makers import from Paris very large quantities of boot fronts, which, when combined with other parts of English manufacture, constitute many of the “French boots” which now glisten in the windows. Notwithstanding the large number of persons employed in these avocations in England, and the abundant supply of leather, there is still a considerable import of boots and shoes from abroad, chiefly France.

In the old statutes a Shoemaker is called a cordwainer, apparently a corruption of the Frenchcordonnier, which means a worker of Cordova leather. The companies of Shoemakers in our ancient towns were incorporated under this name; and where some of these companies now exist, they are known by the same name. As a legal term, cordwainer is still used.

The trade, as now followed in London and other principal places, is subdivided into about twenty branches. The following may be set down as the chief: the shoeman,or maker of the sole part of the shoe; the bootman, or maker of the sole part of the boot; and the boot closer, or joiner together of the leg, vamp, &c. The labour of these is especially directed to what is called the men’s line; whilst others make the ladies’ shoes or boots. There are many women, too, who get a livelihood by closing the shoe, while others again follow the various sorts of binding.

The mechanical processes, after marking and cutting out the leather, consist chiefly in various kinds of strong needlework, such as the lasting or tacking of the upper leather to the in-sole, the sewing in of the welt, the stitching to this welt of the out or top sole, the building and sewing down of the heel, and the sewing or closing of boot legs. The boot closer is the most skilful of the persons employed, and receives the highest wages.

The materials with which the Shoemaker works are generally called thegrindery,—they are so called at least through England and Scotland, though in Dublin it is calledfinding.

“The cause of this technicality,” says Mr. James Devlin, in his most interesting description of the trade of the Shoemaker in the Industrial Library, “is now, I believe, scarcely known to any one in the trade. The relation to whom I was apprenticed, a man of a very active and inquisitive turn of mind, told me its history, which it may be worth while here to relate.

“Formerly, before hemp, flax, wax, hairs, or any description of tools, were sold, as now, in shops set apart to this particular business, the shoemaker, not using the peculiar sort of stone rubber or the emery composition which he now uses to sharpen his knives upon, was in the habit occasionally of taking his knives to be ground (as the French shoemaker does at the present day) to some of the commonknife-grinders of the neighbourhood. The knife-grinder having thus the Shoemaker for a regular customer, began in time to add to his usual business that of selling hemp, &c.; hence his little shop being termed thegrindery, every thing he sold became known under this name, and is still continued.”

The tools of the Shoemaker are in their collective form denominated hiskit. Anciently, and in the old songs of the trade, they were called “St. Hugh’s bones,” from a now almost forgotten, though somewhat pleasant tradition. In Stow, and in Randle Holme’s “Academie of Armorie,” 1688, we find this term; as, also, in the still older romance of “Crispin and Crispianus;” and in two plays, “The Shoemaker is a Gentleman,” and the “Shoemaker’s Holiday,” of the beginning of the seventeenth century.

The kit of the Shoemaker is, however, no longer now, as formerly, made up of “bones”—saint or infidel, human or brute,—but principally of good and kindly steel; purchased ready-made at thegrinder’s, or the grindery establishments before spoken of, and kept afterwards (in this country, at least, and in America) in repair and proper order by the ingenuity and care of the workman himself; though in France, and generally on the continent, much of this is done by another person, to whom such occupation is the sole means of livelihood.

Under the general termkitis comprehended thepincers,nippers,hammer, the various descriptions ofawls, ofsetting irons, and many other articles.

It has often been a matter for great surprise that the Shoemaker should sit in such a cramped and unhealthy position at his work, crouched over hisclampsas he holds the leather in them between his knees while engaged insewing, or over the block, which he holds fast to his thigh with thestirrupthat passes underneath his foot.

Nippers. Awl. Stirrup. Lapstone. Hammer. Clamps.

Many inventions and improvements have been made for enabling the Shoemaker to stand during a great part of his time, and some of these seem well adapted to supersede the old position, but at present they have been only partially adopted.

The Shoemaker’s thread being tipped with bristles, no needle is required for sewing; but the thread itself is passed through the hole made with theawl. Quickly goes in the awl, and as quickly is out again, but not before the hair from the fingers of the left hand has found the passage, without being at all directed by the sight, but literally in the dark; and hence the termblind stabbing, the right hand hair immediately following in the opposite course, the closed thumb and fore-finger of either hand nipping at the moment the hairs from these different directions, and drawing the same as instantly out, at once completing the stitch.

A proficient closer, or closer’s boy—for here, in general, the boy is even more expert than the man—will in the space of half an hour stab the four side rows and the two back rows of the counter of a boot, each inch of stitching taking about twenty stitches, and the entire work averaging about fifteen inches, three hundred stitches being thus put in in thirty minutes, or fifty every five minutes, each stitch requiring in itself six distinct operations—the skill of sight or distance, the putting in of the awl, and again its withdrawal, the putting in the left-hand hair, and again of the right, and lastly, the careful though rapid drawing, or rather twitching, out of the thread itself.

The closer needs little kit: a slip of board tofitor prepare the work upon; a pair ofclamps; ablock; aknife; about threeawls, two differently-sized closing awls, and one stabbing awl; twoseam-sets, or it may be three—one forthe stabbed sides; astirrup; a case ofneedles(short blunts), and athimble.

Fore-part Iron. Seat Iron. Seat File. Gigger Iron. Jim Crow. Breaker. Glazing Iron. Bevel Iron.

The lining in all shoes, at least, but those of the very strongest kind, is entirely the work of the woman, being done with the needle, and elegantly it often is done. After the lining, theupperhas to beset; a matter soon effected; the flat-seam-set, or, if stabbed, the stabbing-side-set, being heated at a candle (though this is not necessary, and might from the danger of the practice be well dispensed with) and a little dissolved gum being rubbed on the seam, theset is immediately to be somewhat forcibly and briskly pressed along the line of stitching, which thus takes an almost instant polish, and being also hardened, the upper becomes ready for shop; that is, to be sent to themaker, or shoeman, to finish by putting in the welt, soles, and other parts of the shoe; the “stitching” being effected with a square awl.

Knife. Last. Paste Horn.

The number of tools used by the Boot and Shoemaker who combines all the branches of the trade is very great, although few of them are remarkably expensive, except some of the patent metal or hardwoodlasts, on which the shoes or boots are placed. Thelapstoneon which the leather is hammered after being damped; and the various kinds ofironsused for rubbing, paring, or shaping the soles and other parts of the shoe, are the principal implements, beside theawls,knives,hammers, andrasp.

Theglazing ironis used for burnishing the heel of the boot or shoe; thepaste hornfor containing the paste used in the inside lining of the shoe or boot; theironsfor setting up the leather beside the stitching, and theJim-crow,which is a small toothed wheel running in a handle for the same purpose. Thelong stickis used for “sleeking,” or smoothing and softening the upper part of the boot or shoe, after it has been made and placed on the block, in order to take out any wrinkles that may remain.

Long Stick. Rasp.

It would be impossible to give any clear description of all the operations of the trade of the Shoemaker in the space devoted here to this particular business, and even were it attempted, no very clear idea could be conveyed of the various portions of his work; since, like the tailor, he has first to cut out the leather to the proper shape for making the various parts, which have afterwards to be put together. Indeed, beyond mentioning the uses of the various tools, most of which are simple enough, little can be said to explain the operation of the Shoemaker that would not require actual inspection of the different processes; although many of them may be understood by looking at a shoe, after having observed the accompanying pictures and having read what has been said about the tools employed.

Back to Index Next