Bertana of Cissanbyrig

Challenges Entered: The Planning Stages, Stretch That Comfort Zone!, Plan Your Project

Project: Shoe-making Lasts, Boar Bristle Prep for Sewing Leather

Shoe-making Lasts

My project was to make a pair of shoe-making lasts. This is a first step toward a complete overhaul of my Anglo Saxon kit. While turnshoes can definitely be made without lasts, I found my one prior attempt at making shoes (a little over 20 years ago) was made much easier by having lasts upon which to build the shoes. Unfortunately, having moved several times (with one move being 2,400 miles) in the subsequent 20 years, I no longer have my original lasts and needed to make a new pair.

After researching examples of medieval lasts, I made a few choices that deviated from the extant examples:

1 - My lasts are reverse models of each foot, carved to be as close to the shape of my actual foot as possible. Many medieval lasts were more generalized shapes, not specific to one individual's foot shape. While many lasts were specifically a right or left shoe, some were carved symmetrically and could be used to make either a right or left shoe, such as the example carved from willow found in the Coppergate find (Leather & Leatherworking in Anglo-Scandinavian York, p 3243-4). However, due to some foot issues that I have and a desire to be able to use modern customized inserts in my shoes, I felt it was best to base my last -- and, therefore, my shoe shape -- on the actual shape of my feet rather than a generalized medieval shoe shape.

2 - To save money and time, I created the form for my lasts by laminating sections of pine 2x6" into stacks and then roughing out the shape of my foot using modern power tools.

The pictures attached are showing the block created by laminating the pine lumber and the tracings of my foot shape onto the form, then the finished product of the lasts. Note that, because these are reverse models, what appears to be the left foot in the photo is actually the right foot, and vice versa.

Resources:

Mould, Quita, et al: Leather and Leather-working in Anglo-Scandinavian and Medieval York; 2003

Footwear of the Middle Ages - Lasts, History and use in Medieval Shoes (utulsa.edu)

Boar Bristle Prep for Sewing Leather

During my first-ever attempt at making shoes, a little over 21 years ago, we used a pre-waxed thread and heavy sewing needles. The struggle with using needles with thread in shoe-making, for me, was that the bulk created by the eye of each needle with the pre-waxed thread doubled over where it passed through the eye, made it very difficult to pull the second needle through. (In making turn-shoes, one length of thread has a needle at either end, and each needle passes through each hole from opposite directions). Pulling the first needle through was challenging, but pulling the second needle through the hole, already stuffed with the first pass of thread, often required assistance from a pair of pliers and a bench clamp to hold the last in place.

Not too long ago, I got into a discussion via Instagram with a Swedish armorer and shoe-maker, and he pointed me toward the ease of sewing with boar bristles, which are much finer than needles. Multiple strands of single-ply thread are carefully wound onto a split boar bristle and waxed together.

I was able to find an excellent video of this process from Morgan Donner, “Making Medieval Shoes By Hand” (the relevant portion starts at 3:34 into the video):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPC_HSe71K4&t=1s

The following is my attempt to properly bristle thread, followed by some lessons learned from the process and from further reading. My process and further documentation can be found at:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hvsVFa_6Y-C-UInteHY7XiJAClxIQFv1Bopba4O71IU/edit?usp=sharing

Elizabet Marshall wrote on June 6th, 2021

This is so cool. I had never heard of the boar bristle use and I'm totally fascinated. Looking forward to hearing more from you about this process.

Isabel del Okes wrote on May 26th, 2021

I recently saw in a bookbinding video the suggestion that boar's hair was used instead of metal needles in historical bookbinding. So I am very interested in your write up and links about using it in leather working. Thank you for a lot of good information on this topic. Also, it is really interesting to see the process of making the shoe-making lasts. I really look forward to seeing more of your shoe making!

Amy Webbe wrote on May 24th, 2021

This is such a cool project! Thank you for sharing the info about the boar bristle needle- it was new to me. :)