Shoemaking

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Shoemaking is a traditional handicraft profession, which has now been largely superseded by industrial manufacture of footwear.

Shoemakers (also known cordwainers, cobblers being those that repair shoes) may produce a range of footwear items, including shoes, boots, sandals, clogs and moccasins. Such items are generally made of leather, wood, rubber, plastic, jute or other plant material, and often consist of multiple parts for better durability of the sole, stitched to a leather upper.

Most shoemakers use a last—made traditionally of iron or wood, but now often of plastic—on which to form the shoe. Some lasts are straight, while curved lasts come in pairs: one for left shoes, the other for right shoes.

The shoemaking profession makes a number of appearances in popular culture, such as in stories about shoemaker's elves, and the proverb "The shoemaker's children are often shoeless". The patron saint of shoemakers is Saint Crispin.

Some types of ancient and traditionally-made shoes include:

• Furs wrapped around feet, and sandals wrapped over them: used by Romans fighting in northern Europe.
• Clogs: wooden shoes, often filled with straw to warm the feet.
• Moccasins: simple shoes, often without the durability of joined shoes (although different types of leather have different wear characteristics).

The Society for Creative Anachronism offers some advice about making period shoes.

Current crafters may use used car tire tread as a cheap alternative to creating soles.

Among professional chefs and cooks, the term 'shoemaker' is sometimes used as an insult. Implying that the chef in question has made his food as tough as shoeleather.

See also

• Cordwainer
• Order of the Knights of St. Crispin, an American labor union of 50,000 shoemakers c. 1870
• Rob Wong, One of the most famous shoe makers in modern America.
• Koronya, hungarian shoemaker workshop with 150 years tradition

External links

This video essay shows every step of shoemaking a very detailed way:

1. First Steps of bespoke shoemaking on video
2. next steps of shoemaking video
3. shoemaking video part 3
4. shoemaking video part 4
5. shoemaking video part 5
6. shoemaking video part 6
7. Historical footwear
8. A Beginner's Addendum to Making Shoes — Addendum to a (non-available) article on how to make shoes
9. Simple Shoemaking — Commercial site about shoemaking
10. Bootmaker dot com — Various commercial and non-commercial resources about bootmaking
11. Shoemaking book — Bespoke Shoemaking, A Comprehensive Guide to Handmade Footwear book
12. The Cordwainer Bespoke and Orthopaedic Shoemaker
13. Shoemakers forum Shoemaker's forum
14. UK Shoemakers UK shoemakers website

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Last updated on Saturday March 08, 2008 at 10:14:55 PST (GMT -0800)
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