[Illustration: 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.
Scarcely any 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 French _cordonnier_, 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 the
_grindery_,—they are so called at least through England and Scotland,
though in Dublin it is called _finding_.
“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 common knife-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 the _grindery_,
every thing he sold became known under this name, and is still continued.”
The tools of the Shoemaker are in their collective form denominated his
_kit_. 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 the _grinder’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 term _kit_ is comprehended the _pincers_, _nippers_,
_hammer_, the various descriptions of _awls_, of _setting 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
his _clamps_ as he holds the leather in them between his knees while
engaged in sewing, or over the block, which he holds fast to his thigh
with the _stirrup_ that passes underneath his foot.
[Illustration: 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
the _awl_. 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 term _blind 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 to _fit_ or prepare the work
upon; a pair of _clamps_; a _block_; a _knife_; about three _awls_, two
differently-sized closing awls, and one stabbing awl; two _seam-sets_,
or it may be three—one for the stabbed sides; a _stirrup_; a case of
_needles_ (short blunts), and a _thimble_.
[Illustration: 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, the _upper_ has to
be _set_; 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, the set 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 the
_maker_, or shoeman, to finish by putting in the welt, soles, and other
parts of the shoe; the “stitching” being effected with a square awl.
[Illustration: 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 hardwood _lasts_, on which
the shoes or boots are placed. The _lapstone_ on which the leather is
hammered after being damped; and the various kinds of _irons_ used for
rubbing, paring, or shaping the soles and other parts of the shoe, are
the principal implements, beside the _awls_, _knives_, _hammers_, and
_rasp_.
The _glazing iron_ is used for burnishing the heel of the boot or shoe;
the _paste horn_ for containing the paste used in the inside lining of
the shoe or boot; the _irons_ for setting up the leather beside the
stitching, and the _Jim-crow_, which is a small toothed wheel running in
a handle for the same purpose. The _long stick_ is 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.
[Illustration: 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.