Lasting-up a Derby shoe - Part 1 of 4 

Your absolutely right. I was taught to pull towards me. It was my thing to push the blade and it works for me. If you can do it by pulling towards you, that’s the correct way in Europe and The UK

In my experience any hyper-mobility syndrome benefits from soft but firm containment. The long stiffener offers a large surface for containment and the leather ‘gives’ according to the use. Probably the 2.5mm thickness is about right unless it’s for a small foot or for a child. For the fragile skin associated with the condition I would include cushion quarters in a nappa leather with a soft cushion strip inside such a very soft neoprene or red poron.

Stiffener leather is usually much thinner (about 2-4 oz) than the insole leather (9-12 oz). He is using a thick leather for the stiffeners (never seen that before) but he is skiving it out to be fairly thin.

@@hyperdrivedoll2097 Thank you! I tried to make heel stiffener and toe cap with glass fibeglass+epoxy with quite a good result, but thinking about leather instead. Any suggestions?

I replied in general above. :)

Marha nyakrészét.

Thank Sebastian. This was made whilst teaching in an English University 10 Years ago! I don't look that young anymore. Glad i've been able to help. There's three more coming in this series.. The whole lasting process in real time

@@orthopedicshoemaking5921 I'm glad you're sharing this with us now :)

3.5 is strong for a large foot. We use three specifications, strong, medium and light. It’s not just the foot size but how heavy the wearer is. For a Paris size 42 say, strong is 3.5, medium 2.5 and light is 1.8. The master shoemaker Tommy Symons who I learned a lot from in the West End of London, and who was nearly blind towards the end said, “It was always a feeling game anyway!” What he meant was, the stiffeners, the innersoles, the toe puffs all have to feel the same left to right, even when mellow with water. If they feel different in your hands, they will feel different in the shoe. So don’t just rely on the thickness two stiffeners side by side from a belly can feel quite different... especially from a belly actually because it has a lot of soft parts. So look at where I sort of folded and pulled the stiffeners the folded them end to end. That was Tommy all over. You can feel whether it’s the right strength or not then.

Thank you for this. I’ll try it out in my next shoe :)