The Armour Archive

Carlyle

No biggy I love historical debate; I will have to look at Stepping Through Time again this week to see if I can pull out some clear cut examples of shoes using lasting instead of tunnel stitching from the 15th century; I know there are quite a few 15th century shoes have welts and additional soles.

Kenwrec

Rands/welts and heel reinforcements are used from at least the 13th century on but as Carlyle says there are no known example (at least that I am aware of) of any shoes with welted soles that early. If you wear through the sole you can clump an additional sole on:

[quote]Clout (Other medieval spellings include: Clowt, Clowtys Latin: Lampedium, Limpedium, Renovandopictacia, Pictacium, Pictasium. Modern and traditional terms include: Clump, Clump sole)
Leather repair patches (pacch, or scrutum) on shoes. In the Middle Ages these were usually stitched on; later they were pegged on, and nailed on. A number of medieval outer soles have been described in the archaeological literature as “clump solesâ€

[quote="James B."]Carlyle

No biggy I love historical debate; I will have to look at Stepping Through Time again this week to see if I can pull out some clear cut examples of shoes using lasting instead of tunnel stitching from the 15th century; I know there are quite a few 15th century shoes have welts and additional soles.

Kenwrec

Rands/welts and heel reinforcements are used from at least the 13th century on but as Carlyle says there are no known example (at least that I am aware of) of any shoes with welted soles that early. If you wear through the sole you can clump an additional sole on:

[quote]Clout (Other medieval spellings include: Clowt, Clowtys Latin: Lampedium, Limpedium, Renovandopictacia, Pictacium, Pictasium. Modern and traditional terms include: Clump, Clump sole)
Leather repair patches (pacch, or scrutum) on shoes. In the Middle Ages these were usually stitched on; later they were pegged on, and nailed on. A number of medieval outer soles have been described in the archaeological literature as “clump solesâ€

Kenwrec Wulfe wrote:What I was hoping for was to be able to make a period correct shoe that had a more sturdy base. I will just figure out how to make it appear to be a turnshoe.

You can always "cheat" the way I did -- I clumped soles on with tunnel stitching from the beginning when the boots were new (in fact, they are in desperate need of replacement at this point). Not exactly the historical application, but otherwise accurate in every other way.

Hope this helps... AoC

I have read that some soles have several layers of clumps and that sometimes the innermost layer shows no obvious sign of wear. This may indicate that clumps were sometimes put on in anticipation of wear, not after it occured. In any case several layers of clumps will make for a very sturdy sole.