http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-ca ... e/APP4.HTM
The group of four, the patten in the lower left:
- wood over 1" thick. Reccommend poplar, basswood, or alder. Don't use heavy woods like oak (especially red oak, which splits)
- Leather - use fairly heavy (8 ounce or so) leather. Standard oak-tanned tooling leather is fine. Oil it heavily with neatsfoot oil (not compound)
- 32 Nails, 3/4" rose-headed (if you can't find 3/4, buy 1" & clip them shorter)
- 2 buckles 1/2" wide (see talbot, thorthor, billy & charlie, etc. websites)
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Wood
- Trace the bottom of the shoe (not the foot)
- Modify the tracing, making it about 1/4" narrower along the sides of the heel and the broadest part of the foot.
- Transfer the tracing to two pieces of wood, making the grain of the wood run the long way
- Cut out on a bandsaw or with a coping saw
- rasp, file or belt sand the edges to smooth the cut marks
Make hinges:
- Draw a line across the widest part of the patten, under the ball of your foot (where the front of the foot hinges)
- Cut (chisel, router, router plane, whatever) a recess 2" wide, and one leather thickness deep across that line
- cut through the patten, straight across the middle of the recess with a bandsaw or coping saw
- Cut a 2" wide strip of leather, slightly wider than the patten.
- punch 3 holes through the leather on each side of the hinge
- pre-drill 1/8" diameter, 3/4" deep holes into the wood, through the holes in the leather
- Nail the pieces together
- trim the leather
Make front and rear straps, according to picture. You will have to experiment with paper patterns to make sure of the fit. Patterns don't work well - you need to fit them to your foot. This might take a while, and waste some leather, but to make it fit, you have to do this.
- Use two nails to connect each end otf leather straps to the wood, Pre-punching and drilling all nail holes through leather and wood. For added durability, add a 1/2" wide leather strip with 2 holes in it as sort of a washer/reenforce on top of each strap end.
- Post pictures here if you are having trouble.
