A Woodworkers Shoes

Re: A Woodworkers Shoes

Larry Clinton At Frankfort, (Central) Indiana

When I was a young lad I lived near DeMotte Indiana. This is/was a community settled by Dutch families. The land is very fertile but was often completely flooded prior to their work.

They elevated the ditch banks, added drainage ditches and lines and grew many vegetable crops including many Asparagus fields. It was not unusual to see older citizens in the 1959's wearing Sabots (wooden shoes)

Re: A Woodworkers Shoes

Kneale Brownson

Do you paint yours?

Re: A Woodworkers Shoes

Don Wagstaff

I have but only with machine made, then I would paint them with pine tar and hang them up to dry for half a year. Now that I'm wearing ones made by hand it's not my practice this anymore.

Re: A Woodworkers Shoes

Don Wagstaff

These are nice ones you show Kneale, certainly only for wearing on Sundays.

By the way Larry those Dutch immigrants were probably saying "klompen" since "sabot" is what the French are calling theirs.

Re: A Woodworkers Shoes

roger lance

Don.....are you near Holland, Michigan where they still make wooden shoes??

Re: A Woodworkers Shoes

Don Wagstaff

I'm not near there, I'm in the actual Holland. It's interesting that wooden shoes are being made in Michigan, that's new to me. Tell me Roger, are these Michigan shoes made by hand or machine?

Re: A Woodworkers Shoes

roger lance

Don.....I'm not that knowledgeable about the wood shoe operation in Holland, Michigan.....its done mostly for tourists. I believe that they are making shoes by both machine and by hand......the machine made shoes are less expensive.....the hand-made shoes might also be decorated/painted.

There is a very large Dutch population in Holland, Michigan.....families that emigrated (legally)......your Queen has visited there often......there is a working windmill imported from the Netherlands......vast tulip farms.....and a celebration of Dutch heritage in the spring complete with klompen dancers in traditional Dutch dress who wash and clean the streets.

I'm sure there must be sites on the net that will detail all of these things. I'm only half Dutch (if you're not Dutch, you're not much) and have on my bucket list a visit of my grandparents' homeland.

Re: A Woodworkers Shoes

Don Wagstaff

Well it's all more interesting for an acquaintance, wooden shoe-making champion of The Netherlands for this last year, soon to be known if he maintains his title, but he is always on the look-out for the ones keeping up the tradition, dying out as it is with the loss of not a little knowledge. So he will be interested to hear of this other Holland.

Half Dutch is a half more than me, I'm only living here, (legally) so I've got no queens.

Re: A Woodworkers Shoes

Kneale Brownson

Did you notice their size? Wife's souvenirs from a visit to her mother's family in France stxty years ago.

Re: A Woodworkers Shoes

Don Wagstaff

I was only looking at the painted aspect but now I see the Brittany costumes of the figures, the thin sides of the shoes and the form, all very indicative of the sabot indeed.

Re: A Woodworkers Shoes

Larry Clinton At Frankfort, (Central) Indiana

Your right, and they are also known as "Clogs"

Re: A Woodworkers Shoes

Adam of Oakland

those are very handsome. i'm asking for a friend, but are there any good articles on the www that instruct one on how to make their own shoes of wood? I am always wearing leather dansko clogs (spent a lot of time in hospitals and noticed so many of the doctors and nurses in these shoes).

wonderful post!

Re: A Woodworkers Shoes

Don Wagstaff

Hello Adam, and thank you. I have never looked into it to be honest. At least in Holland I don't even know if such a thing ever was written down because it was a trade typically handed down through the immediate family, the knowledge was very atomized and differed from village to village even. Probably the same thing elsewhere and if there are ethnographic studies on the topis, not unlikely, they would likely be in French or Swedish ...

You/your friend must look up Jeremy Atkinson the last clog maker out in England. There is a video series I thought about his really excellent work which if I remember it good does at least cover the special tools that make the work move along. I know my friend Gerald Getkate has really been busy the last year traveling around giving his courses. He is years and years now on weekly basis doing his training before the last of the old shoemakers are gone but his work is strictly practical not going into the theoretical at all.

Re: A Woodworkers Shoes

Don Stephan

An Internet search using "how to make wooden shoes" and "book on how to make wooden shoes" returned a number of pages.

Re: A Woodworkers Shoes

Don Wagstaff

Pages and pages reveals nothing significant on my computer screen about how to make wooden shoes but it seems this Atkinson figure does have a book on clogs and clog making. It should be noted there is a difference twixt the clog and wooden shoe.

Re: YouTube?

Henry (Raleigh NC)

Here's a You Tube link that shows the making, without describing it much. Not complete detail, but you can clearly see the tools used. The hollowing in the toe area is the portion not actually shown.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt5BLJhiMO0

Henry

Re: YouTube?

Don Wagstaff

Really I am only making my reply to see what happens with the message in the topic index as it's a deviant version to what I know. Still, on the other hand I don't see that the videos - inclusive the one I like so much of the old Swede going at it - have much practical use nice though they are to watch. I mean, you've got aspects like the cant of the sole, the arch support the angle of the left and right versions front to back and so on and so on...