Boot making and mending

"Boot making and mending" by Paul N. Hasluck is a practical manual written in the late 19th century. It teaches readers how to make, repair, and finish boots and shoes, with clear, tool-based instruction on heeling, soling, patching, welting, stitching, and polishing. The opening of the manual presents it as a volume in the “WORK” handbooks, with transcriber’s notes, publishing matter, a preface explaining it condenses craft knowledge from the WORK journal, and lists of contents and illustrations. It then begins Chapter I with step‑by‑step guidance on repairing heels and half‑soles: assessing wear, choosing proper leather, making a special awl, using rivets and Snow’s half‑tips, setting up a bench and lasts, removing old soles, fixing new ones, penning, rasping, and finishing, plus notes on gutta‑percha soles and how to tell machine‑sewn from hand‑sewn boots. Chapter II covers patching uppers—closing‑in, invisible patches with gutta‑percha solution, blind‑stabbing, loop and seat stitches, underlays and toe‑pieces, and sewing on toe‑caps. At the start of Chapter III it outlines re‑welting and re‑soling hand‑sewn boots—fitting the last, removing the sole, sewing in a new welt, making grafts, cutting channels, using a fudge‑wheel, and beginning thread‑making—before the excerpt ends.

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