Building a last collection

General
1

I am attempting to assemble a collection of lasts, I have stumbled upon an opportunity to buy some vintage wooden lasts, It looks like they have many sizes and styles. I assume someone bought out a lot from an old shoe factory or something.

obviously I’ll get lasts in my size, and those of my close family, but i’d also like to have a range of sizes on hand for friends and potential commissioned work.

I’m not sure I can afford a full size run, but is it possible to skip the half sizes?
What is the most useful size range?

2

Personally, if making something bespoke for people, a last that is a half size wrong starting point is the wrong last. I would rather start with the right foundation and build from there.

If I wanted to make a ready to wear line, having a full run would make sense. If doing bespoke stuff, I would buy the proper starting last for each person when needed.

3

I think that really depends on what you plan to do, and also the style of the lasts.

Be just a little careful considering old runs, especially sight-unseen. Not only does factory use tend to wear out the most popular sizes and widths more than others, it’s often the case that someone has been there before and picked out specific sizes.

4

I’m definitely not trying to make a ready to wear line.
But I do want to have an assortment of lasts on hand for bespoke jobs that would cover most people most of the time.

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5

I’m going to check them out in person tomorrow. it looks like they have a large number. I’ll definitely be passing on any that have too much damage to the bottom. I might need to spend a while picking through them.

I’m new at this, so I’m not quite at the point where I can just look at a last and picture what a shoe built on that last would look like. I can tell a munson from a cowboy from an oxford, but that’s about it.

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6

Do you though? Personally, I would rather reference a much larger catalog of available last so I could properly match and then just order the needed last.

This run feels to me like a way to end up with a bunch of the wrong size and never the right one.

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7

hmmm… I might need to rethink this.
Maybe I’ll just get a few different styles in my size and my wife’s size, since that’s probably most of my shoe making for the near future.

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8

I checked them out but it was disappointing. I didn’t buy any.
Huge bins of random lasts. most were worn out, or styles I wasn’t interested in.

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