I finally got around to finishing Historical Highlights of American Lastmaking and American Shoemaking, a pamphlet put out by the Sterling Last Co. for their 50th anniversary. One of the diagrams shows a slightly different method for measuring stick length of a last than I’m used to seeing:
The jaws of the size stick are much longer, and the last is laid on the bar with both the forepart and the backpart touching.
The way I was used to thinking about stick length was with the last positioned on the bar as if on the ground plane, raised for the heel pitch the last was designed for. Here’s a diagram from Wade Motawi’s Footwear Pattern Making and Last Design showing that method:
With low enough heel pitch and toe spring, I wouldn’t expect a big difference in measurements.
I guess the lesson here is just to reinforce the more general point that you really have to show and tell how you’re making each last measurement. There are tons of subtle variations, even in the simpler-seeming measurements with commonly recognized names.
By the by, there is another great last-measurement diagram in that Sterling pamphlet:
I’m slowly typing up my notes from the pamphlet on shoemaking.wiki. It’s still my plan to try and move more wiki stuff over to this forum, to encourage others to edit, discuss, and share their own pages.