Shanking
I filled the shank and heel cavities with sole leather scraps, carved in a little slot for bent-steel shanks from my pile, and cemented in some sheet cork in the foreparts. Alas, I didn’t get photos at that stage.
I covered the shanks with more scrap sole leather. I beveled them a bit, but not as much as I’ve seen some folks do for higher heels. These are roper lasts, for shoe-height heels, so I don’t have so much negative space. I was actually planning to do these leather-only, without steel shanks, but chickened out.
I am going to need to do something to ease the outsole transition from welt to shank.
Pegging Shank Covers
This was my first try at pegging. I figured it for a relatively safe chance, since these first pegs will get covered up by the outsole. They’re cemented down, too.
I made the pegs myself by hand. The recipe:
- a sample of birchwood meant for wood species collectors - $8 shipped in the US
- a tiny craft chisel from a set like this
- a pencil sharpener for the points
- a utility blade for cleanup
It isn’t easy making pegs of uniform thickness, or completely square. But my answer to that was just chipping off a lot of them and then sorting through for ones that seemed the right size for the width of the awl at the depth I was piercing.
I think my biggest lesson was that while it’s fine to make pegs all one inch or so long and then trim them, it’s best to trim before knocking them in. They seemed to drive in better when set in shorter.
It’s easier to run pegs through the pencil sharpener when they’re longer. So point first, trim to height second.
I saw a video of Kazuma Nishimura doing very fine pegs using round bamboo wood toothpicks. I found some cheap at my local Asian restaurant supply store and tried them out, but despite their narrower diameter, I didn’t have good luck banging them in. They just broke.
Looking back, I realize now that I tried the toothpicks before realizing I should systematically clip pegs to length before driving. Looking back at Kazuma’s video, that’s exactly what he did. He also appears to be using the round awl from the same cheap set of hobby wood chisels I mentioned above, for making birch pegs. He’s just pushing it in by hand, no hammer.