I’m getting in more practice, but still not quite pleased with my pegging. Even when the pegs are just structural, like in a heel stack, rather than exposed, as through a shank.
I’d love to read about what others are doing, what’s working, and what’s not.
What I’ve tried so far.
I’ve been using a C.S. Osborne number 143 pegging awl haft so far. I’ve glued two extra rounds of scrap leather on top of the two that came with it, mostly to lengthen it a bit for my gangly hand.
The only issue I’ve had with the haft is that it won’t hold thinner blades, like those I threw into an order from Viktor Starko. It will hold them fine driving in, but when twisting out, they slide out of the collet.
As a result, I’ve mostly been working with blades from @Customboots, listed as “40mm pegging” here. I’m not sure who made those or where they come from. They’re much longer than the blades Starko sold me, with conical tips that taper much further along their length. They seem to be made from 2mm square rod, tapered gradually to 1mm round, with fine conical tips then ground at the very points.
Wine corks remain my favorite way to store awl blades:
The black square under it one of the little rubber bumpers I keep to stack up as stoppers. I cut a handful from quarter-inch rubber sheet. They’ve worked well.
For pegs, I’ve mostly been making my own, documenting my experiments here on the forum:
However, I recently succumbed to buying some pound bags from @Customboots. I was reluctant to spend $60 on little sticks, but I was pleased with how many pegs a pound turns out to be:
Seeing some factory made pegs also gave me a chance to double check my notes on the sizing system. Seem correct.
My impression on shape and size of the factory pegs so far is that they’re better than what I was achieving DIY, but also far from perfect. I’ll occasionally grab a peg from the bag that’s clearly undersize, oversize, or just plain irregular.
How it’s going.
Using the 40mm blades from @Customboots, I can reliably sink the thinnest 5.5/12 soling pegs, and can often get 6/11 pegs down, but have had very little luck driving the thicker 7/9 heeling pegs flush. They’re the chunkiest, so I’m least afraid to hit them hard. But they all seem to break off on me.
I wonder whether I might better set up another pegging awl with a thicker blade for heeling. Maybe one for shanking, too—match blades to pegs, by diameter.
I’ve had even more trouble than usual repairing boots, rather than making them new. In other words, anytime I try pegging on a cobbler’s anvil, rather than on a last.
I think part of the problem is that even though my old junk-find cobbler’s anvil is a set with multiple foot-shaped heads, even the largest just isn’t that large. Especially working on my own shoes, around US 13, I find myself having to push the heel of the shoe or boot up into the side of the anvil, so I’m hammering over iron.
I suspect the other issue is moisture. I can wet the surfaces of leather soles and leather heel lifts. But I don’t stand there painting or spraying on water for an hour. Even if I did, I don’t suppose I’d get the same mellow state I do laying on new outsoles I can submerge and wrap up to case. This seems to bite especially when stacking heel lifts.
