Barnsley Bulldogs
In confession, I guess I’m the kind that starts with the big one.
Rather early in my journey, after a couple of original pairs and a handful of involved rebuilds, I bought a new pair of Barnsley bulldogs:
I’d already slipped my initial idea of sticking with the wide, Swedish-style TAN lasting pliers I bought first for a good handful of original pairs. I’d bought a couple of Scheins, too, wide and narrow, also Swedish style. But then I read through DW Frommer II’s Western Packers, re-watched a bunch of Nicks and JK Boots videos, and ended up scouring online sales without success for a few days. In a moment of indiscretion, I gave in and put down over three hundred bucks for a new set of Barnsleys.
Folks who use bulldogs every day have opinions on bulldogs. Longer-term, I could definitely see myself grinding the corners of the lower handle on these, to smooth out the edges. But overall, I think this is a quality, hard-to-find tool from a company I’m glad to support. I’ve done a few shanks with them now, and experienced the wisdom of the pattern.
It just wasn’t the right time. And the budget hit was massive.
First, for whatever reason, I’ve juts drifted more toward sit lasting than standing next to a tall jack. My first binges on making-of videos were Spokane makers standing at jacks, but I’ve since spent more time watching Kazuma Nishimura, Ken Hishinuma, Ken Kataoka, Terry Kim, Marcell Mrsan, and the like last in their laps, turning the shoes over all the time, every which way. I tried both, and I feel more involved, more in control, working the old knee vise. I’ve since DIY’d a seated-height lapjack, too, mostly for heeling. I find it’s hard to get good use of the bulldogs without it. The handle’s so long that it needs another lever—the jack—acting against it. Otherwise it just turns boots in your legs, like tongs turning hotdogs over a barbecue.
Apparently like many other beginners, I also overestimated how much tension good lasting takes, especially through the waists. That made it possible to wrongly conclude that bulldogs mostly exist to get more leverage than other lasting pliers. I didn’t think about the fact that I’d yet to have tension problems on the heavy-upper boots I’d lasted, without any bulldogs. And if I were actually having shank tension problems, which I wasn’t, the natural tool for lasting in the lap might’ve been a crab-style pattern. I’d seen those in old catalogs, but I’d only seen them used once, in an old video of Anthony Delos. The pattern didn’t loom large in mind.
I’d spent enough—frankly, too much—on lasting pliers already. I spent as much again on a tool that I liked the look, the idea, and the sound of, but didn’t really need. Looking back now, a few more lasting jobs in, I needed more practice a lot more than more tools. I did have a limitation from the pliers I originally chose, but that was a lack of good, light, narrow pliers for fine pleating, not a big, grabby lever arm to drum-tension shanks.
I should have spent the money on awls. But that’s another post.