Use of Bulldog Shank Lasting Pliers

[kemitchell]

Continuing the discussion from Stuff I Shouldn't Have Bought:

@Customboots

Also, bulldogs are specifically a cowboy boot making tool. Here’s why: The vamp of a cowboy boot is one big flat piece of leather that has to be strongly convinced to become a three-dimensional shape. A shoe or a lace-up boot has a great deal of shape created with the patterning – anytime you have a seam, you can create curves. You can easily over-pull when lasting a shoe. I learned this the hard way. I’m a cowboy boot maker so I thought everything had to be cranked down tight.

It’s funny you mention that. DW Frommer II’s Western Packers—which I reckon is where Cowboy Boot Boulevard and Lace-Up Street cross in print—definitely helped push me over into buying bulldogs. I have a quote in my reading notes:

the only pliers with enough leverage to correctly last the shank area of a boot

At the same time, while I’ve done some repairs, I’ve yet to make a cowboy boot, or even plan to make one. Rather, the seed of bulldog craving was planted watching videos of Spokane makers lasting logging-style boots. These are basically all derbies, but with 8 to 9 ounce alpine chrome leather, plus lining in the vamps.

I distinctly remember a fella in some JK videos, a bear of a man whose hands make bulldogs look like puppy pliers, pleating with them. Here he is:

How It's Made - The 'BLACKOUT' American Bison Leather Boots

He uses some Whitcher-style pliers with tall hammers for his initial draft pulls—I seem to remember you favor the same for that job, @Customboots. He also uses those later, for the vamp, which is turned out for stitchdown construction rather than really tightly pleated for welting. But he does the seat and shanks with bulldogs in his left, hammer in his right, and tacks in his mouth, all the way.

At the same time, it doesn’t seem like it’s about big leverage. Here’s my favorite tidbit from an excellent, really underappreciated video on lasting from the lasting lead on the Nicks Boots line:

How to last a boot... FOR REAL this time!!!

So in lasting there’s a misconception on how hard we’re actually pulling the leather to get it shaped. Generally, in some areas you want to pull harder, but in most, you’re just going past tight.

He then also does the shank and seat with bulldogs, but switches to wider Scheins for the forepart later. I haven’t sized these guys up in person, but I’m guessing this fella’s bulldogs are a bit smaller than by Barnsleys. The handle certainly seems shorter.

I honestly don’t know why they favor this combination of tools. Maybe bulldogs specifically with tapered, cone-like noses are the best tool for getting in tight to pleat while still holding the thick leather really tight. Maybe it really is for more tension through the waists, and I’m just not seeing the effort because they all have iron forearms. Maybe it’s more of an efficiency thing—some but not all of those companies are piecework shops. Would love to find out.

[Customboots]

Yeah, bulldogs are great for one-handed use, leaving the other hand free for doing something else. That appears to be how they’re using them, rather than for leverage.

Side note: You can actually use lasting pliers the same way – the old style with the screw-in hammer. Remove the hammer and they function very like shank pullers.

[kemitchell]

@Customboots

You can actually use lasting pliers the same way – the old style with the screw-in hammer. Remove the hammer and they function very like shank pullers.

That’s a nice tip!

I guess I thought of pretty much all lasting pliers—with the possible exception of crab-style shank lasters, if those even count—as one-handed tools. Instead of pliers in one hand and hammer in the other, you stick a hammer on the pliers, freeing up the hammer hand.

I suppose having a loose hand to reposition the shoe, feel the top of the upper when pulling, press the leather around with fingers, carefully place tacks between other tacks into small pleats, and so on, matters a bit less when you’re working on a stand-up jack with a toe cradle. Instead of repositioning the shoe under you, you walk your body around the jack.

For those burly logging boots, especially with stitchdown foreparts, I don’t think there’s necessarily less skill involved. But the moves are a bit more gross-motor than for light, welted work. The hardest pleating job is really the heel seat, but they’re clinch-nailing those. With the thickness of leather, a big part of getting them flat sees to be beating them down pretty hard. I’ve seen some of those lasters switch to wider-faced, heavier hammers specifically for that.

All those companies have gone heavy into social media since the pandemic. I’ve seen posts from some of the folks on their lines before. But I haven’t had such good luck asking making questions directly. It’s only part of their job to share as part of social media as marketing. And of course they’re understandably cagey about some things they see as competitive advantages.

I’m thankful for all they have shown and told. Helped lure me into bootmaking.