I’ve been following your moccasin building projects, and I was wondering something. What is the ideal leather thickness and temper for the uppers of a moccasin boot?
Same leather as a welted or stitchdown style? or would you recommend thinner leather?
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Sorry for the late reply.
I’d argue it’s likely similar for top-down lasted boots. It all depends on the leather itself, how well you can work it, the tools you have, etc… The blue bison chelsea boots you see on my Instagram are somewhere in the 9/10oz range, but they are bison and thus a touch more flexible. A work boot leather of the same thickness would be harder to deal with.
You also have to remember that you really only have the option of lasting moccasins in your lap. Because of how they are, you can’t throw them on a lasting jack to get more leverage.
Depending on the leather, you can also wet last. On those same blue bison, I soaked the leather too much and the tipping effect came off. That was my mistake. But leathers that don’t suffer from that would be less risky to wet last.
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