The Occasional Masthead

Back from Sydney again, looking to catch up on various projects and knock them off the List, so I alternated today between working on a pair of fancy middle or upper class 15th century ladie shoes and the supporting framework for the shadecloth for the kitchen fire. Photos are below…

The leather (2mm vegetable tan) dyed and ready for cutting. Dyed with raven oil, and then lots of neatsfoot oil rubbed in.

Because I dyed the leather before cutting this time, the pattern is marked on the grain side for cutting:

So for two shoes there are three pieces:

And these are the three that go to making up the right shoe:

The other part of the day involved sawdust. I went and stared at over-priced Tasmanian Oak DAR, then decided the most cost effective solution was these six three-meter pieces:

I trimmed them to length, rounded them over, and inserted two in the cloth to provide a structure:

The poles will go through those horizontal beams with a loose fitting mortice and tenon joint: