Under the general term kit is comprehended the pincers, nippers, hammer, the various descriptions of awls, of setting irons, and many other articles.
It has often been a matter for great surprise that the Shoemaker should sit in such a cramped and unhealthy position at his work, crouched over his clamps as he holds the leather in them between his knees while engaged in sewing, or over the block, which he holds fast to his thigh with the stirrup that passes underneath his foot.
Nippers. Awl. Stirrup. Lapstone. Hammer. Clamps.
Many inventions and improvements have been made for enabling the Shoemaker to stand during a great part of his time, and some of these seem well adapted to supersede the old position, but at present they have been only partially adopted.
The Shoemaker’s thread being tipped with bristles, no needle is required for sewing; but the thread itself is passed through the hole made with the awl. Quickly goes in the awl, and as quickly is out again, but not before the hair from the fingers of the left hand has found the passage, without being at all directed by the sight, but literally in the dark; and hence the term blind stabbing, the right hand hair immediately following in the opposite course, the closed thumb and fore-finger of either hand nipping at the moment the hairs from these different directions, and drawing the same as instantly out, at once completing the stitch.
A proficient closer, or closer’s boy—for here, in general, the boy is even more expert than the man—will in the space of half an hour stab the four side rows and the two back rows of the counter of a boot, each inch of stitching taking about twenty stitches, and the entire work averaging about fifteen inches, three hundred stitches being thus put in in thirty minutes, or fifty every five minutes, each stitch requiring in itself six distinct operations—the skill of sight or distance, the putting in of the awl, and again its withdrawal, the putting in the left-hand hair, and again of the right, and lastly, the careful though rapid drawing, or rather twitching, out of the thread itself.
The closer needs little kit: a slip of board to fit or prepare the work upon; a pair of clamps; a block; a knife; about three awls, two differently-sized closing awls, and one stabbing awl; two seam-sets, or it may be three—one for the stabbed sides; a stirrup; a case of needles (short blunts), and a thimble.
