The second operation, medium grinding, is done with a fine grade of quartz, and in this operation, also, the worker keeps away from the toe. The third operation is done with a much finer-grade quartz, the operator going over the entire last. The last is now ready for polishing, and after that, for a heavy coat of shellac. It is polished and waxed on a leather wheel. Then it goes into the shipping room ready for shipment to the manufacturer.
CHAPTER SIX
DEPARTMENTS OF A SHOE FACTORY—GOODYEAR WELT SHOES
The principal methods of manufacturing shoes are the following:—
Goodyear welt; McKay; turned; standard screw; pegged; nailed.
The simplest and the clearest way of showing how the various kinds of shoes are made is to explain the manufacture of a Goodyear welt and afterwards bring out the points in which this method of shoemaking differs from the others.
Shoes are manufactured in up-to-date factories, employing hundreds of operatives. The modern shoe factory of to-day is divided into six general departments: the sole leather department, upper leather department, stitching department, making department, finishing department, and the treeing, packing, and shipping departments.
In some sections of the country, several of these departments are often designated by other names. The stitching department is often called the fitting department; the making department, the bottoming department; and the sole leather department, the stock-fitting department. The departments are popularly termed rooms for brevity.
A shoe factory is designed so as to have a width of about fifty feet for each room, while the length is according to the number of shoes to be produced. A width of about fifty feet gives plenty of daylight and ample room in the center of each department, which is very essential in shoemaking.