A Manual of Shoemaking and Leather and Rubber Products

by William H. Dooley

Cross Sections of Welt Shoe and McKay Sewed Shoe.

The lasts and patterns are obtained in the same manner as described in the previous chapter. The order is made out in the factory office, and the ticket is given to the sorter, who selects the required number of skins, which he rolls in a bundle and turns over to the cutter. The cutters form the various pieces of leather and linings, which are tied up in bundles and sent to the stitching room. Here they pass through the various sewing machines, finally coming out in the form of a complete upper ready to be attached to the bottoms.

The soles, insoles, counters, and heels for McKay shoes are all formed in the same room, as described in the Goodyear process.

There is a difference in making ready the outsoles and insoles. It will be recalled that the outsole for the Goodyear welt shoe was simply a block of leather cut to fit the shoe and was not channeled. The outsole for the McKay shoe is run through a channeling machine, which cuts a slit around the edge of the sole, folds the leather back, and digs a little trench along the inside of the slit. It will also be remembered that the insole of the Goodyear welt shoe was channeled with two slits, one of which was turned back to form the breast for sewing on the welt strip. The insole of a McKay shoe is not channeled in any way, but is left plain, like the outsole of the Goodyear welt. The uppers, the soles, insoles, counters, and heels all having been made ready, the pieces are taken to the lasting room.

The first process is called “assembling.” The operator takes up one of the uppers, inserts the last, sticks in a counter between the lining and the outside, puts in a “box” (a stout piece of canvas to give stability to the toe) at the toe, beneath the tip, puts in the insole, and then may pull the shoe tight on the last or give it to the operator on the pulling over machine to have it done. The pulling over machine is now used in nearly all factories, having displaced hand pulling the same as the lasting machines have displaced hand lasting. The assembling, pulling, and lasting on the machine are all parts of the regular operation of lasting. The hand laster had to do all three parts in former times, but now there are machines to do nearly everything, and at the present time the operation of lasting is divided into assembling, pulling over, and lasting on the machine. But even these machines do not do it all, as there is surplus upper to be cut away, toes to be pounded down, and filling to be put in the bottom, all of which are done on a McKay shoe before the sole can be laid. There are machines to do these parts, too.

A trimmer (this is done by hand) now takes the shoe, trims off all the surplus leather, tacks in the shank (a little piece of steel to give rigidity to the shank of the sole), fills all up smoothly and then passes it to the sole layer, who puts on the outer sole and tacks it in place.

The last is now pulled out of the shoe and it is ready for the McKay sewing machine.

This machine sews right through the inner and outer sole, and at the same time catches the edges of the upper leather and the lining in between the two and draws them all snugly and firmly together. The stitches are made right along in the channel of the outer sole, which is deep enough to admit the row of stitches without raising a ridge on the outside of the sole, after the channel is closed up and leveled. The channel is next filled with cement and passed on to the leveler, which turns down the loosened flap of leather, presses it all out smooth, and covers the seam up so completely that no trace of the sewing is to be seen. This little folded-over flap of leather serves the double purpose of hiding the stitches in the sole, and at the same time protecting them from wear against the ground.