The machinery ordinarily used consists of the Goodyear stitcher, used for attaching soles to Goodyear welts by the lock-stitch method, just as in shoe factories making Goodyear welt shoes. Then there is a heel trimmer, a bottom finisher, consisting of a rapidly revolving roll covered with coarse and fine sandpaper, and an opera heel builder for forming concave heels. There are two wheels used for tan and white heel work, one heel being covered with a white cloth, and the other with a coarse brush. Adjoining these are usually the shank and heel finisher,—capable of smoothing and highly polishing a shank or heel in about a dozen seconds,—the bottom finisher, that grinds and smooths down the new sole, and a machine used for rubbing off dirt before the shoe is finished, consisting of a heavy horsehair brush. Another useful part of the equipment is an edge setter, which is also identical with the one used in factories. The shoe stitching machines and the parts used in finishing are all operated on one long shaft, rapidly revolved by the aid of a motor. It is a fact that a shoe may be actually soled and heeled in less than six minutes.
Five or six men are usually employed in the repair department of a large establishment. When the customer’s shoes are brought in, one of these men cuts off the old sole and traces an outline of the new sole on a block of the very best oak leather. After these are cut out by hand in rough form, they are soaked in water and channeled; that is to say, a part of the sole is turned up in which the stitches are to be run. A second man, by the use of the Goodyear stitcher, joins the sole and welt together with a very strong and tightly drawn lock stitch. This is a large machine with a curved, barbed needle and awl, and a shuttle which sews through an inch of leather with the greatest ease and speed. There are from one hundred and fifty to two hundred stitches in each shoe; moreover, every one of them is locked with heavy wax thread, so that there is no chance of their ever giving away. If one stitch should break, the other stitches would remain intact, as they are all independent of each other. Both soles are stitched on in a little over half a minute without breaking a thread or stopping the machine.
A coating of rubber cement is now placed in the edges of the outsole, and the lip of the channel is smoothed down so that the stitches are entirely hidden when looking at the bottom of the shoe. The edge trimming is done next with the aid of a rapidly revolving wheel, which trims the edges square and true in about forty seconds. After this, the shank is finished on a rapidly revolving wheel covered with emery cloth.
Bottom finishing is the next step. This is done on a machine having two long cylinders, one covered with fine and the other with coarse sandpaper. These cylinders revolve rapidly, and the operator uses the coarse sandpaper for scouring the dirt and old finish off the leather, and the fine sandpaper for finishing the sole as smooth as that of any new shoe.
The brushing in or smoothing is next done by the horsehair brush we have mentioned before. A preparation called Lewis’s rival bottom polish—a sort of white wax—is placed on the brush machine. The brush now smooths the surface of the sole, filling in all small holes with wax and leaving the sole absolutely perfect. Finally, the shoe is placed against a rapidly revolving brush which finishes the uppers with a luster that would make any ordinary boot-black green with envy. Another operation that fully completes the process is the hardening of the edges with hot steel, which ends in producing an edge that is as hard as iron. When it is polished with a black dye, it looks exactly like a new sole.
A few words are necessary with regard to the heel. The old heel having been removed, several lifts of new leather in rough form are tacked on. The shoe is then taken to the heel trimmer and is formed correctly and then smoothed down to a brilliant surface on the finely covered revolving wheel. In a few seconds it is stained, smoothed, and polished. In less than six minutes the shoe is ready for the customer.