many designs and styles over the years.
No small task to become familiar with
designs spanning the last a few hundred
years of European and American (shoe)
history.
As Jeff fusses over stubborn seams
and waffles between design changes
from test shoe to final shoe, he’s
keeping something alive as much as
making something. This is a discipline
few can do and even fewer can do
well. The price of his shoes shows the
balance of his life. Ten years improving
at something which costs little in
its part, but a good sum in its whole.
There in office 207 near the end of the
second floor hall at the top of the south
stairwell, air filled with the scents of
Italian leathers hums with classical
music punctuated by the telltale horns
of trains bustling in the station. In that
sunny room, every stitch of the needle
and swing of the hammer closes the
gap between him and the images on the
pages of that German book which still
sits on an antique trunk in his shop.
top far left: dye is applied to
the sole of the shoe in a streaky
manner. Jeff, just as he has
so far, puts a bit of his own
design choices for the shoes
unbeknownst to his customer. He
debated dying the sole, but went
ahead and it turned out to be the
right choice.
bottom far left: Jeff abhors
and avoids industrial, manmade
solvents as much as he can. The
Obenauf’s leather protectant
he uses is almost edible, but not
quite. Leather is skin, and even
when tanned, it is still porous
and absorbent, just like our skin.
The dye is sucked right in, and the
leather protectant is similar to
lotioning your own skin. It Keeps
the leather soft, protected, and
avoids cracking and premature
aging as well as adding a natural
luster to the material.
left: The edging tool is used in an
old fashioned manner of sealing
the leathering. After it has been
sanded finely, then sealed with
some leather protectant, the
tool is heated and applied to the
leather. The heat is yet another
manner of finishing and sealing
the open grain of the leather.
Since leather is skin, Jeff must
be careful not to overheat the
steel tool…leather burns just
like skin and burns in leather
never heal.
25