Boot Treads
Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2021 11:19 pm
Greetings all!
I am undertaking the daunting challenge of making leather boots from scratch (by far the most complicated leather project I've yet to attempt) but I'm a bit conflicted on what to do about the soles. From Lindybeige to personal accounts I have heard nothing but tales about how slippery historical leather boots/shoes are. I do not want to do tacks as you'd find on caligae for I have heard they're pretty uncomfortable and I'd like to be able to wear my boots to indoor events. That being said I also do not want to slap on a rubber sole, while I am not trying to be 100% historical with my methods or materials (ex. I have no prob slipping in some modern adhesive into places that will go unseen), I certainly try to avoid modern materials when it compromises the visual aesthetic.
My plan is to attempt to make something halfway in between the two, that is, use leather to make a somewhat modern (but mostly hidden) tread pattern on my boot. My question for you all is if anyone has had experience in making "historical treads" or simply if they had an opinion on what pattern/method they think would be most effective. I quickly drew up two ideas, though I am going to continue looking at hiking boot treads and see what I can reasonably translate to leather.
My current idea is to glue an extra layer of leather onto the sole and texturing it to hopefully provide a little more traction than you'd normally get with just plain flat leather. Certain designs lend themselves to getting damaged more easily than others, though I am fine with doing maintenance every now and then. The image isn't to scale/proportionate, and the tan parts are the additions/tread leather, the white is the original sole.
Any thoughts on the matter are appreciated.
I am undertaking the daunting challenge of making leather boots from scratch (by far the most complicated leather project I've yet to attempt) but I'm a bit conflicted on what to do about the soles. From Lindybeige to personal accounts I have heard nothing but tales about how slippery historical leather boots/shoes are. I do not want to do tacks as you'd find on caligae for I have heard they're pretty uncomfortable and I'd like to be able to wear my boots to indoor events. That being said I also do not want to slap on a rubber sole, while I am not trying to be 100% historical with my methods or materials (ex. I have no prob slipping in some modern adhesive into places that will go unseen), I certainly try to avoid modern materials when it compromises the visual aesthetic.
My plan is to attempt to make something halfway in between the two, that is, use leather to make a somewhat modern (but mostly hidden) tread pattern on my boot. My question for you all is if anyone has had experience in making "historical treads" or simply if they had an opinion on what pattern/method they think would be most effective. I quickly drew up two ideas, though I am going to continue looking at hiking boot treads and see what I can reasonably translate to leather.
My current idea is to glue an extra layer of leather onto the sole and texturing it to hopefully provide a little more traction than you'd normally get with just plain flat leather. Certain designs lend themselves to getting damaged more easily than others, though I am fine with doing maintenance every now and then. The image isn't to scale/proportionate, and the tan parts are the additions/tread leather, the white is the original sole.
Any thoughts on the matter are appreciated.