[.ca] Handmade Shoes for Men (ISBN 3895089281)

superb features on the world's most famous workshops:
This book is about bespoke handmade shoes for men - but not about any of the major ready-made brands. The book presents a great introduction to the more than 200 steps from measuring your feet to the finished shoe. Chapters include taking size, making lasts, the different shoe styles, the different parts of the shoes and how to care for your custom-made shoes. The book also includes superb features on the world's most famous workshops including Lobb, Berluti and Vogel. The author Laszlo Vass is the owner of the well-known Vass shoe workshop in the center of Budapest, Hungary. If you are a shoe connaisseur or affictionado and also think that "elegance begins with shoes" then this book is the right choice for you.

Finally, a decent book on shoemaking:
Information on shoemaking is getting difficult to find. I bought this book hoping I could learn how nice shoes are made. I was very pleased with what I learned from this book. One step further into the details, however, would have made this book the last word on the subject. If you have a little imagination, however, it is not too hard to fill in the details. Actually, since the author is a very respected Hungarian shoemaker, I can imagine it being a difficult decision on where to draw the line between "details" and "wordiness." Do you have to talk about glue viscosity (he does) or glue recipes (he doesn't, "shop secrets"). Plenty of information is included and hundreds of excellent photos make it easy to imagine yourself right alongside a master craftsman. Topics include: * taking measurements * anatomy * shoe sizes * history and making of lasts * characteristics of different styles of men's dress shoes * design of the pattern (the gist of it, anyway) * leather tanning processes * characteristics of different leathers * clicking, brogueing, stitching and reinforcing of uppers * lasting the shoe (stretching the upper around the last) * lots of detail on tacking and stitching during the lasting process * welting * soling (including the shank and cork filler) * building the heel * ornamentation and finishing * proper shoe care * short bios on the greatest workshops in Europe and America Needless to say, I learned alot. I had no idea top-end shoes use wooden pegs to hold the heels on or that broken glass and bones are common tools in the trade. This is a very nice addition to my library.

Fantastic Book !:
If you want to know how to make shoes or just want to know how shoes are made this is the best book that you can buy. Every page has beautiful closeup color photographs. Just by looking at the photographs alone shows you how it is done and there are many, many, photographs showing you every stage in the process of hand making a pair of men's shoes.