The London Lounge

Some of my handmade RTW shoes have dimples along the insole, while other handmades don't have this. What does that mean in terms of shoe construction?

Thanks.

Insole dimples are caused by carving the feather/holdfast out of the insole, as is typically done with hand-welted shoes. A lack of dimples implies that the feather is either linen strip glued to the insole or that the feather was raised from the insole using the cut-and-turn method.

Thanks jcusey, that clears it up. l thought it was something to do with the feather.

l notice that the Mantellassi Norvogese shoes don't have the dimples on the insole, whereas some of the Santoni FAM (tan interior) do, but not all.

Any other RTW shoes have dimples on the insole?

jcusey wrote:Insole dimples are caused by carving the feather/holdfast out of the insole, as is typically done with hand-welted shoes. A lack of dimples implies that the feather is either linen strip glued to the insole or that the feather was raised from the insole using the cut-and-turn method.

I think it the dimples are not so much caused by the feather-carving itself of the insole. They are traces left by the steel curved pin used to pinch the sewing holes through the feather (don't know the English word for this as non-native speaker)

would one of you gentlemen please show a picture of what you are talking about? I can't for the life of me imagine this...would greatly appreciate.

Yes, you are correct. My verbiage was sloppy. It's not the act of carving that causes the dimples. It is the fact that the carving leaves certain areas of the insole thinner than others, combined with the welting process, that causes the dimples.

Solitarias wrote:

jcusey wrote:Insole dimples are caused by carving the feather/holdfast out of the insole, as is typically done with hand-welted shoes. A lack of dimples implies that the feather is either linen strip glued to the insole or that the feather was raised from the insole using the cut-and-turn method.

I think it the dimples are not so much caused by the feather-carving itself of the insole. They are traces left by the steel curved pin used to pinch the sewing holes through the feather (don't know the English word for this as non-native speaker)

My Mantellassi Norwegians do have the dimples. Vass shoes have a full-length sock liner, so you can't see the dimples even though they are there. They will be present to a greater or lesser extent on any hand-welted shoes made with the carved feather method. Consequently, I would expect to see them on a lot of the upper-end Italian RTW like Lattanzi and Scafora and on the hand-welted Dimitri Gomez RTW.

Santoni Man wrote:Thanks jcusey, that clears it up. l thought it was something to do with the feather.

l notice that the Mantellassi Norvogese shoes don't have the dimples on the insole, whereas some of the Santoni FAM (tan interior) do, but not all.

Any other RTW shoes have dimples on the insole?

Here is a photo of what cause the dimples, the awl and the inseaming thread. Leather are carved away on the flesh side of the insole for making the feather and that increase the dimples. Sometimes, depending of the quallity of the leather and/or how deep the holdfast is pre punched the dimples gett to high so they need to be smoothed out with a stick.
Hope this helps

Handmade RTW shoes also have lots of tack marks on the insole too. What does this mean?.......handlasting?

l'll try and photograph my dimples tommorrow.


Late edit: