I have had this yen to make some shoes.
It all happened after I went shoe shopping in my lunch break last week. Got some shoes that would not wear away the heels of my beautiful handknit sox I have made out of inappropriate yarns. very comfy Alegrias, from PG Lite. But boring! There where some outragious Rocket Dog clogs, with crochet uppers and wooden soles, but they didn't fit me, as I have rather wide feet. I came home with my boring comfy clogs and thought "I must be able to make these myself". Unfortunatly the Interwob had other plans. I could not find any decent info out there on clog making. Lots of demo videos on youtube, but nothing concise. Unless I wanted to either take a week course in London for £££££ or an undergrad course at Demontfort Uni. No thanks!!
So last week me and the Girl started on a pair, and here is the first episode in our journey.
First, we found our wood. Oh, how convenient! the trees we got off the building site behind our house are sycamore, a good wood for clog making, as it splits less as it dries out. Alder could have been a good choice too.
Next, I sawed a longer-than-foot-sized piece off it. It had been there a while, and I figured the end might be a bit less nice. I was right! I like to use my legs to brace wood when I am rough sawing, and this time I just used the woodworking(is it a crosscut?) saw in the cupboard. I was impressed at the way it handled the green wood. I would have gone for a Bow saw, if we had one. Then for splitting. taking the saw again, I made a cut across the top of the log, following the largest radial split. That was to try and eliminate my work splitting further down the line.
When the cut was deep enough to hold it in place, I took the splitting axe and centered it in that cut.
The next bit could have been easier with another pair of hands(by this time the Girl had started her own project).
balancing a piece of wood on the back of the axe, I took a lump hammer and had a smack at it. repeat as necessary.
When the axe "bit", I did away with the wood and hammer. turned the whole affair upside down and dropped it on said wood several times, using the weight of the log to drive the axe in, and split it!!
The split was quite clean, with only minimal twist. Dunno if that is to do with the wood. Who cares, I'm happy!
So, figured our how wide I wanted it by putting the "master" clog on end of the wood and snapped a line across the ball. Took an axe and trimmed the edges of the half-log down to size.
Above you can see the two different axes I was using. On the left was the splitting axe, which has a wedge-shaped profile, therefore driving the wood apart. The one on the right has a Kent axe head, and that has a thinner blade, so more useful for trimming and shaping the wood.
To be continued....
£3.00
When the cut was deep enough to hold it in place, I took the splitting axe and centered it in that cut.
The split was quite clean, with only minimal twist. Dunno if that is to do with the wood. Who cares, I'm happy!
So, figured our how wide I wanted it by putting the "master" clog on end of the wood and snapped a line across the ball. Took an axe and trimmed the edges of the half-log down to size. 
