Me and Mr X did many great things tonight, and l learnt many things that would blow any shooman's mind (many hours of writing ahead of me...answers to questions that shoo-gents have always asked but never recieved answers to, this is gonna be great, l hope l can write well enough to do the threads justice).

But for now...just a quick and simple post.

l thought l would test out Mr X and see just how good this guy really is. Well...Mr X passed his tests with flying freakin' colours. This guy knows his shit. First of all l showed him the heel of my Vass shoo, which contained both worldclass `rendenbach' and common aussie leather from a tannery in South Australia. To me the two different leathers look similar quality, but l thought I’d see if Mr X could tell the difference. Straight away he pointed out that the white leather (rendenbach) was superior, but the aussie leather was good too. It just goes to show, not only did he know the rendenbach was superior, but the rendenbach is not as `bees knees’ as everyone says it is, there is obviously other really good leather out there.

But much more interesting was the next thing we did. We tested the leather uppers of my Materna bespoke v’s my Vass rtw. Mr X could tell straight away that the Vass used superior leather, and to prove it he placed both shoos under a microscope and let me see the difference in leather. WOW. The Materna had an older rougher grain with much courser hairs still in the leather, while the Vass has a finer higher quality grain with much more suptle hairs left in the grain. It was amazing to see. Thing is…this guy is so hoaned that he could tell these things easily from his naked eye (he can see hairs still left on the leather and all {they are common}, but l can’t see the hairs with a naked eye no matter how hard l look….he has good eyes). Sure it’s easy to tell the quality difference between E.G or C&J leather to Vass boxcalf leather, but it’s not as easy to tell the difference between of quality between Materna and Vass boxcalf leather, but Mr X could. You would be surprised just how common left over hairs are on world class calf leathers.

Anyway, some really good stuff another day, and more stuff about Mr X. He is an incredible man that Mr X. l brought over a suitcase of shoos tonight and we discussed shoos all night. There will be many nights of shoo discussions to come. He and l thoroughtly enjoyed ourselves and agreed that both our shoo minds haven't been so stimulated in a very long time. We talked about lasts, pattern making, orthotics, leather quality, antiquing, norvegese construction and the Johnston & Murphy Handmades (very soon l will set the facts straight about J&M shoo construction). Finally....all the shoo constructions make complete sense, and l know how they are all done. The special `norvegese' and `bentivegna' techniques that l have wracked my brain over trying to figure out have finally been solved, yes, a waxed linen thread can pass 300 degrees through the side of an insole (i'm guessing the degrees angle...was never good at maths). Look mum, NO FEATHER! Wooo hooo. 

Last edited by The_Shooman (2011-02-24 09:23:35)