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It is a skilled trade because it is the clicker's responsibility to maximise the number of uppers which can be cut from skins of leather, avoiding any thin and damaged areas, and incorporating the (unseen) 'lines' of stretch and resistance which naturally occur in leather according to the style and
213:. To use a rap stick, a right-handed operator would hold it in the left hand, resting the stick on the workbench for support, stroking the blade rapidly but gently back and forth on the abrasive surface to maintain a sharp edge whilst hand-cutting, in a similar fashion to a butcher's knife and
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Hand-clicking skills are still needed in low-volume production of bespoke, hand-made shoes or as sales-samples for factory production, although these would not warrant the expense of brass-binding used to protect the edges of the pattern from being pared away.
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The job was historically named prior to mechanisation, due to the sound of the operator's hand-knife blade rattling against the brass edge-binding (including the joints in the binding) used to protect the board patterns which were overlaid on to the skin.
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Placing sharpened-edge steel patterns on to sheepskin, the hydraulic machine has a swivelling cutting head with two vertical handles, each having an embedded button for thumb operation, a safety device to prevent accidental actuation of the vertical
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by manufacturer showing direction where shoe insole patterns should be placed. The board is formulated to have different properties along its length compared to across, to allow for shoe-flex and manufacturing
217:. The knife blade shown is a lighter medical item but approximates the shape of a clicker's knife blade, fitting into a comfortable wooden handle with screw-activated jaws. The main surface is
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or piece of man-made material (usually from a bulk roll). This includes all components of the upper, including linings, facings, stiffeners, reinforcements for eyelets and zip-protectors.
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In larger factories there would be many hand-clickers in close proximity to one another, hence there would be many clicks per second, so the informal description became known as
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wrapped over the edge to form a round section where the curved blade can nestle and be sharpened; the top edge is sharper and square in cross-section, with a fine-grain
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Positioning the press-knife/pattern on leather placed on the nylon cutting-board of an hydraulic press prior to swivelling the press-head and cutting via a downstroke
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the respective parts of the shoe uppers which are cut as a pair, not only matching the colour variations but also considering the surface finish and grain texture.
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were first introduced, and together with fabrics these also had lines of stretch and tension, being based on a traditional woven base having threads of
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Vintage Texon 480 insole board offcut showing direction of cut-outs where shoe insole patterns have been placed
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The late Baden Wilson demonstrating hand-clicking, using a hand-knife around a board 3/4 vamp pattern
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Similar processes are used in preparing materials for the sole and heel of shoes, known as
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The clicker's knife regularly needed sharpening, which was done with an implement called a
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Hand-forming a press-knife, using pre-sharpened strip steel from a bulk coil
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construction of the particular shoe. Another major criterion is the need to
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used for tip-sharpening. On the reverse side is a heavy-leather smooth
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A vintage Rap Stick from 1940s used for sharpening a clicker's knife
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Close-up of Texon 480 insole board with direction of cut marked as
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Following the introduction of electrical/mechanised
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330:Rushden Research Group. Retrieved 2014-09-24
318:Rushden Research Group Retrieved 2014-09-24
106:Learn how and when to remove this message
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44:adding citations to reliable sources
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361:Clicking knife handle and blades
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328:Overview of Bottom Stock
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55:"Boot and shoe clicker"
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316:Overview of clicking
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376:Shoemaking
292:References
66:newspapers
286:processes
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176:pormerics
370:Category
283:Cut Thus
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