We’re into the nitty gritty of things now. I have quite a few pictures to send you.

Now we start on the tops. This is the back side of the kangaroo tops.

The cutting patterns have been cemented to the tops.

Lee is cutting out the pieces of the design. He uses a sewing machine, and the needle has been

sharpened and has become knifelike.

Here’s another view of him cutting out the rose.

Now he carefully uses an awl and pulls the cut pieces out.

Here is the top partially done.

 Here you see all the pieces from the back panels have been removed, along with the paper. [JAC: remember that the cut out portions will eventually be filled with different colors of inlaid leather. There will be four of these panels, so it’s a lot of work.]

Here are the front panels with the design cut out.

Lee is pulling the paper pattern off the tops.

The paper pattern is off.

The cut out pieces will be put back in. That will make sense later. Lee has marked which is for the

front and back.

This is what the back side looks like.

When he cuts out the design, both tops are cemented together and done at the same time. Here Lee is

pulling the two top panels apart.

Then he uses his hand to rub off the rubber cement. It comes off easily.

Now, he hand skives [JAC: skiving is shaving the leather so it’s thinner, to keep the boot with inlays at a uniform thickness] the edges and the design on the tops. That needs to be thinned down because there will be other leathers added to the tops, and without skiving this be very bulky and hard to work with.

Another view of Lee skiving.

Then he takes a match and burns whatever frays are on the back side. One top finished skiving. Three more to go.

Here is part four of the sequence showing the making of my Last Pair of Cowboy Boots, constructed by the famous Lee Miller of Austin Texas. They’re a fancy custom pair, and today you’ll get an idea of the design. (See previous parts here: initial fitting and construction, parts 1, 2 and 3).

The notes below are by Carrlyn Miller, who runs the business end of the shop and also helps with design, ordering, and finishing the boot:

Here is the first version of the pattern that Lee drew up for your design.

Here you can see that Lee has removed the thread from the sewing machine, and is “sewing” on the paper pattern that he’s drawn. There will be holes then poked through the paper that corresponds to the design. You’ll see the purpose of that tomorrow.

Another view as he’s going around the pattern.

The yellow and green leather has been pulled for your roses.

The Pacific Blue Kangaroo leather for your tops.

Tops have been cut out!

As I noted in the last two boot posts, Lee Miller of Austin, Texas is making my last pair of boots: a spiffy custom pair that I designed myself (or rather, with the help of his wife Carrlyn). Those two posts (here and here) also showed the beginning of the process of making boots, which, as you’ll see as this series continues, is a complicated craft and art: a dying tradition in America. It’s far more involved than you or I could imagine.

Lee is widely considered the best bootmaker in America (and therefore the world), and I’m lucky to get this pair, which will be the last one I buy given that I have no more space to put boots! Any reader who likes cowboy boots should have a custom pair made at least once (they’re not cheap given the labor and materials involved); unfortunately, Lee is not taking new orders. But there are plenty of good bootmakers in the U.S., most of them in Texas.

The whole process began with a fitting in Austin last summer (see post here), a complicated process that ensures a good fit. That process resulted in the construction of a last: a model of my foot precisely shaped to the measurements, and around which the whole boot is constructed. It begins with a form that is built up or shaved down to conform to one’s measurements. The indented captions below are from Carrlyn:

Lee marks the pivot point on the last that corresponds with your measurements. [JAC: note the metal heel plate nailed onto the last. I’m not quite sure what the “pivot point” is; perhaps it’s the place where your foot bends when you walk.]

The last is then whittled down and built up till it precisely matches the measurements of the foot. Notice the complicated measurements of my foot, which involved me putting my feet on a big ink pad and standing on the paper. It also shows the pressure points. The square front shows the box toe I choose (another tradition, and one that involves a lot of work, as a leather “toe box” must be specially constructed).

One last is done; the second one is coming right along.

Both lasts are finished.

The insoles were wet and laid on the last. We wrap the lasts with an Ace bandage while they dry.

Insoles are the leather on which your foot rests when you put on the boot. They are stitched to both the foot part of the boot (the “vamp”) and the outer soles: the thick part on which you walk. Making an insole is itself a complex job. The video below shows how Lisa Sorrell, another fantastic bootmaker—and one of only a handful of women who make boots—does it. There’s a bit of comedy at the end.

Lee is beginning work on the paper patterns that will have your design. [JAC: I haven’t revealed the design yet, but it will probably become evident as these posts continue.]

He’s cutting them out according to your leg measurements.

Fronts and backs of top patterns cut out. Time to draw the design.

For more information about Miller, Carrlyn, and their Texas Traditions bootmaking operation, go here; at the bottom of that post you’ll see the wooden pegs used to fasten the outer sole to the bottom, as well as the large nail that’s hammered flat and put between the sole and insole for support (the “shank”; a tradition):

You can find a nice interview with Lee here, which explains the dedication that bootmakers have to perpetuating a dying tradition. Cowboy boots are one of the few pieces of distinctly American clothing, and it would be a shame if artisans like Lee Miller didn’t pass on their craft to others. Fortunately, he has young apprentices to teach, and was himself an apprentice to the great bootmaker Charlie Dunn.

An interesting snippet from the interview:

What is the most extravagant boot that a client has ever ordered?

It’s very hard to say what has been the most extravagant boot ever ordered, but the one I remember the most is when a customer wanted parts of a Picasso painting inlayed on his boots. What a treat and a challenge to do, and I discovered the greatness of Picasso when we made those.

The production of my last pair of cowboy boots was held up last week because Lee and Carrlyn Miller were hosting the Bootmakers’ Gathering in Saledo, Texas. You can see the beginning of my boots in a previous post, which also links to posts about my earlier visits to Lee Miller’s shop in Austin to see the operation and then to get measured and fitted.

As you’ll see over the next couple weeks, making a custom boot is a laborious and complicated operation that takes great skill and experience. In my opinion, think Lee is the best cowboy bootmaker in the U.S., which means in the world. First, let’s review the parts of a boot:

There are four pieces of leather that make up the visible part of the boot: the vamp, or footpiece, the counter, or heelpiece, and then two pieces of leather that constitute the shaft. The two halves of the shaft are joined and then covered with a “bead” (“side seam” or “piping”) in the photo above. There is also beading to cover the naked leather around the boot opening (“scallop” in the above, but mine won’t be scalloped.) Other leather is used to make the pull straps, which is the way you put the boots on, as well as the layers of the heel, and the nonvisible parts of the boot like the insole and lining.

The boot above has fancy inlay, and mine will too, though not inlay like the above. Right now I won’t reveal the design, but the boot is made of kangaroo: rich brown for the counters and vamp, and navy blue for the shafts. Carrlyn was kind enough to send some photos of what is happening; her notes are indented:

Here are your measurements and the last that Lee is working on for you. [JAC: the last is the three dimensional model made to my foot measurements; the boot will be constructed around it.]

Your pull straps have been cut out.

This is the front and back of your order ticket that will follow your boots as they are being made.

As you see from the design below, I’m having a 3/4″ box toe, which requires the complicated construction of a “toe box” to maintain that boxy shape.

Charlotte [an apprentice] is preparing to sew your pull straps together.

Charlotte is sewing your pull straps.

We use a silver marking pen to draw the design on the pull. We rub it off after the pulls have been stitched.

The chain stitch sewn on the pull straps.

We make our side and top bead. We use a metal strip as a template to cut out of the leather. [JAC: I didn’t know this, but the piping or beading is made of strips of leather that are rolled, apparently around a string.]

You can see the strip has been cut out. There will be a total of four side beads made.

We cut a string that is the same length as the leather.

The strips are laid out.

We then put cement on the wrong side of the leather strips.

And, we put cement on the strings too. Everything then is allowed to sit and dry.

I am promised more pictures as the boots continue to be made, and of course will post them here.

Don’t ask me how many pair of cowboy boots I have; let’s just say it’s in the same ballpark as the number of Ymelda Marcos’s shoes. But I’ve filled my closets and so am getting just one more: a custom pair made by Lee Miller in Austin, Texas.

I first visited Lee’s shop in March of 2010 on a trip to Austin, and posted about it here. A transplant from Vermont, Lee moved to Austin to apprentice with the late Charlie Dunn, perhaps the best bootmaker of his generation. And now Lee has become what I think is the best bootmaker of this generation. He’s made boots for any number of luminaries like Peter Fonda, Lauren Bacall, Darryl Hall, and Lyle Lovett.

When I visited his shop, it was purely to see the operation, for it’s well known that the demand for Lee’s work is so great that he is not taking new customers. But he and his wife Carrlyn (who runs the business and boot-design part of the shop) were so hospitable that when I returned to Chicago I sent them a copy of WEIT (with, of course, a boot drawn in it). Lee decided that anyone who could write such a book deserved boots, so I was allowed to get on the waiting list: three years long at that time. Elated, I put down a deposit and bided my time.

In late July of last year, after five years, I had reached the top of the waiting list and was passing through Austin, so it was time to get measured. Secular activist Matt Dillahunty (wearing his own boots) accompanied me to Lee’s shop, where we spent several hours getting my feet measured and, with the help of Carrlyn, picking out the design, which is quite a complicated process (you have to choose leather, color, scalloping, heel height, toe shape, and of course the design itself). You can see my post about that process here.

I love cowboy boots because they look good, they’re comfortable (far more so than you’d imagine), they’re a truly artisanal product, made entirely by hand with only leather, glue, stitching, a steel shank, and wooden pegs for the soles, and they’re a uniquely American article of clothing. Also, as Steve Pinker (another boot maven) once quipped, “It’s the only way a man can wear high heels.”

I was informed this week that the shop has finally started making my boots, and I asked for pictures of each stage. If you’re interested, have a gander. Mine will be made of kangaroo: a very tough leather that, unlike calfskin, doesn’t crack over time.  The boots are in their first stages of production, with the initial cutting and shaping of leather done by Charlotte, who I assume is an apprentice. (Lee usually is training one or two people to carry this unique tradition to the next generation.)

Here are the photos Carrlyn sent me, along with her descriptions. There will be more to come. I think my boot design is nice, but I’ll leave that to the end:

Here is Charlotte with a vamp pattern cutting out your feet.

Here the linings for your vamps have been cut out, crimped and are drying on the crimp boards. [Vamps are the footpieces that cover the entire front of your foot. The crimp boards are made from the measurements of my feet taken last summer.]

Here is Charlotte crimping the kangaroo vamps. They are wet and stretched on the crimping boards.

The pair of vamps crimped and drying.

Counter covers cut out. [Counters are the heel pieces, made from a separate piece of leather, as are the boot shafts.]

The title of this post is, of course, also the title of Steve Pinker’s new book on writing, but here I construe “style” as “sartorial style”.

Pinker (who’s always impeccably attired) has just finished lecturing on his book at the University of Manchester, and I begged Matthew Cobb, who attended the talk, to determine whether Steve was wearing cowboy boots. It was, said Matthew, hard to discern, as he talked from behind a lecturn, and his nether half wasn’t visible. But then after the talk there was a discussion with participants sitting at a table.

And so, after much importuning on my part, Matthew sent me this picture with the title, “You’re right!” Voilà: Pinka’s legs and feet (right):

Unless I miss my guess, those are Lucchese black caiman boots (see this post). They’re nice, but I keep telling Steve that caiman is a delicate hide, easy to tear, and he should go for either alligator or Nile crocodile.

Cowboy boots: The Official Footwear of Atheism™.