Chucks early irish shoes

[Martin Moser]

thought i would try my hand at making a pair of early shoes. whatya think? any pointers? i need to rub in some needsfoot oil to water tighten these. now the discription i have says early irish shoes, but i've heard that 1 piece shoes range a good bit on the continent as well. any clarification on this?

You probably know this already, but that pattern is basically a simplificaion of what is generally termed carbatina for Roman finds, which show more cutouts and thus fit the foot with less folds and look more "fashionable" therefore. Lots of specimens exist especially for the 2nd and 3rd century AD. Typically those shoes did not have an extra outer sole nor were they nailed. At best you find patches sewn on the sole were the leather was worn through, but many it seems were just simply thrown away and replaced by new ones rather than repaired when the holes became substantial.

Hope that helps.