WOOD-USING INDUSTRIES OF MAINE. 1 29 



Nearly half of the timber required in the manufacture of 

 these products came from other States. 



Boot and Shoe Findings. 



The importance of the boot and shoe finding industry is in- 

 dicated by the fact that more wood is worked up annually into 

 lasts, shoe pegs, and shanks, than is used by the ship yards, 

 and boat and canoe builders of the State. The products made 

 by this class of manufacturers are lasts, fillers, shoe shanks, 

 pegs, or peg wood and wooden heels. More sugar maple goes 

 into the manufacture of such products than any other wood. 

 Practically all of it is made into last blocks, a small amount 

 going into wooden heels. Besides the large amount of sugar 

 maple going into lasts, a part of the yellow birch and most of the 

 basswood and the beech were used for the same purpose. 



The manufacture of last blocks is not a complicated process. 

 The logs are cut into bolts, usually 12 1-2 inches long. These 

 bolts are split by a machine and the blanks trimmed down by 

 hand to a size which the lathes will take, and the last is then 

 rough turned. 



The paper birch shown in the table was made into such 

 products as shoe shanks and peg wood and a part of the yellow 

 birch was used for the same articles. The yellow birch so used 

 was second growth timber, which is usually known in Maine 

 as silver birch. In the manufacture of shoe shanks, the logs 

 are cut into 22 and 24 inch bolts, which are rossed and one end 

 bored to fit into the rathes. On the lathe a special knife cuts a 

 shaped veneer of the width and thickness of one size of shank. 

 The veneer comes off in long ribbons, which are kept together 

 in rolls. The rolls are put on machines which cut out the separ- 

 ate shanks, each machine making only one size and pattern at a 

 time. The trimmings are sorted out and the shanks pass slowly 

 through a large steam-heated drier and are bagged as they come 

 out. There are several hundred sizes anrl styles of wooden 

 shanks. They are also made of metal, leather board, and vari- 

 ous compositions. 



Shoe pegs are made by two processes. The usual way is to 

 work the bolt into small blocks which are split up into pegs. 

 By the other method, bolts prepared as for the manufacture of 



