Improvements in Finishing Heels and other Parts of Boots and Shoes.
Year: 1892

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Finishing Heels and other Parts of Boots and
Shoes.
I, WINSLOW FINNEY SAMPSON, of 368 Central Street, Saugus, Essex County,
Massachusetts, United States of America, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature
of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
This invention has for its object to enable heels, sole edges and other parts of
boots and shoes, to be provided with a brilliant and durable wax finish at less expense
for time and labor than by the methods now in use, and it consists as a whole in an
improved method involving the following steps, viz.: first, scouring the heel or other
parts to be burnished, secondly, inking or colouring the scoured surface, and lastly
presenting the inked surface to a rapidly moving abrasive surface coated with wax,
the said abrasive surface having a comparatively fine texture like that of the emery
cloth of commerce, and being adapted to create sufficient friction when pressed
against a heel to melt the wax coating and thus gain access through said coating to
the surface of the heel and exert a smoothing effect thereon, and at the same time
force the wax into the fibres of the leather and leave it smoothly spread thereon,
the result being the formation of a brilliant smooth waxed surface.
The accompanying drawing represents a perspective view of a wheel having a
waxed emery cloth surface and a boot, the heel of which is presented to said
surface.
In the drawing:
a represents a wheel which is adapted to be rapidly rotated by any suitable means
and covered with a strip or band b of cloth or other flexible material to which is
secured a coating of powdered emery said strip or band constituting the well known
emery cloth of commerce, such as is used for forming smooth surfaces on heels and
other parts of boots and shoes. I desire to here remark however that I am not
limited in the practise of my improvement hereinafter described to the use of the
material known as emery cloth, as any abrasive surface having a comparatively
fine texture resembling that of emery cloth and adapted to reduce a comparatively
rough leather surface to a smooth condition, such as is produced by the action of
emery cloth will come within the scope of my invention.
The band is preferably backed or directly supported by a cushion 2 of felt or
other suitable yielding material attached to the periphery of the rigid body 3 of the
wheel.
The wheel above described does not differ essentially from buffing or scouring
wheels now in common use for performing the second step of the operation of
scouring heels preparatory to blacking and burnishing the same, it being the usual
custom to first roughly scour the heel with No. 1 sand paper on a revolving
Scouring surface by the use of a wheel of substantially the construction here shown
and described.
In carrying out my invention I coat the abrasive surface of a wheel a of the
construction above described with a suitable wax of any of the kinds commonly used
in wax finishing heels, the wax coating being preferably applied by holding a
stick w of wax in contact with the emery cloth while the wheel is rotating, until the
surface of the emery cloth is filled with the wax, the abrasive material being
covered thereby.
I then take a heel or other part of a boot or shoe, and after rough scouring it in
the usual way I black the rough scoured surface using by preference ordinary
burnishing ink.
After the ink has suitably dried I present the rough scoured and colored surface

page_text: to the waxed surface of the wheel a, and press it lightly against said waxed surface,
the result of this I believe to be the developement of a sufficient degree of friction
by the pressure against the abrading surface, to melt the wax coating and thus
enable the abrading surface to act on the rough scoured surface of the heel, and
give it the desired smoothness and at the same time force the wax into the fibres
and form a firm solid, durable, and brilliant waxed surface.
I am aware that a method of finishing heels etc., is now being practised which
involves rough scouring the heel, then smooth scouring by a wheel substantially
like the wheel a, and subsequently dyeing and waxing, the waxed heel being polished
and burnished by a yielding non-abrasive surface of cloth which is not coated with
abrasive material.
My improved method has several advantages over that last described, the chief
of which is the saving of time and labor which I effect by waxing and smooth
scouring at one and the same operation, the emery cloth surfaced wheel being
utilized both to smoothen and burnish the heel, while heretofore it has always been
considered necessary to smoothen the heel by the emery cloth wheel before the
coloring and waxing operation. The chief novelty of my invention therefore
resides in the simultaneous smooth scouring and waxing of the heel or other part
that has been previously only rough scoured and inked or colored, thus avoiding one
.operation or handling.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim is
1. The improvement hereinbefore described in the art of burnishing boot and
shoe heel and sole edges and other parts of boots and shoes, the same consisting in
presenting the surface to be burnished to a rapidly moving, wax-coated, abrasive
surface of fine texture, such as emery cloth, said abrasive surface creating friction
which melts the wax coating and permits the abrasive surface to exert a smoothing
action on the leather and at the same time force the wax into the fibres thereof, as
set forth.
2. That improvement in the art of finishing and burnishing heels and other parts
of boots and shoes, which consists in first roughly scouring the part to be
burnished, then inking or coloring said scoured surface, and finally presenting the
inked scoured surface to a rapidly moving, wax coated, abrasive surface of fine
texture, such as emery cloth, as set forth.
D
T
1000
HERBERT & Co.,
18, Buckingham Street, Strand, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.