Not bad for a first build

Apart from the typical use at work, on my knees half the day working on floors, occasionally I would find myself in the woods cutting firewood, or out in the wood shop, even yard work here and there. I'm not too hard on boots generally but these did just fine.

It's ok, it's not a particularly good leather at all, I chose this because I wasn't sure if I was even going to be able to pull this off, and didn't want to waste a good leather. It's around a 5oz, so not the most supportive, probably not going to be standing up to anything extreme. It's just a basic low level SB foot leather. I've grown to love these but this whole thing started off as an experiment.

Well I sent measurements to Lisa Sorrell back when she offered assistance with choosing the correct size lasts. She recommended 9B with a buildup in the ball to a C width. I already had a few pairs in this last in 9C and wanted to get the arch a little further forward, so I opted for a 9.5B with the buildup in the ball. It's ok but I think I have a uniquely steep arch directly behind the ball. I'm still dialing that in.

It's not great. I'm extremely happy with it given the fact that it's the first pair I ever built, but there is a lot of room for improvement. For the first few months it felt like they didn't really hug the area above my ankles enough, and would basically pull my socks down with each step. At some point that got a lot better but I'm going to have to work on the patterning in that area. The lace spacing also gets too close at the top which is probably another symptom of the same problem. I'll get there

I just wanted to try it once, I'm not sure I would do it again honestly. I found that at work I would have to change boots if I needed any grip at all. Though it certainly had more grip generally speaking than I had expected.

Not much to say really. They did their job, and held up well. Can't beat the price though, they were just made from the leftover parts of some v bar half soles I did on a previous resole.

My final thoughts are that this pair isn't perfect, and I'm a long way from that on my boot building journey. But it was a necessary first step, and the fact that I was even able to wear them for 5 months is a huge success in itself, so I couldn't be more happy with them!