I remember myself in the begging of my journey into amazing craft of shoemaking. I didn’t know anything about it when I took a short shoe  course in the art academy where I learnt as an accessory designer. During this course I realized that it’s not enough information about shoemaking and I need to know much more, if i want to be a professional shoemaker.
After that I found an excellent school in Italy and started my carrier as a shoemaker. But in this short footwear course in the academy I realized that one of the important things in shoemaking, is a shoe last. 
Shoe last will determine the shape of your shoes, the comfort, everything is build in shoemaking around shoe last. It is not enough to know the size of the lasts that you need to make shoes for yourself,there are many other important parameters that you, as a beginner in shoe making, must know.

I wrote few posts about lasts here, and you my dear subscribers received many emails on the subject, but I never talked with you in details about components, shoe lasts types, construction and many other important parameters of shoe last. Now I am going to fix it.

I will wright a series of posts that will introduce you to the entire world of shoe lasts and will help you in your beginning as a shoemaker. You will understand why shoe lasts have certain details and how they will help you in your shoemaking cruft to become experienced shoemaker.
In this first part I will explain you everything about shoe last components, so you will know each of them and why we need them.

Shoe lasts components

 1. Last ferrule
No matter what last is made of( wood or plastic), what type of last, men’s last or women’s last, on the top of the last in the heel part there is the last thimble.

It is the metal coated hole made inside the plastic (of the last) to put the last peg in and last your shoes (men’s lasts have bigger last ferrule than women’s lasts).  Also thanks to this component you will take your lasted shoes off the last. 
In my Flat Ballet Shoes Course I  show how to make home made device to take your shoes off the lasts.

Now some lasts have ferrule that passes through the entire last and have the hole in the bottom of the last. It serves to place screws through the top part of the last ferrule to attach heels while the shoes are still on the last. This operation possible only with the use of special equipment that each shoe factory has.2. There is also the link hinge, but we will talk about it in the next post.

3.Steel plate

Most of the lasts have steel plates on the bottom of the last. This steel plate may cover the entire bottom, the half of the last bottom or only the heel part. In each steel plate in the middle of the heel area there is a hole thatis used to attach the insoles with nails to the last’s bottom during lasting.