Thread: Help Identify Antique Tool Please

Looks a bit like a foot measuring rule.

I can remember something like this being used in shoe shops, especially boot maker shops.

You place your foot in with your heel up against the unmarked end, then the other end is slid until it touches your longest toe.

The scale shows shoe sizes in full and half sizes.

In the sixties a metal (aluminium maybe) version became popular as it also measured the width of your foot. My shoe size is 8½ 7E. The 7E means my foot requires a very wide shoe last. A normal wide shoe last is 2E or 3E.

Mick.

You could be right - although there were no boot makers etc in the family line, so if that's what it is, it's mystery as to where it came from. I just tried my foot for size, but it's not big enough to measure my size 13 plates of meat - I guess they bred them smaller back then...

Thanks,

RoyG

I remember similar things in shoe shops as a kid getting fitted for the new term school shoes. Was a sign the holidays were almost over.

Regards
John

From the 1909 Preston catalogue re-print.
They are in many of the tool catalogues from the same era, including Mathieson.
Regards,
Peter

George Barnsley and Smallwood Shoesticks

Originally Posted by AussieRoy

You could be right - although there were no boot makers etc in the family line, so if that's what it is, it's mystery as to where it came from. I just tried my foot for size, but it's not big enough to measure my size 13 plates of meat - I guess they bred them smaller back then...

Thanks,

RoyG

I've got a few of thest I've picked up over the years - English, American and Boston measure and I am very surprised that your 13's don't fit in.

I sell boots so it is just something that I like to bring out as a talking point and as a way of visualising to customers the difference American and Aust/UK sizing

Neil