It takes years of experience and exemplary craftsmanship to create modern clogs; Exploring the process from raw material to their finishing in this PPT.

1. Wooden Clogs
How They Are Made?

2. Introduction
■ Wooden clogs are heavy work shoes
that were typically used by French
and Dutch serfs through the
beginning of the twentieth century.
■ Also known as sabots in French and
klompen in Dutch, these sturdy shoes
protected the feet of agricultural
workers from mud and injury.
■ French clogs are made of a
combination of wood and leather;
however the classic Dutch clog are
entirely wooden.

3. Raw Materials
■ Wooden clogs are usually made
from three kinds of wood knows as
European willow, Yellow poplar and
tulip poplar.
■ These woods are hard and water
resistant.
■ Wooden clogs for sale are
traditionally designed entirely by
hand by specialized artisans.

4. Shaping Process
■ The willow is felled and sawn into logs which is later fed into a saw that cuts them
into rough rectangular blocks called blanks.
■ Two blanks are placed into a machine called a shaper which shapes the outside of
the shoes.
■ Each shoe size has its own vinyl pattern and the machine operator locks the
appropriate pattern into the shaper.
■ When the operator carefully trace down the outline of the pattern with the tracer,
the cutting tools follow the motion of the tracer and carve out the outline of the
shoe.
■ The two blanks rotate in opposite directions, allowing a left and a right shoe to be
carved simultaneously.

5. Carving the Interior
■ The carved blanks are placed in
another machine called a dual action
borer which has a three pronged
cutting implement.
■ The center prong is a tracer and goes
inside another vinyl pattern shoe,
where the left and right prongs are set
to left and right shoe blanks.
■ The cutting ends are sharp edged
scoops attached to a long metal road,
held by the operator who pushes it
along the inside of the pattern shoe
and scoops out the wood blocks.

6. Refining and Drying
■ The shoes are placed in a machine called refiner which is entirely automatic.
■ Then two cutters follow a pointer on a vinyl pattern and scoop out the inside shoes,
leaves the interior of the shoes extremely smooth.
■ After this the shoes are left to air dry for four to six weeks in a low temperature
furnace which circulate warm dry air around them to draw moisture out of the
wood, helps the shoes harden.

7. Finishing
■ After six weeks the shoes are
completely dry.
■ At this point the clogs are
completely dry and ready for sale
■ If decorations are needed, the
shoes are painted or varnished
after sanding.

8. Thank You