OT: From cobbler to shoemaker

[fiamme red]

https://thetahoeweekly.com/2017/12/t...ler-shoemaker/

...Leffler was taking shoemaking classes and designing his own line at home after work when one day he called up master shoemaker John Allen Woodward of Boulder, Colo. “He gets up to $10,000 for a pair of cowboy boots so I thought this was a good place to start,” Leffler says.

Woodward ever so kindly gave him some sound advice.

“I told him I was searching for apprenticeships and I was willing to go anywhere to learn how to make shoes,” Leffler says. “He told me, ‘No shoemaker in their right mind has any time to train an apprentice. It takes five to 10 years of experience to become proficient. You’re going to learn more working for the biggest shoe repair operation you can find than you will apprenticing with an independent shoemaker like me.’ ”

So Leffler found the biggest shoe-repair operation west of the Mississippi at Dardano’s Shoes in Denver, Colo., hoping to learn all he could...

This reminded me of a post by Dave Kirk:

I get asked if I would like an apprentice all the time and while I like the idea I'm always forced to say 'no thank you'. I build about one frame a week not just because that is as quickly as I can reasonably build them but because demand isn't there for more. This means that during the average year I end up putting out about 40 frames/bikes after down time, holidays, trade shows....etc. This means that if someone were to watch and help me work on each and every bike that they would only touch 40 bikes a year. One can not learn to build top shelf product in a reasonable amount of time if they only work on one bike a week. Back when I learned to braze I was brazing anywhere from 5 to 10 frames a day. This is the only way to get good at something - do it over and over and over again in both the short and long term. It would take a helper of mine a year to braze what I did in six weeks or less and that being stretched out over a year means it is much less effective as a learning experience.