Wood Sandals

When I saw the foot contest I thought to myself, I wonder if I could make a pair of shoes from wood. Turns out I can.
For some reason wood is my material of choice when it comes to my projects. I love the way that you can shape and mold it, the way it feels after a round of sanding, the smells and challenge that come along with it. I really love to make things out of wood that should not be made out of wood, and that's where these shoes come in.
In my opinion, shoes should not be made from wood. It is not a very comfortable thing to where on your feet. So that was the challenge, make wood shoes that look nice and are comfy to wear. Now that this project is complete I can tell you that although I wouldn't go hiking or run long distances in these shoes, they are pretty comfy to walk in. I still have some adjustments to make but they work very well.
So I hope you enjoy and thanks for looking!

Wood- I used a thick pallet board and some walnut I had laying around

Clothes line

An old floor mat

Planer

Sander

Clamps

Drill

Band saw

Wood glue

I found this really great pallet that I had to use for something cool. It was a white oak pallet with super think boards... For pallets at least.
When I thought of making a pair of sandals I went right to that pallet. At first I was just going to use the pallet piece but it had a groove out of the center. So I had this walnut sitting around that would give the sandals a really cool contrast.
First thing to do was to harvest the pallet wood. I always use a sawzall to cut the nails. I think that this is the fastest way to get pallet wood. Then you have to use a punch to get the nails out and you're good to go.

I cut the groove out of the pallet board so I had two even pieces. Then I cut a strip of walnut to place in the middle. I ran all of the edges through the joiner to make sure I would have flawless seams.
Then a healthy amount of glue and all sides and a whole bunch of clamps. I had it clamped for about 36 hours. 24 should be fine but I was away on a short camping trip with my son so it sat longer.

Once the plank is ready I ran it through a planer to make sure that it was smooth and beautiful. I used a sandal to mark out my templet. I did not want the walnut to just go straight down the middle so I off set the pattern so it would be dangle. I thought thy looked kind of cool.
Then I cut out the pattern with the band saw. Then I touched it up with the bench sander to make it pretty.

So I really didn't want to clomp around on bare wood so I needed a sole. While looking for something that would work I found this old floor mat out of my 1929 ford model a. This one was cracked so I got a new one for my car and left this one laying about because I can't seem to throw anything away.
So I glued both of the bottoms on the mat. I placed a cinder block on each one and let it sit for 24 hours. Then I cut them off of the mat and used the bench sander to clean up the sides.

I wanted to make the sole flex so I marked out lines to cut. The lines that go the length of the shoe is for drilling and the lines going across is the cut lines.
I cut the base every 2 inches. Then I sanded the top edges it won't pinch your feet when you walk.
Then I drilled holes through the blocks to run the line through. In the toe I didn't drill all the way through. Then I started the clothes line and filled the holes with epoxy. When you have that done you can string it all together and start to see what your sandal will look like.

I ripped another piece of walnut and cut it into 3 inch pieces. I also used one more piece of the pallet to get some color.
I drilled holes to run the line through and then sanded the edges smooth with the bench sander.
The top band needed to sit at a slight angle so I took one of the pieces and cut it at a angle to set on the bottom.
String all the pieces together and put them on the base.

I drilled a larger hole in the bottom so the knot in the clothes line is flush with the bottom of the sandal. String everything together and show off your very unique sandals.
This was a really fun project that turned out better than I had hoped. Thanks so much for reading.