I put these “Satan Is Real” shoes on the last this afternoon, and also used a mystery tool for the first time.

I visited a shoe tool factory in England several years ago and spotted these pliers. The man giving us the tour that day didn’t know what they were and no one in our group knew what they were either. I of course purchased them immediately, because 1.) They’re a mystery and 2.) I didn’t have that tool. (Anyone who’s saying, “But if you didn’t know what it was then why did you need it?” can sit down now.)

I thought about the tool, how it was shaped and how it would function, and decided that it was for lasting in the shank area of a shoe with the handy benefit of having a hammer also. Lasting pliers have a hammer attached; shank pullers do not.

All this time the pliers have been sitting in my drawer unused, although they’ve occasionally been pulled out to be admired and exclaimed over. Today I thought of them and decided to see if my theory was correct. It was! They are shank pullers with a hammer.

The cool thing about them is that they appear to specifically be *shoe* shank pullers. Cowboy boot shank pullers bite down harder the stronger you pull, and these do not. Cowboy boot vamps often require very strong pulls, and shoes do not. (As a cowboy boot maker, I’ve had to learn to lighten up when lasting a shoe.) These don’t grip harder when you pull more vigorously so they don’t encourage you to pull too hard, which is the correct encouragement for lasting shoes.