Holding the template to cut the tongue reminded me of working for Jay Griffith, my first mentor. We cut boot tongues with a cutting die and a clicker. The clicking machine has a large flat beam that snaps down and smashes the sharp die through the leather, cutting it to shape. The tricky thing about cutting tongues is that the vamp (foot part) relaxes slightly after being crimped (stretched to shape). You have to pull it back into shape and hold it as you mark the pattern, which is what I’m doing here. When using the clicker, Jay encouraged me to hold the leather up under the clicker beam. He said, “Just keep your fingers flat and you’ll be fine!” (This is not an OSHA approved method, believe me.) And since he had disabled the safety on the clicker which would have required both hands outside the machine, and furthermore since I was young and too dumb to argue, I stuck my fingers up in there next to the die, carefully kept them flat, and managed to avoid either smashing all my fingers flat or cutting them off. 

Because of my training with a clicker die, I’m accustomed to cutting the tongue shape with the vamp folded flat. I believe some boot makers open the tongue area and cut each side individually, but I glue the leather together and cut both sides at once. The secret is to have a very sharp knife and to carefully hold it straight up and down. If you hold the knife at an angle, one side will be smaller and narrower than the other.