Clogmaker
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Le Sabotier | The Clogmaker
A French clogmaker (1877 engraving by Perot, appearing in the school book Le tour de la France par deux enfants by George Bruno, Wikimedia Commons).
A sabotier, or clogmaker, made and/or sold clogs (handmade shoes made of a piece of hollowed wood). He mainly used white linden wood because it was soft and light. The clogmaker accepted orders from merchants and travelled through villages to sell his products. He would carry the clogs dangling on a type of rack that was balanced on his shoulders.
Clogs were typically used to walk around the outside of the house and, to avoid getting the inside of the home dirty, they were left near the front door. They were also left by the entrance of the village church, so as to not make any noise. In order to make them more comfortable, wearers would stuff the inside of the clogs with straw.
In order to fabricate the clogs, the clogmaker had a small axe to polish the wood, a paring knife to shape the clog, a shoemaker's bench on which he sat and held the clog with a vice, and two or three spoons of different sizes which he used to empty the insides of the clogs.
Clogs were still worn until the beginning of the 19th century in Québec, and until the mid-19th century in Acadia.
French clog maker ("Un sabotier", circa 1915 drawing (artist unknown), appearing in Easy French Reading by Victor Emmanuel François, Wikimedia Commons).
Clog wearer ("Le Sabotier", circa 1687 engraving by Nicolas Bonnart held at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Wikimedia Commons).
Meet one of the last clog makers in England
Known persons who had this occupation: Thomas Duhamel, Joseph Guyon, Jean-Baptiste Robin, Jacques Séguin.
Sources:
Francis Back, “Le sabot”, Cap-aux-Diamants, 2002, (71), 59–59, digitized by Érudit (https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/cd/2002-n71-cd1044845/7492ac.pdf).
Claude Lemay, "Fonctions et métiers délaissés", l'Ancêtre, number 281, volume 34, winter 2008, and number 280, volume 34, winter 2007; electronic edition, Société généalogique de Québec (www.sgq.qc.ca/images/_SGQ/R_LAncetre_plus_libre/ENT-FONCTIONS-METIERS-DELAISSES.pdf).
Jeanne Pomerleau, Métiers ambulants d'autrefois (Montréal, Québec: Guérin, 1990), 187-192.