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What is a hobby for Bill was the trade of his ancestors as is shown by his surname Klompenhouwer, which means "wooden shoe hewer." Today, at the age of 67, he is still selling his wooden shoes any day except Sunday. Bill has always observed the rule that "Six days shall ye labor and on the seventh, ye shall rest."

Bill learned how to make wooden shoes by watching and then helping his father. The elder Klompenhouwer learned the trade in Gelderland, Holland, in a wooden shoe factory. He came to this country in 1882 and started to farm but continued his wooden shoe making as a hobby in winter right up to his death at 70.

BILL OCCASIONALLY made wooden shoes but didn't attempt to make money from his hobby until twenty years ago. At that time, the proprietors of "The Wooden Shoe," a novelty shop in Oostburg, approached him with a plan for selling, in their shop, all the wooden shoes he would be able to provide. "The Wooden Shoe" catered to the tourist trade. Tourists would often become interested in seeing "Old Bill's" workshop after hearing that the shoes were made right in Oostburg and the sight of his authentic Dutch windmill immediately stepped up that interest.

Bill suggests: "Anyone interested in making wooden shoes for a profitable hobby would find that novelty shops are the best market, especially those in resort towns. Other good markets are state fairs and sporting goods stores, while stores which feature early American furnishings also have customers for these novelty and at the same time utilitarian shoes."

"Old Bill" is a handyman and carpenter for the farms around Oostburg during the summer and has free hours during the winter, which give him ample time for his hobby.

AFTER ACCEPTING the offer of "The Wooden Shoe," Bill's first problem was to find a soft textured hardwood tree eighteen to twenty inches in diameter. About seventeen miles from Oostburg, on a farmers land, he found a grove of basswoods.

"The poplar, or any tree belonging to the linden family can also be used," he explains. "The trees must come from a dense section because the weather gets at trees in sparsely wooded sections and makes them tough."

In Holland, they use the willow tree to make their Klompen, as the wooden shoes are called by the Dutch.

"The main characteristics required of the tree," Bill says, "are that it have an even grain, and be non resinous and lightweight."

Bill pays an average of $10 for a tree, but as he says, "The price depends on the size and condition of the tree. If a tree has some bad knots in it, it costs less than a smoother one. The average tree yields about one hundred pairs of shoes of different sizes. The price the shoes are sold for depends on the size."

Bill's shoes cost $2.75 for extra large ones, $2.50 large, $2 small, and the very small, which are sold as novelties, bring $1. These are the prices for the shoes whether they are sold a pair at a time or in larger lots. Anyone who buys the shoes from Bill to resell has to mark them up.

Bill recalls that his father used to charge 25 cents for the large shoes and 15 cents for the small.

WHEN BILL needs a tree, he selects the one which best suits his purpose and then he and the farmer agree on a price. Bill cuts the tree himself and trucks it to the workshed behind his home. His workshop is about twelve by ten feet and gets its' warmth in winter from a pot-bellied stove. The two main shoe worktables consist of thick logs supported by crude legs. An old chest in the corner harbors his very precious tools, and hanging on nails all around the west and south walls of the shed are wooden shoes tied into pairs.

After stripping the bark from the tree, Bill cuts the log into discs of different thicknesses. A six-inch disc is used for the larger size shoes, five-inch for the smaller sizes and about three-inch for the smallest, which are not worn but used as novelties. When the log has been sliced, the blocks are cut out as you would cut a piece of pie.

In explaining how to divide the discs to get the blocks from which the shoes are made, Bill warns, "Do not use the heart of the tree as the heart cracks when it is dried. Therefore, cut your pie shaped blocks but then cut the heart tip off the block, leaving each wedge snub nosed."

The shoes are always blocked out while the tree is freshly cut, because the wood is almost easily handled at that time. When the blocks have been cut there are six steps to making the finished product.

THE FIRST step requires a very sharp hatchet. Bill's hatchet is over 100 years old. His father brought it with him from Holland and it still bears the initials of the blacksmith who made it. Newcomers to wooden shoe making can purchase their tools at the local hardware store or from the mail order catalogues. The hatchet is used to do the rough blocking of the shoes. A coping or jig saw can also be used for the rough work instead of the hatchet. A ten-inch long inner shoe requires an outside block of twelve inches in length. Bill blocks out all the shoes he can get from one tree before he goes on to the second step, which is completion of shaping the outside of the shoe.

Bill uses a draw shave for the second step. But once again the jig or coping saw can be substituted. Bill's knives also come from Holland. One end of the knife has a curved hook which fastens to the end of the table on which he does his shaping.

"While shaping the outside of the shoes, be sure to make them conform to the shape of your feet," Bill stresses. "You will notice the outer side of your foot curves and the inner side is more or less straight."

The bottom of the shoe is curved upward to the tip to make the shoes flexible when walking. Bill recently demonstrated, as he rocked back and forth on his feet, that leather shoes give in the sole, which allows one to balance from the heel to the toe. Just so does the upward curved tip on the wooden shoe help give the same balance. The outside bottom of the shoe has a one to 1½-inch heel cut into it, as the shoes would create suction if there were none.

Flemish, French and Dutch peasants still wear these shoes in damp regions because they are inexpensive and keep the feet dry. The French call their wooden shoes sabots. One of the origins claimed for the word sabotage is said to come from the fact that during the early days of the introduction of industrial machinery in France, workmen who wanted to rest would kick their sabots into the machinery and pretend it was an accident.

THE THIRD step is hollowing out the shoe. Bill uses spoon augurs of graduated sizes. But a flexible shaft attached to a small electric drill will do the same work with less effort. Various attachments for the flexible shaft will do several steps. During this operation, the shoe is held in a wooden vise.

The fourth step, shaping the inside of the shoe at the heel, requires a sharp chisel. The shoe is carved out to fit the heel of the foot, allowing room for heavy socks. When this step has been completed, Bill uses his wickedly sharp three-inch curved carving knife with which he cuts the last and does the final trimming.

Now the shoes are tied together with string and hung on nails around his work shed away from the fire, and his invaluable tools are carefully wrapped and put away. For the next three weeks, the shoes must dry slowly, as rapid drying would crack the wood.

While the shoes are drying, Bill is not idle. It was during one of these waiting periods that Bill started his windmill, which turned into a year-long project. A catwalk, about seven feet off the ground, runs around the outside of the windmill. The sails and roof revolve so one can stand on the catwalk and move the sails until they are facing into the wind. It was made from a picture brought from Holland by a friend. After seeing the windmill from a distance, people come to examine it more closely and remain to buy wooden shoes.

Bill also makes water yokes which he says are used for decorative purposes. He has found that the best market for these is in stores which feature early American furnishings.

WHEN THE shoes have dried completely,they are ready for the sanding. In the old country, the weekday shoes were left rough. The Sunday ones were polished by hand with sand. Bill's dad never polished the shoes he made because the old method was too laborious but Bill has rigged a one-quarter horsepower motor to a four-inch sanding strip which does the job in a jiffy. His sanding strips cost him nothing as they are throwouts from the local glass company and all Bill has to do is haul them away.

Some of the people who appreciate the nicely sanded finished product are the residents of Cedar Grove, a neighboring village. Each year, in August, they have a Holland Day celebration and most of the participants wear wooden shoes made by Bill. These people have always bought their shoes directly from Bill because they have them made to order.

Bill's shoes are also popular with campers, who figure largely in his sales. Many seasoned campers feel there is nothing as practical as wooden shoes while the early morning dew is still on the ground or immediately following a rain storm. These campers first discovered Bill's shoes in the novelty store and they are the ones who suggested he start marketing some of his shoes through stores which sell camp equipment.

"Sizing shoes is very important," says Bill, "as most of the orders received are in regular shoe sizes, although the best way to order your shoes is to outline the foot on paper. Heavy socks are generally worn with wooden shoes so one would need a larger size than usual. A size seven shoe is nine and one-half inches long inside, a size eight shoe is ten inches long, and each size larger is one inch longer inside."

A MAN from Minneapolis bought twenty pair of shoes from Bill a year ago and took them to the Minneapolis State Fair where he resold them at twice the price he paid Bill.

"Fairs, whether state or county, offer a good market for wooden shoes," Bill says. "But when figuring the price for shoes sold at a fair be sure to include the cost of travel expense to the fair and time consumed in displaying and selling them."