Moccasins

You can go anywhere in the summer woods with mocs and leggings.

Sneakers or most commercial boots are not only wasteful, but dangerous with their outrageous high cost, high thick sole, cheap synthetic fabric, and cheap glues - nothing beats a sturdy pair of self serviceable moose mocks. As soon as you go off road with the former, you are reminded how easy it would be to twist a ankle or tear through the side walls in short order.

When the native didn't have a mock, the bare foot was the go too, but wearing a moccasin is necessary in areas where thistles, rose, and certain other thorny bramble grow as these plants pierce the skin and cause infections and areas of debilitating swelling, particularly if the immune system is compromised. 

The mock will protect your feet when eyes must be kept forward and traversing acorns, logs, vines  and some rocky terrain.

When a moc is made, one made of moose, is the prime footwear for outdoor use. You can get your whole foot soaked in water and the moc won’t get uncomfortable like a boot. The moc is like a deck shoe but tougher than the best commercial boot. Keep in mind however that you don't want to maintain a soaked sloshy moc.

They are a removable and replaceable tough callous for a bare foot; they are flexible and very light to use, requiring only three main pieces of biodegradable material: the vamp, the shoe, and a replaceable sole; you will also need tough sinew cord to sew them together. 

What I dont recomend is to make a mock from deer hide as it will wear easily. 

You can make a lighter moc or tall sock from deer for use while asleep, as the deer hide has a great capacity to prevent no-seeums', mosquito, and other biting bugs from ravaging the skin around the foot; this lighter moc shileds these bites even when the hide used happens to be hugging the skin (be sure the weave in the seams is tight to increase the protective ability of the shoe). 

On that note, if the light moc is in use while asleep, foliage piled on your feet will keep them warm during the summer nights if your feet are exposed.

A lighter deer sock moc is also tough enough to use in a big rubber boot stuffed with grass - for insulation - and the whole setup used during wet winter conditions. I used to use a woven wool sock for this, but the grass stuffing wore the socks quickly.

When sewing any mock, thick sinew seems the most reliable thread as thong, suitable for any other clothing seam, has proven to break, assuming only animal fibers are used. 

Do not use a whip stich for smoked hides except on the toe stitch of a traditional moccasin. Used an overlap seam with a running stitch (or some other stich).

As a summer spring heavy moose mock will get wet all the time, so a once soft leather moc will inevitably dry stiff and hard. If you have spare tallow, not oils, the moc (not replaceable sole) is one of the best places to rub it - allong with lower leggings. A natural water proof for buckskin is tallaw but I have not used this much on my mocs. Once a moose moc gets (if no tallow is ever rubed into it) stiff they must be soaked again to be worn; which is fine.

In spite of the some of the minor inconveniences mentioned, the moose mock is a prime footwear for the bush. 

To make one, you need to make the sole portion then sew the vamp. The vamp hold the sole in a shoe form. 

Once the moc is complete, you will then need a thick pice of raw moose hide to cover the sole to take all the wear and tear of walking; this piece is quickly whip stiched all around the side of your main bucked moose mock sole while all pieces are soft or damp. The raw moose sole piece must be damp to do this. 

Though the moc is my go too outdoor foot wear, there are several major disadvantages to their use..

Even with this replaceable raw hide sole, don't wear your moc on rocky ground as hide will wear fast on unforgiving ground - like, in less than three days of use.

As mentioned, with time, the whole mock will always dry like a commercial shammy after use. The woods are full of water and a once soft bucked hide, moose or deer, will loose its soft conditioning oils in the run off. The moc is really something which needs to be in a state of perpetual dampness to be used; this is just the reality of the woods moc.

In the morning find a puddle or some other source of water to make them wearable in short order. 

The moose mock is lighter and more rugged than any commercial sneaker or boot. The first disadvantage being that are that they have no insulation - so they are cold almost all the time.

The second disadvantage is they can not be used on gravel, rock, or shale ground for more than a few feet.

A third disadvantage is that if the moc or sole is stif, I will make sounds and scratches. Only the soft deer moc can used to stalk.

I maintain  however that the moc is the best woods footwear.

An alternative approach is to use buckskin alone - the thickest sections - and sew in a "eastern wood style"; this method is fast and needs no sinew for the task. You also only need to make one piece of leather. The disadvantage is they will still wear through and you will need a lot of buckskin material to constantly replace them.