After the log has been cleaved, the wooden shoe maker picks his choice from the cleaved blocks. This requires insight. For example he always uses the bark side for the outside of the wooden shoe. That means that for a left wooden shoe, the bark side becomes the left side, and for a right wooden shoe, the bark side becomes the right side. The reason for this is that when the bark side is on the inside of a wooden shoe, the wooden shoe, during its drying period and even after that, keeps shrinking such, that after a while, the wooden shoe has become too narrow and it doesn't fit anymore.

For the block that the wooden shoe maker is holding at photo 5, it means that this block will be used to create a left wooden shoe from.

The wooden shoe maker usually makes both wooden shoes simultaneously. Therefore he looks for two blocks that fit together. To make sure that both wooden shoes equally shrink, and afterwards also equally wear down, he takes care of two factors.

First of all both blocks need to be of the same type of wood. This is often the case because a trunk contains many blocks. Secondly he takes care of the fact whether the blocks come from the north side or the south side of the tree. The latter side is also called the sun side and it is here, where the growing lines are a bit broader. This means that the wood is less tough and therefore will shrink a little more.