After putting on the shoe and finetuning the length of the inner cutouts, strap tabs etc. the shoes are finally finished ...

Total time for this one shoe I estimate around 11-12 hours (just saw that in a few places I forgot to add the time needed). Let's not talk about my research time .
This is of course partly due to the fact that it was a first and I didn't do batches of the same production step (making a pair or higher number of like shoes at the same time), so this could perhaps be pushed down by 2-3 hours. For a first try, however, I'd say expect at least 20 hours for a pair if you follow the details above.

note:

Remember that this cannot be termed a full reconstruction howto, as the pattern, though historically acceptable IMO, is not based on a single find. Also some materials are not acceptable for all (I hope I named them all). Still, I think that personally I've made another small step forward in my understanding of this type of roman footwear.

Thanks for reading ...

As promised, here are the tools and materials I used for the construction of this pair of caligae.



Set of punches, cutting knives, linnen yarn, 3 strengths, edge beveller, wood-carving knives (for very short and/or round cuts), straight and curved awls, blunt, flexible steel needles, bone "knife" for flattening and polishing edges, pliers, shoemaker's pitch. For the tools and material used for nailing, see above. Not shown: neatsfoot oil.

 
different sorts of leather (and thickness):
lace, alum tanned white goats leather for outer back seam protection fastening (ca. 1mm), vegetable tanned goats leather for inner and outer back seam protection (ca. 1mm), vegetable tanned insole leather (ca. 1-2 mm), vegetable tanned cow leather for middle/caliga upper (ca. 2-3mm), vegetable tanned and pressed sole leather, very hard and durable (ca. 4-5mm).