A drawing shoe is an old device which was used to apply lubricant to the material to be drawn before it entered the drawing iron. Wear in the drawing iron was thus reduced and less force was needed for the drawing.
The accompanying photograph shows coils of drawn wire at a historical drawing bench with its tooling.
See Also
Adapted from “"We do it straight" — Wire Straightening”, p. 77 (ISBN 3-00-005897-4).