WESCO-MRLOU-BLK - Wesco® - 10" Horsehide Pull-On "Mister Lou" Engineer Boot - Black
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@Luijim78 said in IHWE-MRLOU-BLK - Wesco
- 10" Horsehide Pull-On "Mister Lou" Engineer Boot - Black:my Mr Lou size 9D have always been good from day one (even though I have a size 8/8.5D) probably the shape adapts to my foot, no slipping of the heel (which for example I found in the 7500 shape E) the only problem was the tip of the big toe on my right foot, (my grandmother always told me to cut my toenails a lot, especially at the corners and from what the beautician told me it was one of the billion mistakes I have done in my life), so I discovered that a very small callus had formed on the inside side on the nail bed and Mr Lou made me walk like rusty Robocop
for months ... then I solved the problem and now they are perfect like a glove even if after a couple of years they are still very rigid (characteristic of vegetable tanned leather) sooner or later they will break, for those who have chosen the Horween CXL version everything will be simpler and faster. Good evening dear friends, sorry if with my broken English I tried to tell the story of my life in a post @Luijim78 are you an 8/8.5D on the brannock, but wear a 9D mister lou?
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@bluemantra no I don't even own a pair but I wear half a size bigger in the Mr Lou than all the other engineer boots I own and it's a full size bigger than the RW moctoe or iron ranger
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@Luijim78 Okay, so you where an 8 Iron ranger and 9 mister lou? Do you have a lot of toe room?
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@bluemantra not a very good friend, while the Iron ranger size 8D are also too long and wide, the black Mr Lou in Black Maryam are precise (they forced me to go to the beautician once a month to cut the nail of my left big toe, because I revealed a micro callus on the nail bed
), from the Wesco 100 anniversary, basically a pair of bosses with a rounded tip, I comfortably wear an 8.5 D and have much more space) -
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@BloodEagle we'll have them back but ETA currently I'm afraid
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Been a while since I posted evo photos of my black Mr. Lous. I bought these in April of 2022 for my wedding day. Starting to see brown reveal itself underneath the black. I quite like where these are headed.
IG: electricindigowizard
"Possibly splitting hairs, but I consider @Oaktavia to be the beardy, dank High Magus of this denim game…" @neph93
WTB: IHJ-32 - XL/XXL
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@long_john86 me too, I'm curios what some conditioning will do to the tones.
@Luijim78 thank you my friend, I thought you might like these photos
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They look really good. Could also try Bick4 to condition without causing any change in colour.
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@Oaktavia I typed out a long ramble about leather care and then realised it'd take you 10 mins to get the answer you wanted
. So, for brevity: yes, you can use obenaufs - it's what I use here to keep the oil in the sample pair Ben wears, alongside a once over with some natural polish once the obenaufs has soaked in to help keep the oils in and the water outIf you want the long winded ramble:
Leather is probably the most use materials for footwear in all of human history, it's tough, durable and dependable and maintenance is surprisingly easy..
If you search the interwebs you'll find dozens if not hundreds of different 'the right way to maintain your leather' posts, sites and videos. It's not that there's no right answer, in my experience it's the opposite. There's dozens or indeed hundreds of correct answers.
Leather is animal hide at the end of the day, it's skin, and just like your skin it's strength is in its natural oils. If you've ever had your hands become extremely dry before you know the skin cracks and splits. Leather is the same, only unlike your skin which is attached to a living thing, it won't naturally replace it's own oils - so we have to do it.
The big enemy is water, if water gets into leather it'll displace those natural oils (oil floats on water) then evaporates, leaving your leather dry. So we want to get natural oils in and keep water out!
So for tougher leathers I use obenaufs, it's a liquid oil that's going to permeate into a thicker boot leather, other people may swear by Mustang paste or bee oil or any one of the thousands of products out there but the most important thing is you use a natural oil - beyond that it's down to preference, will it tint your boots (if they're a lighter colour)? Will it absolutely stink? How easy is it to apply? - all factors on that personal choice.
As for keeping the water out I've always sworn by a natural kiwi boot polish, my grandfather was in the royal logistics corps and insisted on teaching me how to polish boots and the necessity of it when I was about 12, been doing it ever since and never had a pair of shoes or boots die on me. The waxy nature of the polish will give you boots that extra shield against water penetration and massively slow down the 'drying-out' that comes from it.
As for how often to do it: I know lots of people have a schedule of every 3/6/12 months ect but really i don't find life to be so predictable, at least not here in the UK with our weather. So I just keep and eye on them and do them whenever they're starting to feel a little dry, keeping a closer eye on them during the wet seasons. If they ever get completely saturated (as in 'i jumped in a puddle that was deeper than i though it was and now my feet are wet') i'll let them dry fully then give them a once over to stay on the safe side but really even heavy rain should pose no problem to a well maintained pair of boots
Long winded ramble complete....for now....
EDIT: Edited for extra ramble
