WESCO-MRLOU-BLK - Wesco® - 10" Horsehide Pull-On "Mister Lou" Engineer Boot - Black
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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
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@Ross thank you for the excellent response my man. I will need to bookmark this or even print it out to stash it somewhere when I inevitably forget this and need to read it again. I appreciate you taking the time to wind and ramble it all out, so to speak!
I am happy you are for the Obenauf's, as I happen to have a decent sized amount at home with one of those wire/cotton ball applicator doohickies. I will take photos before and after (and post them here this weekend) as my Lous look even dryer in person than they do in the photos. I think my trip to Iceland and England did a number on them, plus wearing them with no care subsequently and lately.
I will also look into some kiwi boot polish and see how to apply that afterwards....that would be a first for me. At this point the boots are nearing 1000 days old from when they arrived so it would make sense more now than ever.
Thanks again and I hope you have a good day today and weekend.
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@Oaktavia Pro tip: since your boots are very dry, apply one coat and allow it to sink in and dry completely, then apply another coat. Most likely this will take a course of a few days.
Only when the boots look wet and can wipe away excess conditioner, should you think about applying the shoe polish.
This may take you 4-5 days depending on just how dry they are.
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FWIW, I'd use cream rather than polish. Coloured if you want to get the boots back to black, non coloured if you want to keep the patina. I swear by Saphir. it will condition them too,
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As to kiwi boot polish, look for a neutral if you want the boots to show the patina of wear and tear. Black if you want to re darken them, or parade black for a mirror finish.
Just so you know that the mirror finish is a ton of work with multiple thin layers applied and buffed. The down side is that the leather doesn’t breathe as well.
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I definitely want to keep the faded to brown and patina look with these, that took a lot of walking around to achieve. I will go for neutral finish or might use the Saphir cream again, which I used last time. I'll focus on the conditioning this weekend and go from there. @Ross I will nudge you when the boots are ready for the next step. Tomorrow is boot day.
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@Tago-Mago The best thing for me ever, was when I was able to afford Cordovan Leather as it makes the mirror shine so much easier. Starting out with good leather is so much nicer than my military issued boots.
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Before photos above. I have brushed them with vigor and applied the Obenauf's leather oil. They immediately became supple and soft which I did not expect. Drying out now and will see tomorrow or later today if they need another round.
Edit: after photos below. The first photo is of one boot done next to one yet to be oiled. The rest are both oiled and supple.
Still some character showing though but I do already miss what was once there. I had a lot going on with these boots. But I know it's all still there and once the oil evaporates, I'll see it again.
Edit 2: Now that the boots have sat under skylights in the sun, they feel amazing. Buttery soft and smooth, much different than how rigid they once were. I didn't think they could get this soft so I am blown away. Supple is the word for how the leather feels. I can still see the brown shining through too where the black coating has worn off.
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@Oaktavia beautiful work with these.
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Don't neglect that leather sole either. If you have some of the hd obenaufs hit that with a bit too.
Everytime I use obenaufs I find the boots breathe less good for a week and then seem to improve as the leather lightens back to its previous color and get some of its shine back.
Looking good though!
