Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Obenauf leather oil/grease

Do you buy bulk wax and then melt it for app?

I buy it in chunks wherever I can get a good deal. I use it for a ton of different applications, so I always have it around. I will/have used it in every common form.

I heat the boots with a heat gun (careful! They get hot!) and start the wax into the hotspot letting it drip onto the hot leather and rubbing the softened wax on the hot leather.

Use lots and let it run into the seams and just keep applying until it will take no more.

Seldom do I get good clean wax with all the color taken out. I like it all.

I would avoid melting wax and trying to apply it that way... it makes a huge mess and you still have to heat the leather. Two pairs of high quality boots have been ruined in the oven on my boat, that I can remember...

Just use the heat gun or even a hair drier works.

Thanks Art

No problem. Obenauf's is far from the worst stuff on the market. SnoSeal for example is junk.

If you do not hunt very wet country Obenauf's is very likely good enough. Beeswax trumps it easily though, when it makes a difference.

Yeah, wet here. Ordered some and will give it a go.

A regular toilet wax seal is made of beeswax, is cheap, and available at any home depot/Lowes/plumbing store.

Obenauf's LP may be better than pure beeswax. The LP is mainly Beeswax but also contains Propolis which is an antibacterial element that keeps boots from developing funk or fungal growth. The company founder did some extensive research and has a background as a wildland firefighter that is applicable to a high end product. Marv Obenauf personally visits every store he sells his product in in the US. He stands behind his product and I think people who want alternatives haven't researched his story or background.

Not really... I assume it is solvents that make the seals soft. They do not make a decent substitute for wood polish.

I am sure he is a good man and have not read his story but I have used his product and compared it to plain beeswax. It is not close to as good in longevity of the waterproofing. I have no problem with fungal growth and funk in my boots and see no need for antibacterials.

I like Obenhaufs and have nothing bad to say about it. I use it on a couple pair of Redwings and a leather hat. However, I don't use my leather boots on really wet days; I have other boots for that.

It also works very well as a neck lube for sizing .308 brass to .358 in one pass.

If the products discussed herein are used will it destroy the ability of leather to breathe?

Made a mistake by mailing a pair of Cabelas Guide mid-range leather boots home from a wet hunting trip in Idaho.

I forgot they were mailed still wet...until I started getting ready for the next season about nine months later.

When I pulled them out of the mailing box and the bag they were sealed in, they were green...like mold, pea-green mold, and hard as a rawhide chew.

I use the LP and the liquid. A couple doses of both and the leather softened back up, the boots were waterproof, and the pair continues serve to this day.

Obenauf is good stuff. Seems like there are two purposes being addressed waterproofing and preserving the leather.

Obenauf is best for softening and preserving leather. The oil will not completely waterproof leather but it allows it to breath. The Lp has increased waterproofing value while still allowing it to breath some.

Pure Beeswax done thoroughly is about as waterproof as leather can be. But it doe's not breath at all or preserve the leather. On beeswax treated boots they feel colder to me I guess because there is no moisture transport and the leather is denser so transfers heat more too.

Since I am not in Alaska or the PNW I compromise by doing only the seams and lower portions of the boot in pure beeswax and then use the Obenaufs on the rest.

LP works great for me. Got some American made Danner's soaked with high alkali water from Pyramid lake once when the cutthroat bite was hot. Stiffened up and dried out the leather within a day, not to mention stains. A little saddle soap on the stains, then LP everywhere, back in business.

I use a hair dryer and buy my wax at the craft store in the candle making section. I apply it to new, clean leather gloves. Buy them a skosh big and treat with the beeswax. Break in kinda sucks, but they are waterproof-ish and tough as hell afterwards.

And you started doing that after seeing mine?

Almost. I did it the first time at your suggestion prior to coming up and dropping deer off a cliff for you to catch!


The biggest downside is that it sucks a lot more to loose a $5 glove after you treat them...

I need to try to get back up your way again. Drew a moose tag this year, but just couldn't make it work. Would love to get my boys up there sometime to try to get them on a salmon.

Who's the young guy in the red shirt?

He looks familiar... but what a stud!